nt, as in ordinary legislative
proceedings, the majority of the delegates from each colony determined
the vote of that colony; and by a previous and very adroit proposal, an
agreement was entered into that the _vote of Congress should be
published to the world as_ UNANIMOUS, however divided the votes of
members on the question of Independence might be; and on this ground the
signatures of those who had opposed it, as well as of those who voted in
favour of it, were ultimately affixed to the Declaration, though it was
published and authenticated by the signatures of the President, John
Hancock, of Massachusetts, and Charles Thompson, of Philadelphia, as
Secretary.

The Declaration of Independence, as thus adopted, is as follows:

"A Declaration by the Representatives of the United _States_ of
America, in Congress assembled:

"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 nature's
God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to
such 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; and 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 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. Prudence, indeed, would dictate that governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more
inclined 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 un