The Nexus Archive
American Republicanism · State paper
Declaration of Independence
by Thomas Jefferson · The Paradox of Liberty · American Founding, 1743-1826
The central American statement of equality, rights, consent, and independence.
- Beginner
- 1776
- ~10 min read
- 1 chapter guide
- Public domain
Start reading · Read the Declaration of Independence guide free
Before the text
Editor's Prelude
The Pledge Before the World
By July 1776, the thirteen colonies had been at war with Britain for more than a year. Congress voted for independence on July 2 and adopted its explanation on July 4. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration for a committee of five; other committee members and Congress revised it. The voice that emerged speaks for the colonies' representatives, making a public case for a separation whose military outcome was still uncertain.
The intended audience extended beyond George III. The colonies needed support at home and recognition abroad. A declaration of rights therefore leads into a detailed accusation: the king has made lawful government impossible and answered petitions with force. The document has to explain why resistance has become a duty rather than a passing quarrel.
Its claim that all men are created equal stands beside a society that enslaved people and a text that describes Indigenous enemies in sweeping, dehumanizing terms. Those exclusions are present at the founding of the promise. The closing pledge commits the representatives' lives and fortunes to independence without settling whom its equality will protect.
The opening pages
Declaration of Independence
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or 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.
Read it in a Quest
A revolutionary test of liberty, power, union, and the price of self-rule.
Chapter guides · 1
Declaration of Independence
A Public Break With Empire
Congress presents independence as a necessary answer to a government that has violated its purpose.
Rights and the burden of proof
The Declaration begins by explaining why separation requires a public account. Governments exist to secure rights and receive their just powers from the governed. People may replace a government that destroys those ends, but the text also warns against change for slight or temporary causes. Its case depends on establishing a sustained pattern of abuse.
The accusations against the king
The grievances accuse George III of obstructing representative government and justice, maintaining military power without consent, and supporting measures against trade and colonial self-government. They culminate in accusations of warfare, forced service, and incitement. These are the representatives' charges, offered as proof of tyranny. Their blanket description of Indigenous opponents as merciless erases distinctions among peoples while the document claims universal rights.
Separation becomes a public commitment
The representatives say petitions to the king and appeals to British kinship have failed. They declare the colonies free and independent states, able to wage war, make peace, form alliances, and trade. Relying on divine protection, they pledge to each other their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to support the Declaration. The declared break with Britain is backed by a mutual promise that puts their lives and property at stake.
Questions readers ask
- How long does it take to read Declaration of Independence?
- About 10 min in total.
- How difficult is Declaration of Independence?
- Beginner. A short state paper; about 10 minutes of reading.
- Can I read Declaration of Independence for free?
- Yes. Declaration of Independence is free to read with a Nexus account.
- How many chapter guides are there?
- One chapter guide, written by the Nexus editors; it opens in full here.
About Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the third president of the United States, and a central figure in American republican thought. His life joins liberty, empire, education, party politics, and the unresolved contradiction of slavery.
“Can a republic proclaim equality while living against it?”
Jefferson forces Nexus to face both the language of liberty and the contradictions built into the American founding.
Source text: public domain. Chapter guides: original Nexus writing. Declaration of Independence is part of The Nexus Archive, guided Quests through the great works.