快播成人网址导航独立宣言原文与林语堂译文

2021年1月26日发(作者：朱高炽)
《独立宣言》

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

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 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
shewn,
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
[George
III]
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 endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the
Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations 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
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 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 offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring 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 into 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, 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 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
endeavoured
to
bring
on
the
inhabitants
of
our
frontiers,
the
merciless
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 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 attentions 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.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

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