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 entitles 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 abolish it, and to institute new government, laying
its foundation on such principles and organizing its
power 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 had become 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
governments, and to provide new Guards for their future
security. Such has been the patient suffering 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.
http://www.universalway.org/declaration.html
我らは以下の諸事実を自明なものと見なす。
すべての人間は平等につくられている。
創造主によって、生存、自由そして幸福の追求を含む
ある侵すべからざる権利を与えられている。 |