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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 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 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.

The foregoing declaration was, by order of the Congress, engrossed, and
signed by the following members:

JOHN HANCOCK

New Hampshire--Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton.

Massachusetts Bay--Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine,
Elbridge Gerry.

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.

New Jersey--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.

Delaware--Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean.

Maryland--Samuel Chase, William Paco, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll, of
Carrollton.

Virginia--George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.

North Carolina--William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.

South Carolina--Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr.,
Arthur Middleton.

Georgia--Button Gwinett, Lyman Hall, George Walton.

The following clause formed part of the original Declaration of
Independence as signed, but was finally left out of the printed copies
"out of respect to South Carolina":

"He [King George III.] has waged cruel war against human nature itself,
violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a
distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them
into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their
transportation thither."

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.

Article I.

SECTION I.

1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of
Representatives.

SECTION II.

1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen
every second year by the people of the several States; and the electors
in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of
the most numerous branch of the State legislature.

2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to
the age of twenty-five years, and have been seven years a citizen of the
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that
State in which he shall be chosen.

3. Representative and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the
several States which may be included within this Union, according to
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a
term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all
other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years
after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within
every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law
direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every
thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative;
and

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