Virginia. Richard W. Barton John M. Botts George B. Cary Walter Coles Thomas W. Gilmer William L. Goggin William O. Goode William A. Harris Samuel L. Hays George W. Hopkins Robert M. T. Hunter Edmund W. Hubard John W. Jones Francis Mallory Lewis Steenrod Alexander H. H. Stuart North Carolina. Archibald H. Arrington Green W. Caldwell John R. J. Daniel Edmund Deberry James Graham James J. McKay Kenneth Rayner Abraham Rencher Romulus M. Saunders Augustine H. Shepperd Edward Stanly William H. Washington Lewis Williams-13. South Carolina. Sampson H. Butler William Butler Patrick C. Caldwell John Campbell Thomas F. Foster [3 vacancies.]-9. Kentucky. Landaff W. Andrews William O. Butler Willis Green Thomas F. Marshall Joseph R. Underwood Thomas D. Arnold DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776. THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes 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 among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such forms, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient A |