This was created by a carefully crafted Claude Prompt.
The Declaration of Independence
A Plain-Language Rendering
Agreed upon by Congress, July 4, 1776
The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America
Why We Are Speaking
Sometimes in history, one people must break away from another and stand alone as a free nation. When that happens, basic respect for the world requires an explanation. So here is ours.
What We Believe About Government
We hold these truths to be plain and obvious: all people are created equal. Their Creator has given them rights that no one can take away — among them, the right to life, to freedom, and to pursue happiness.
Governments exist to protect those rights. Their only real power comes from the agreement of the people they govern. Whenever a government stops protecting those rights — and starts destroying them instead — the people have both the right and the duty to change it or abolish it, and to build something better in its place.
We do not say this lightly. Long-established governments should not be torn down over small or passing problems. People will suffer quite a lot before they upend the world they know. But when a long, unbroken pattern of abuse makes clear that a ruler intends to grind a people into total submission — that is the moment to act. That is the moment to throw off that government and build new protections for the future.
That is where we are now.
The King of Great Britain has spent his reign inflicting injury after injury on these colonies — each one aimed at the same goal: absolute power over us. We offer the following facts to an honest world as proof.
What the King Has Done
He has refused to approve laws that were clearly needed for the public good.
He has told his governors not to pass urgent laws without his approval — then ignored those laws once they were put on hold.
He has refused to let large groups of people have representation in their own legislatures — unless they gave up that right entirely.
He has called our lawmakers to meet in distant, uncomfortable places — just to wear them down until they gave in.
He has repeatedly shut down colonial legislatures for standing up to him. Then, rather than allow new elections, he left the colonies without government — exposed to danger from outside, and disorder within.
He has tried to keep these colonies from growing — blocking immigration, making it harder to settle new land.
He has blocked the courts from functioning.
He has made judges fully dependent on his will — controlling their pay and their jobs.
He has invented a swarm of new government offices and filled these colonies with officers who harass our people and drain our resources.
He has kept armies among us in peacetime — without the consent of our own legislatures.
He has worked to place the military above civilian law.
He has joined with others to impose laws on us that our own governments never agreed to. Specifically:
— He has forced us to house his soldiers in our communities.
— He has protected those soldiers from punishment — even when they murdered our people.
— He has cut off our trade with the rest of the world.
— He has taxed us without our consent.
— He has taken away our right to trial by jury in many cases.
— He has sent colonists across the ocean to face trial for crimes that were invented.
— He has torn up the legal system in a neighboring province, installed an arbitrary government there, and expanded that province’s borders — offering it as a test case for doing the same to us.
— He has canceled our charters, abolished our most important laws, and remade our governments from the ground up.
— He has shut down our own legislatures and claimed the right to make every law for us, in every matter, without limit.
He has abandoned any pretense of governing us fairly — declaring us outside his protection while making open war on us.
He has looted our ships, burned our towns, and killed our people.
He is right now sending armies of paid foreign soldiers to finish the work of destruction — carrying it out with a cruelty barely seen even in history’s darkest chapters, unworthy of any leader who calls himself civilized.
He has seized our fellow citizens at sea and forced them to take up arms against their own country — to kill their friends and brothers, or be killed by them.
He has stirred up uprisings against us at home, and turned the people of our frontiers against us in war.
How We Tried to Avoid This
At every step, we asked for relief — humbly, repeatedly, respectfully. Every petition was answered with more abuse. A ruler who governs this way is not fit to lead a free people.
We did not stay silent toward our fellow British citizens, either. We warned them again and again. We reminded them of our shared history. We appealed to their sense of justice, and to the ties of kinship between us. We asked them to speak out against what their government was doing to us. They did not listen.
We have no choice now. We must accept the separation that necessity demands. We will treat the British people as we treat all others — as enemies when we are at war, as friends when we are at peace.
Our Declaration
We, the representatives of the United States of America, meeting in Congress, call upon the Supreme Judge of the world to witness our honest intentions. In the name of the good people of these colonies, and by their authority, we declare:
These colonies are — and by right ought to be — free and independent states. They owe no allegiance to the British Crown. Every political tie between them and Great Britain is, and ought to be, completely severed. As free and independent states, they have the full power to make war, negotiate peace, form alliances, conduct trade, and do everything that free nations have the right to do.
In support of this declaration, trusting in the protection of divine Providence, we pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
[Signed by 56 delegates from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.]