“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 connexions 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 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 connexion 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 honour.” JOHN HANCOCK. NEW HAMPSHIRE. _Josiah Bartlett_, _William Whipple_, _Matthew Thornton_. MASSACHUSETTS. _Samuel Adams_, _John Adams_, _Robert Treat Paine_, _Elbridge Gerry_. RHODE ISLAND. _Stephen Hopkins_, _William Ellery_. CONNECTICUT. _Roger Sherman_, _Samuel Huntingdon_, _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. _Cæsar Rodney_, _George Read_, _Thomas M’Kean_. MARYLAND. _Samuel Chase_, _Thomas Stone_, _Charles Carroll_, of Carrollton. VIRGINIA.