1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover">
<title>
The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America | Project Gutenberg
</title>
<style>
p { max-width: 40em; margin: 1em auto; } /* 40rem */
h1 { max-width: 19em; } /* ~40rem */
h2 { max-width: 23em; } /* ~40rem */
h1, h2 { margin: 1em auto; text-align: center; }
hr { width: 50%; }
.important { font-weight: bold; text-align: center; }
p.txt, div.etext p, div.etext h2 { max-width: 40em; margin: 2em auto; font-family: monospace; } /* 40rem, matching the column width of the text version. */
div.etext h2 { max-width: 23em; } /* ~40rem */
p.txt-fullyjustified { text-align: justify; }
p.txt-indent { max-width: 32em; } /* 32rem, matching the column width of the text version. */
.toc { margin: auto; padding: 1em; max-width: 32em; border: 1px solid #fff; } /* 32rem */
.toc .toc-header { margin: 1em; border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; padding-bottom: 1em; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; }
div.gallery { text-align: center; }
div.gallery .fig { display: inline-block; width: 192px; margin: 0 auto; text-align: center; } /* 12rem */
div.gallery .fig img { display: inline; width: 160px; margin-bottom: 0; padding-bottom: 0;} /* 10rem */
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1 ***</div>
<h1>THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</h1>
<div class="toc">
<p class="toc-header">Table of Contents</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="#introduction">Introductory Notes</a></li>
<li><a href="#transcribers">Transcribers’ Notes</a> regarding this version of the first eBook.</li>
<li><a href="#declaration">Declaration of Independence</a> presented in the style of an original etext.</li>
<li><a href="#handwritten">Gallery of Thomas Jefferson's Handwritten Drafts</a> presented in four images.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<h2><a id="introduction">Introduction</a></h2>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified">
<i>Written by Michael S. Hart for the official re-release:</i>
</p>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified">
The United States Declaration of Independence was the first E-text
released by Project Gutenberg, early in 1971. The title was stored
in an emailed instruction set which required a tape or diskpack be
hand mounted for retrieval. The disk pack was the size of a large
cake in a cake carrier, cost $1500, and contained 5 megabytes, of
which this file took 1-2%. Two tape backups were kept plus one on
paper tape. The 10,000 files we hope to have online by the end of
2001 should take about 1-2% of a comparably priced drive in 2001.
</p>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified">
This file was never copyrighted, Sharewared, etc., and is thus for
all to use and copy in any manner they choose. Please feel free to
make your own edition using this as a base.
</p>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified">
In my research for creating this transcription of our first Etext,
I have come across enough discrepancies [even within that official
documentation provided by the United States] to conclude that even
"facsimiles" of the Declaration of Independence are nary identical
to the original, nor of other "facsimiles." There is a plethora of
variations in capitalizations, punctuation, and where names appear
on the documents [which names I have left out].
</p>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified">
The resulting document has several misspellings removed from those
parchment "facsimiles" I used back in 1971, and which I should not
be able to easily find at this time, including "Brittain."
</p>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified">
[JT, Apr 2005: "Brittish" is spelled as in the original.]
</p>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified">
[RO, Aug 2025: MH's original justified text widths are restored as
closely as possible in the introduction. Minor text alterations were made to do so.]
</p>
<hr>
<p><a id="transcribers"></a></p>
<h2>
Transcribers’ Notes
</h2>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified txt-indent">
NOTE: This file contains the original contents of the
very first eBook in the Project Gutenberg collection,
the Declaration of Independence. This file previously
contained a compilation of etexts of #1 and etext #2.
The historical variations of etext #1 are included in
the "old" subdirectory to be accessed under the "More
Files" listing in the landing page for this eBook. No
edits or changes have been made to them.
</p>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified txt-indent">
All of the original Project Gutenberg Etexts from the
1970's were produced in ALL CAPS, no lower case. The
computers we used then didn't have lower case at all.
</p>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified txt-indent">
This HTML rendition of the original etext #1 was first
produced on August 4, 2018, updated August 28, 2025.
The styling used simulates the look of the original
etext, as presented on computers and terminal displays
of the era.
</p>
<p class="txt txt-fullyjustified txt-indent">
A table of contents and images of Thomas Jefferson's
hand-drafted copy of The Declaration of Independence
have been added to this HTML presentation.
</p>
<hr>
<p><a id="declaration"></a></p>
<div class="etext">
<h2>
THE<br> DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE<br> OF<br>
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
</h2>
<p class="important">
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
</p>
<p class="important">
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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 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.
</p>
<p>
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly
firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
</p>
<p>
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 mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from
without, and convulsions within.
</p>
<p>
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to
pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the
conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
</p>
<p>
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to
Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
</p>
<p>
He has made judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
</p>
<p>
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of
Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.
</p>
<p>
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the
Consent of our legislatures.
</p>
<p>
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the
Civil Power.
</p>
<p>
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:
</p>
<p>
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
</p>
<p>
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
</p>
<p>
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
</p>
<p>
For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:
</p>
<p>
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
</p>
<p>
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
</p>
<p>
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:
</p>
<p>
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and
altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
</p>
<p>
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
</p>
<p>
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection
and waging War against us.
</p>
<p>
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.
</p>
<p>
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to
compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with
circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
</div>
<hr>
<p><a id="handwritten"></a></p>
<h2>
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S HANDWRITTEN DRAFTS
</h2>
<p>
The following four images are of engravings taken from
Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence,
in his handwriting with emendations in the handwritings
of Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. Tapping the "ENLARGE"
button will display the image in full-size.
</p>
<div class="gallery">
<div class="fig">
<p><img src="images/dec1th.jpg"
alt="First page. Handwritten draft text with editing notes and crossed out words, on faded parchment paper."></p>
<p><a href="images/dec1.jpg">ENLARGE PAGE 1</a></p>
</div>
<div class="fig">
<p><img src="images/dec2th.jpg"
alt="Second page. Handwritten draft text with editing notes and crossed out words, on faded parchment paper."></p>
<p><a href="images/dec2.jpg">ENLARGE PAGE 2</a></p>
</div>
<div class="fig">
<p><img src="images/dec3th.jpg"
alt="Third page. Handwritten draft text with editing notes and crossed out words, on faded parchment paper."></p>
<p><a href="images/dec3.jpg">ENLARGE PAGE 3</a></p>
</div>
<div class="fig">
<p><img src="images/dec4th.jpg"
alt="Fourth page. Handwritten draft text with editing notes and crossed out words, on faded parchment paper."></p>
<p><a href="images/dec4.jpg">ENLARGE PAGE 4</a></p>
</div>
</div>
<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1 ***</div>
</body>
</html>
|
