美国《独⽴宣⾔》中英⽂版
《美国独⽴宣⾔》(The Declaration of Independence)，是北美洲⼗三个英属殖民地宣告⾃⼤不列颠王国独⽴，并宣明此举正当性之⽂告。1776年7⽉4⽇，本宣⾔由第⼆次⼤陆会议(Second Continental Congress)于费城批准，这⼀天后成为美国独⽴纪念⽇。宣⾔之原件由⼤陆会议出席代表共同签署，并永久展⽰于美国华盛顿特区之国家档案与⽂件署当中。此独⽴宣⾔为美国最重要的⽴国⽂书之⼀。 The Declaration of Independence IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERAICA
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which haveconnected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which thelaws Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare thecauses which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, that they are among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights,governments are instituted among them, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed. That whenever any formof government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute newgovernment, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem mostlikely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not bechanged for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer,while evils are sufferable, than t right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a longtrain of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolutedespotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity, which constrains them to alter theirformer systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is usurpations, all having in direct objecttyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in theiroperation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people wouldrelinquish the right of representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of theirpublic records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.]
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasion on the rights of thepeople.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolution, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers,incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantimeexposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsion within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalizing offoreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the condition of new appropriations oflands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent of laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their office, and the amount and payment of their
salary.
He has erected a multitude of new officers, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out oursubstances.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws;giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murder which they should commit on the inhabitants ofthese States.
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; For imposing taxes on us without our consent;
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses;
For abolishing the free systems of English laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary government,and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rulethese Colonies;
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of ourgovernments;
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all caseswhatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation andtyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely parallel in the most barbarous ages, and totallyunworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become theexecutioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrection amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, themerciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petition havebeen answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant isunfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts bytheir legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our
emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them bythe ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpation, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and
correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in thenecessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them., as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peacefriends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled , appealing to thesupreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of theseColonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United States Colonies and Independent States; that they are absolvedby from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State, they have full powerto levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which IndependentStates may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
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