* Lots of boat repair info page links CLICK HERE
* Lots of marine epoxy resin info page links CLICK HERE
* Lots of floor epoxy info page links CLICK HERE
* Alphabetical index of all web pages CLICK HERE
* data sheets and msds (with VOC info and restrictions) CLICK HERE

| NOTICE: Legal notices, Terms of Service, warranty information, disclaimers, health warnings,
etc. are required reading before using website, ordering and/or using Products. Any such use and/or ordering, online
or by telephone, shall constitute acceptance and knowledge of all such terms. CLICK HERE (www.epoxyproducts.com/legal.html) to access these terms. |
PROGRESSIVE EPOXY POLYMER'S
HELP PAGE - LINK PAGE
|
If you came here from the simple EpoxyUSA.com web site --- CLICK HERE --- to return to EpoxyUSA.com |
* Also visit our alphabetical index of all web pages (ANOTHER GREAT PLACE TO START FOR ANY KIND OF EPOXY INFO) Same great info in index like format CLICK HERE
We're not your usual $elling vendor!
links by subject matter - this page
for links via alphabetical index - click here
|
Return To: Progressive Epoxy / epoxyproducts HOME PAGE EpoxyUSA.com HOME PAGE Cheap Epoxy (tm) HOME PAGE Paints-Coatings-Epoxies.com HOME PAGE Professor E. Poxy - HOME PAGE |
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|
.. CLICK HERE TO GOOGLE SEARCH OUR ENTIRE WEB SITE FOR KEY TERMS/WORDS .. |
Our web site is complex (about 180 pages). Our customers range from homeowners
to boat builders to chemical plant engineers to rocket scientists to diving companies.It is hard to provide a web
site that covers the needs of such a diverse customer base while ranking high with all the search engines. Unlike
other pretty 'cookie cutter' canned web sites, our 'home brewed' site shared tons of information, both the good
and the bad. We even provide links to our competitor's marine web sites. Our prices are low because we don't use
distributors, don't have printed brochures, don't jet around to trade shows, and use email for 99% of customer
support and orders (no 800 number phone lines). Phones are answered for a limited number of hours M-Thur. only
(we are, after all, an Internet Company). We don't offer 'packaged' solutions. Instead we offer all the options
and YOU must decide what is the right approach for you (For example: epoxy floors could be a 1 to 7 coat system
with multiple options within each layer). We offer several marine epoxies. The site's many links will educate you
with all the information you need, but you'll have to spend a little time exploring it. After you've explored the
site, we gladly take your email questions (dozens of them each day, and often 4 or 5 from the some person nailing
down what to purchase. So, if you're looking for that Quick Fix, this might not be the site for you.
|
We have a very tradional alternative web site/store if you're in a hurry or confused. Goto www.epoxyUSA.com |
This HELP page will assist you in getting to the small percentage of pages within this web site that most of our
visitors want to get to. The links/pages give here are far from a complete listing of all pages (which would just
confuse you more!)
Folks seem to either love or hate our unique web site and our approach of educating you about epoxies, epoxy pricing,
VOC restrictions, etc. Here
is what they have to say (yes, even the negative comments are included!).
Even this special HELP page was the result of a customer suggestion, as was the 'One Line Summary Pages' mentioned
and linked to below.
New to epoxies? Click Here to become an instant expert!
|
????? Unlike our competitors we welcome communications from our visitors and customers. Questions? Ideas? Comments? Ready to Order? We're best reached by email (info@epoxyproducts.com) which is checked ALMOST 365 days a year. You can call us during our Office/Desk hours which are Mon-Thur 10:30-3 Eastern time - 603-435-7199. Orders are best handled online (click here for more contact info and links to our online 3rd party store), but telephone orders are cheerfully accepted too. If you are interested in epoxy floors please first read our page www.epoxyproducts.com/floorcoatings.html before calling or emailing as there are dozens of different epoxies, application methods, etc. that you need to think about first. Without first reading that page, we could spend hours and hours discussing your options while other people are also trying to contact us. |
* home page
(www.epoxyproducts.com)
* site map
* one line product summary (marine)
* one line product summary (non-marine)
* what can go wrong with 2 part epoxies (PDF file)
*GLUES
FASTNERS AND PAINTS - COMPARISONS/INFO (3RD PARTY SITE - WWW.PDRACER.COM/GLUE/INDEX.HTM)
* ORDERING contact information
and link to 3rd party storefront
*FAVORITE'S PAGE (for contractors, boatowner, homeowners)
- OUR SITE HAS OVER 175 PAGES - SKIP THE OVERLOAD AND VISIT ONLY OUR TOP SELLING PRODUCTS - CLICK HERE.
* home page of marine catalog section (blue background) Proudly listed on the WoodenBoat (tm) marketplace directory - Wooden Boat / Coatings
* table of contents page for marine catalog section
| Section One MARINE - CLEAR EPOXIES Section Two FILLERS THICKENERS ADDITIVES Section Three THICKENED EPOXIES - EPOXY PUTTIES, ETC. Section Four EPOXY PAINTS (barrier coats) Section Five URETHANES AND NON-EPOXY COATINGS Section Six NON-SKID DECK COATINGS Section Seven MARINE REPAIR PRODUCTS Section Eight MISC. MARINE PRODUCTS |
* home
page of residential/commercial catalog section (brown background)
* table of contents page for residential/commercial catalog section
*
Section A EPOXY PAINTS
Section B FLOOR EPOXIES (regular and non-skid products), SEALERS, ACCESSORIES
Section C THICKENED EPOXIES - EPOXY PUTTIES, ETC.
Section D CLEAR EPOXIES
Section E NON-EPOXY PAINTS COATINGS SEALERS
Section F MIX-IN ADDITIVES
Section G OTHER PRODUCTS
Section H SURFACE PREPARATION PRODUCTS
Section I MISC. ACCESSORIES
INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTS - AVAILABLE FOR SALE OUTSIDE THE USA. CLICK HERE
*
Please report broken links here
* online third-party managed storefront link (buy online 24/7):
* contact info page (support/questions are by email)
*
* poured epoxy bartops/tables info page
* epoxy stone pebble surfaces info page
* return policy located at bottom of Contact Page
* warranty (read before purchasing)
* .
*
PRODUCTS WITH THEIR OWN WEB SITE
(purple background)
* data sheets and msds CLICK HERE (with VOC info and restrictions)
Favorite/most popular products
|
PRODUCT |
LINK |
COMMENTS |
| aluthane™ | click here | aluminum filled moisture cured urethane |
| basic no blush™ | click here | our most popular marine epoxy! |
| basic no blush™ | click here | examples, feedback on basic no blush epoxy |
| bio vee seal | click here | internal concrete sealer |
| captain tolley's™ | click here | hairline crack filler/sealer |
| coal tar epoxy™ | click here | background on coal tar epoxy and non coal tar alternatives |
| corro coat fc2100™ | click here | high end, zero VOC, epoxy paint |
| crack coat™ | click here | seam sealer, glue, and bedding compound - gel like epoxy for basement cracks etc. |
| fumed silica | click here | epoxy thickener |
| india spar varnish | click here | info on traditional vs modern varnishes |
| nsp 120 | click here | potable water approved epoxy paint |
| nsp 120 | click here | nuclear DBA approval |
| pipewrap | click here | water activated polyester resin/fiberglass pipe wrap repair kits |
| water bond™ epoxy | click here | water based floor epoxy |
| user feedback | click here | comments about specific products |
| Corro Coat 2100, Low V, No Blush chem resistance chart | click here | chem resistance chart -PDF format |
| Watergard 300/NSP 120 chem resistance chart | click here | chem resistance chart - PDF format |
| Mag review of No Blush and TA661 | click here | |
| COLOR CHARTS | ||
| industrial floor epoxy | click here | except for light gray and beige, only available in amounts over 15 gallons |
| colored sand chart | click here | sands from ESTES - we do not sell, order direct |
| paint chips | click here | color chart of sprinkle on paint chips for epoxy floors |
| water bond (tm) color chart | click here | color chart for water bond™ floor epoxy - note that med. gray is stock color. These colors only in amounts over 5 gallons. This is a PDF file. |
Please report broken links here
CASE STUDIES (purple background)
|
KEYWORDS |
PRODUCT |
SUBJECT |
LINK |
|
| underwater repair |
wet dry 700 FC 2100 |
Emergency Underwater Yacht Epoxy Repair |
||
| ferro cement, boat, hull, underwater |
wet dry 700 FC 2100 |
Epoxy On Ferro Cement Boat Hulls |
||
| anti slip, boat deck |
CM 15 walnut shell |
Flex Deck anti slip system |
||
| garage floor, epoxy, chips |
industrial floor epoxy; acrylic poly ; chips |
Typical garage floor coating project |
||
| waste treatment, concrete coating |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
Waste water treatment plant coating project |
||
| wet surface, wet well, lift station |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
Lift station wet well coating project |
||
| manhole |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
Manhole coating project |
||
| water tank |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
Elevated city water tank |
||
| potable water |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
City 60K gallon potable water clear well |
||
| nuclear power plant, DBA testing |
nsp120 |
Washington Public Power DBA testing |
||
| nuclear power plant |
nsp 120 |
coatings in power plant |
||
| waste water, sewer |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
City sewage main repair |
||
| sheet piling |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
Underwater coating of sheet piling |
||
| food plant wall |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
Food plant butcher-room wall |
||
| industrial plant wall |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
Industrial plant wall |
||
| city water tank |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
City 200K gallon water tank |
||
| waste water tank (interior) |
nsp120/watergard 300 |
Interior coating of waste water tank |
||
| thickened epoxy boat |
wet dry 700 |
Boat rub rail repair with thickened epoxy |
||
| plywood boat hull |
basic no blush |
Repairing holes in plywood boat hull |
||
| window sill |
wet dry 700 |
Repairing rotting window sill |
||
| underwater, wet surfaces |
no product highlighted |
Underwater shipwreck |
Please report broken links here
INFO PAGES (green background)
| learning about epoxies/epoxy basics | 25points4u.html - 25 key points about epoxies epoxypaint101.html - more basics fail4u.html - why coatings fail eval4u.html - evaluating your epoxy/epoxy vendor fyi.html - things to know before you purchase |
|
| acid etching | acid.html also see Surface Prep | |
| air bubbles / pinholes | pinhole4u.html | |
| clear coatings | clear4u.html - | |
| crystalization of epoxy resin | crystal.html epoxies may crystallize in cold temps | |
| epoxies for electronics | electronic.html (special epoxies direct from our formulator) | |
| BOATING | ||
| blushing - amine blush in epoxies | blush4u.html amine blushing | |
| comparing marine epoxies | mepoxies.html - | |
| chip epoxy floor on boat (article) | chipsboat.html - | |
| copper in epoxy resin | copper4u.html | |
| marine barrier coats | barrier4u.html | |
| micaceous iron oxide (MIO) | mio.html | |
| mix ratios for epoxies | mixratio.html | |
| pricing of marine epoxies | mprices.html - | |
| vacuum bagging | see VIR 100 product above | |
| blister repair | blister4u.html blisterar77t.html - abstracts from a hull repair book |
|
| several marine eopxies and other clear epoxy coatings | marineepoxy.html - Basic No Blush (tm) epoxy and other epoxies | |
| Professional Boat Builder Mag. - Basic epoxy review (2004) | roving.html - | |
| SMALL BOAT BUILDING ALBUMS/PICS | ||
| building two small rowboats - stitch and glue | picturetrail.com/gid21551176&pathID=2165351 | |
| building Toto -- stitch and glue kayak | hydropoxy.com/toto.html | |
| Jem Watercraft sells boat plans - they have an online "How To Build Stitch and Glue Boats" using our Basic No Blush (tm) epoxy | jemwatercraft.com | |
| SMALL BOAT REPAIR | ||
| patching hole in plywood hull | restore.html - fixing rotten rowboat hull | |
| wooden rub rail repair | repair.html - fixing rotten rowboat railing | |
| saving a sinking yacht | cs_boat.html - applying epoxies underwater | |
| cold weather epoxies | weather.html - | |
| concrete patching | patch.html - | |
| epoxy chemistry | chemistry.html nonyl4u.html - nonyl-phenol in epoxies novolac.html - novolac based epoxies mda4u.html - MDA in underwater epoxies cyclo.html - cycloaliphatic epoxies |
|
| flexible epoxies | flex.html - | |
| floor coatings/epoxies | floorcoatings.html - short intro text pinhole4u.html - outgassing bubbles from concrete floorcoatings4u.html - main intro text problem.html - what can go wrong! quartz4u.html - quartz broadcast floors FloorChip.pdf - floor with colored chips application - PDF beginfloor4u.html - epoxy and floor basics slab4u.html - more basics on epoxies & cement jay.html - 3rd party article on concrete sealers floorpopular.html - common epoxy floor examples floorcs.html - the actual floor in floorpopular.html garage4u.html - coating your garage latexfloor.html - epoxy/latex/acrylic floor system |
|
| glue - eduction from an expert | glue.html - gluing basics | |
| kelvar™ pulp in some of our epoxies | kevlar4u.html | |
| leak repair options | leak.html - cellar4u.html - basement leaks seal4u.html - repeating the same info... |
|
| LPU - two part poly paints | lpu.html | |
| manhole, sewer, waste water coatings | wwater4u.html - | |
| non-skid grits | grit.html - nonslip.html - application methods |
|
| non-skid systems and case study | flexdeck.html - basics cs_flexdeck.html - example of system |
|
| nuclear industry - coatings | nuclear4u.html - | |
| paint rollers | roller.html - paint rollers and epoxies | |
| pebble (epoxy) decks | riverstone.html - | |
| ROT --- penetrating type epoxies, rot repair, sealing wood etc. | solvents.html - what's in some products primer.html - learn about primer coatings rot.html - rot repair, mostly window sills woodseal.html - waterproofing with epoxy penetrating4u.html - observations on penetrating epoxies |
|
| pipewrap repairs | pipewrap.html - link to PDF file | |
| potlife table of some of our main epoxies | potlife.html - | |
| primers | primer.html - learn about coating primers | |
| shipping information | shipping4u.html - shipping outside the 48 states hazmat.html - hazmat and non hazmat shipping |
|
| soluble salts | salt.html | |
| solvent free epoxies | solventfree.pdf - magazine article on problems with solvent free epoxies | |
| surface prep | prep.html - also see Acid Etch acid.html - acid etching info home4u.html - mostly prep issues for cement |
|
| swimming pool repair | swimmingpool.html - | |
| table tops - bartops - epoxy poured | bartop.html - main page barcontract.html contractors/end results |
|
| thickened/thick epoxies | putty.html - buy thick or make your own | |
| thixotropic coatings/properties | thix.html | |
| underwater coatings/application of epoxy | under4u.html - basics and products charge4u.html - electrical charges stop bonding immerse.html - coatings used (not applied) underwater uwhistory.html - intro and basics - start here! acpj.pdf - underwater coating magazine article PDF |
|
| UV blockers | uv.html | |
| vapor barriers / vapor transmission | vapor4u.html - | |
| varnish | see VOC regulations | |
| VOC regulations | voc.html - solvents and air quality regulations varnish.html |
|
| waterproofing/sealing wood | woodseal.html - test results | |
| warm weather epoxies | weather.html - | |
| zinc primers | zinc.html - |
|
COMPANY STUFF (core pages - gray background) |
||
| who we are | click here | |
| our pricing policies/philosophy | click here | |
| legal stuff (MUST READ) | click here | |
| RETURN POLICY (MUST READ) | click here | |
| newsletter signup | click here | |
| past newsletters | click here | |
| contact page/link to online store | click here | |
| epoxy FAQ | click here | |
| user feedback notes | click here | |
| tips and tricks | click here | |
| what can go wrong with 2 part epoxies (PDF file) | click here | |
| web site graphic flow chart (PDF file) | click here | |
| FUNNY like/hate, kind AND nasty, user comments about our site | click here | |
| discounted epoxy products/clearance site | click here | |
| EPOXYUSA.COM - our simple alternative site/store | click here | |
| HYDROPOXY.COM - another info site | click here | |
sponsors:
Aarons Directory of Epoxy Web Stites (site one) and (site two)
Knowledge is Power - We like informed consumers!
Learn the basics of epoxy at our educational EPOXY 101 page - Click Here.
Finally, email us back with your questions or comments before you buy - EMAIL HERE
MORE EPOXY FLOOR WEB SITES:
http://www.concrete-garage-epoxy-floor-paint.com/epoxy-floor-paint.html ----- Index of Epoxy Floor Paint Sites - Basics, Options,
Comparisons, Problems, Issues (click here)
http://www.concrete-garage-epoxy-floor-paint.com/epoxy_floor_paint_test.html
---- Garage Epoxy Floor Paint --- Self Test ---
10 questions you need to know/ask regarding epoxy floor paint coating (click here)
Disclaimers:
Progressive Epoxy Polymers, Inc. shall not be liable for any injury, loss, damage, direct or consequential damages arising out of the use of its products. The purchaser/applicator shall determine the suitability of the products for the intended use. The products are applied by others and Progressive Epoxy Polymers does not provide any warranties, whatsoever arising in connection with the use of these products.
APPLICATION/SUITABILITY DISCLAIMER. Any suggestions/procedures offered by Progressive Epoxy Polymers, Inc. are given AS-IS without any warranty and in no way expand the rights under which you have, or will purchase, this product or related products. Your use of any of these suggestions/procedures is at your sole cost and risk. In no event shall Seller be liable to you for CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL damages. You must make an independent determination whether to follow any or all of the above items based upon the numerous application variables at hand. Consult Seller Warranty Disclaimer and Return Policy document for additional notifications.
TEMPERATURE AND CHEMICAL RESISTANCE DISCLAIMER. The temperature ranges and/or chemical resistance or pot life information
outlined above is based upon information provided by the raw material vendor or product formulator, or private
tests. It is provided AS-IS without any warranty and in no way expand the rights under which you have, or will
purchase, this product or related products. Chemical resistance can vary depending upon, but not limited to, such
factors as evaporation, temperature, humidity/moisture, surface preparation, interaction with other chemicals,
oxygen levels, and evaporation. Temperature effects on coatings can vary based upon solar heating/coating color,
ventilation, duration of frequency of heating cycle, immersion or moisture levels and fluid flow. Pot life is affected
by temperature, volume of epoxy mixed and shape of the container. Your use of these epoxies under these conditions
is at your sole cost and risk. In no event shall Seller be liable to you for temperature or chemically caused coating
failure or CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL damages. You must make an independent determination confirming the coating's
resistance to the chemicals and temperatures present in your unique situation.
SUGGESTION DISCLAIMER. Any suggestions/procedures offered are given AS-IS without any warranty. Use of website/email/telephone
sugestions and/or procedures is at your sole cost and risk. Buyer is solely responsible for testing the suitability
of Product and determining quantities needed. Buyer is also solely responsible for compliance with local VOC (Volatile
Organic Compound) regulations controlling the purchase and use of Product at buyer's location. Carefully read and
understand all Product application, safety precautions and MSDS information before ordering.
Additional Disclaimer and other legal notifications CLICK HERE
- EMAIL US -
| 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 to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, 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 causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, 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 their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny 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 their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish 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 their public 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 invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to 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 mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these 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 system 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 rule in these colonies: For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments: For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 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, burned 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 and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy 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 the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is 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 petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit 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 by their 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 by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, 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 the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states 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. New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776 |
| 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 to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, 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 causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, 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 their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny 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 their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish 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 their public 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 invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to 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 mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these 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 system 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 rule in these colonies: For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments: For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 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, burned 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 and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy 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 the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is 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 petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit 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 by their 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 by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, 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 the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states 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. New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776 |
| 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 to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, 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 causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, 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 their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny 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 their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish 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 their public 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 invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to 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 mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these 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 system 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 rule in these colonies: For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments: For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 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, burned 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 and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy 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 the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is 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 petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit 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 by their 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 by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, 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 the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states 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. New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776 |
| 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 to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, 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 causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, 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 their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny 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 their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish 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 their public 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 invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to 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 mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these 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 system 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 rule in these colonies: For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments: For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 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, burned 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 and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy 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 the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is 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 petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit 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 by their 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 by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, 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 the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states 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. New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776 |
| 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 to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, 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 causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, 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 their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny 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 their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish 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 their public 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 invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to 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 mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these 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 system 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 rule in these colonies: For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments: For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 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, burned 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 and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy 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 the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is 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 petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit 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 by their 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 by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, 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 the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states 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. New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776 |