He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. 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. 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 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. 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. Note: The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflects the original. Livingston of New York, a member of the drafting committee, never signed the Declaration. Late signers were Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, and Matthew Thornton, who was unable to place his signature with the other New Hampshire delegates due to a lack of space. Although all delegates were not present on August 2nd, 56 delegates eventually signed the document.

The other delegates, following custom, signed beginning at the right with the signatures arranged by states from northernmost New Hampshire to southernmost Georgia. On August 2nd John Hancock, the President of the Congress, signed the engrossed copy with a bold signature. The engrosser of the Declaration was probably Timothy Matlock, an assistant to Charles Thomson, secretary to the Congress. On July 19th, Congress ordered that the Declaration be engrossed on parchment with a new title, 'the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of America,' and 'that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress.' Engrossing is the process of copying an official document in a large hand. Under the supervision of the Jefferson committee, the approved Declaration was printed on July 5th and a copy was attached to the 'rough journal of the Continental Congress for July 4th.' These printed copies, bearing only the names of John Hancock, President, and Charles Thomson, secretary, were distributed to state assemblies, conventions, committees of safety, and commanding officers of the Continental troops. Finally, in the afternoon of July 4th, the Declaration was adopted. The congressional revision process took all of July 3rd and most of July 4th.

Jefferson drafted the statement between June 11 and 28, submitted drafts to Adams and Franklin who made some changes, and then presented the draft to the Congress following the July 2nd adoption of the independence section of the Lee Resolution. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, with the actual writing delegated to Jefferson. The committee included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Although the section of the Lee Resolution dealing with independence was not adopted until July 2, Congress appointed on June 10 a committee of five to draft a statement of independence for the colonies.

Declaration of independence