And hence a more decided5 course was approved by the people, and finally adopted by their delegates in Congress, on the 2d day of July, 1776. This resolution changed the old thirteen British colonies into free and independent States. And now it remained to set forth6 the reason for this act, together with the principles that should govern this new people. By this declaration the new Republic, as it took its place among the powers of the world, proclaimed its faith in the truth, reality, and unchangeableness of freedom and virtue7. And the astonished nations, as they read that all men are created equal, started out of their lethargy, like those who have been exiled from childhood when they suddenly hear the dimly remembered accents of their mother tongue.
[176]
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
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 impel8 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 inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving9 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 a 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. Prudence10, indeed, will dictate11 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 them 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 constrains12 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 candid13 world:
[177]
He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate16 and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly17 neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish18 the right of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants20 only.
He has called together legislative21 bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing22 them into compliance23 with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing, with manly24 firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused, for a long time after such dissolution, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable25 of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose, obstructing26 the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration27 hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations28 of lands.
He has obstructed29 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 tenure30 of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected31 a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms32 of officers to harass33 our people, and eat out their substance.
[178]
He has combined with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction36 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 depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
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 into these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally, the powers of our government:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate39 for us in all cases whatsoever40.
He has abdicated41 government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.
He has plundered42 our seas, ravaged43 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 work of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy44 scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized45 nation.
[179]
He has constrained46 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 savages47, whose known rule of warfare48 is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble49 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 tyrant19, 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 made 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 conjured50 them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably51 interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity52. We must, therefore, acquiesce53 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 Supreme54 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 absolved55 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[180] FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full power to levy56 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, and in a firm reliance on the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE57, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed58, and signed by the following members:
JOHN HANCOCK.
New Hampshire.
Josiah Bartlett,
William Whipple,
Matthew Thornton.
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.
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.
Massachusetts Bay.
Samuel Adams,
John Adams,
Robert Treat Paine,
Elbridge Gerry.
Delaware.
C?sar Rodney,
George Reed,
Thomas M’Kean.
Maryland.
Samuel Chase,
William Paca,
Thomas Stone,
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
Virginia.
George Wythe,
Richard Henry Lee,
Thomas Jefferson,
Benjamin Harrison,
Thomas Nelson, Jun.,
Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Carter Braxton.
North Carolina.
William Hooper,
Joseph Hewes,
John Penn.
South Carolina.
Edward Rutledge,
Thomas Heywood, Jun.,
Thomas Lynch, Jun.,
Arthur Middleton.
Georgia.
Button Gwinnett,
Lyman Hall,
George Walton.
点击收听单词发音
1 immortal | |
adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的 | |
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2 redress | |
n.赔偿,救济,矫正;v.纠正,匡正,革除 | |
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3 redressed | |
v.改正( redress的过去式和过去分词 );重加权衡;恢复平衡 | |
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4 reconciliation | |
n.和解,和谐,一致 | |
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5 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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6 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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7 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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8 impel | |
v.推动;激励,迫使 | |
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9 deriving | |
v.得到( derive的现在分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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10 prudence | |
n.谨慎,精明,节俭 | |
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11 dictate | |
v.口授;(使)听写;指令,指示,命令 | |
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12 constrains | |
强迫( constrain的第三人称单数 ); 强使; 限制; 约束 | |
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13 candid | |
adj.公正的,正直的;坦率的 | |
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14 assent | |
v.批准,认可;n.批准,认可 | |
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15 wholesome | |
adj.适合;卫生的;有益健康的;显示身心健康的 | |
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16 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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17 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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18 relinquish | |
v.放弃,撤回,让与,放手 | |
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19 tyrant | |
n.暴君,专制的君主,残暴的人 | |
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20 tyrants | |
专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 ); 暴君似的人; (古希腊的)僭主; 严酷的事物 | |
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21 legislative | |
n.立法机构,立法权;adj.立法的,有立法权的 | |
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22 fatiguing | |
a.使人劳累的 | |
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23 compliance | |
n.顺从;服从;附和;屈从 | |
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24 manly | |
adj.有男子气概的;adv.男子般地,果断地 | |
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25 incapable | |
adj.无能力的,不能做某事的 | |
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26 obstructing | |
阻塞( obstruct的现在分词 ); 堵塞; 阻碍; 阻止 | |
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27 migration | |
n.迁移,移居,(鸟类等的)迁徙 | |
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28 appropriations | |
n.挪用(appropriation的复数形式) | |
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29 obstructed | |
阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 ); 堵塞; 阻碍; 阻止 | |
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30 tenure | |
n.终身职位;任期;(土地)保有权,保有期 | |
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31 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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32 swarms | |
蜂群,一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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33 harass | |
vt.使烦恼,折磨,骚扰 | |
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34 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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35 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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36 jurisdiction | |
n.司法权,审判权,管辖权,控制权 | |
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37 imposing | |
adj.使人难忘的,壮丽的,堂皇的,雄伟的 | |
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38 offenses | |
n.进攻( offense的名词复数 );(球队的)前锋;进攻方法;攻势 | |
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39 legislate | |
vt.制定法律;n.法规,律例;立法 | |
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40 whatsoever | |
adv.(用于否定句中以加强语气)任何;pron.无论什么 | |
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41 abdicated | |
放弃(职责、权力等)( abdicate的过去式和过去分词 ); 退位,逊位 | |
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42 plundered | |
掠夺,抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43 ravaged | |
毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 ); 蹂躏; 劫掠; 抢劫 | |
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44 perfidy | |
n.背信弃义,不忠贞 | |
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45 civilized | |
a.有教养的,文雅的 | |
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46 constrained | |
adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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47 savages | |
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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48 warfare | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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49 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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50 conjured | |
用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 ); 祈求,恳求; 变戏法; (变魔术般地) 使…出现 | |
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51 inevitably | |
adv.不可避免地;必然发生地 | |
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52 consanguinity | |
n.血缘;亲族 | |
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53 acquiesce | |
vi.默许,顺从,同意 | |
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54 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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55 absolved | |
宣告…无罪,赦免…的罪行,宽恕…的罪行( absolve的过去式和过去分词 ); 不受责难,免除责任 [义务] ,开脱(罪责) | |
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56 levy | |
n.征收税或其他款项,征收额 | |
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57 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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58 engrossed | |
adj.全神贯注的 | |
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59 jersey | |
n.运动衫 | |
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