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The unanimous Declaration of the 13 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 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.
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.
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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 Brittish 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 connections 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 connection 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 Honor.
– Approved by The Continental Congress
on July 4, 1776
North Carolina signers of the Declaration were William Hooper, Joseph Hewes and John Penn.
But who were they?
A Massachusett native, Hooper was a lawyer and politician who moved to Wilmington, NC in 1764 to practice law. He was respected by fellow lawyers and wealthy farmers. He was married in 1867 to Anne Clark, daughter of of the sheriff of New Hanover County and from a wealthy early settler.
Hooper at first supported the British colonial government of North Carolina. he was reportedly dragged through the streets of Hillsborough by Regulators. He was elected to the NC General Assembly in 1773, and he recognized the growing calls for independence from Britain.
His properties in Wilmington were burned by the British, and they also attempted to capture him. It took a year before he was reunited with his family and they settled in Hillsborough.
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A New Jersey native, Hewes became involved in the mercantile business, which included visits to North Carolina. He saw opportunites in Edenton, NC to be his best future. He became a merchant there.
He was appointed Justice of the Peace in Edenton in 1757, and was elected to the NC General Assembly in 1760, where he served until 1775. He also had been a British loyalist, and favored compromise with Britain at first; but also later saw that reconciliation would not be possible. “Nothing is left but to fight it out,” he said in March of 1775.
In a letter from Philadelphia of July 8, 1776, Hewes wrote: “I had the weight of North Carolina on my shoulders within a day or two of three months. The service was too severe. I have sat some days from Six in the morning till five, and sometimes Six in the afternoon without eating or drinking. My health is bad, such close attention made it worse. Duty, inclination and self preservation call on me now to make a little excursion in the County to see my mother. This is a duty which I have not allowed myself to perform during almost nine months that I have been here.”
He died in 1779, not yet 50 years old.
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Penn was a native of Virginia, appointed as a North Carolina representative after the resignation of Wiliam Caswell.
He became a lawyer, and moved to Stovall, NC in 1774. He served in the Continental Congress from 1775-1779. He was an important supporter of the Revolutionary War, and died at age 48.