孔子韩国申遗成功了吗:独立宣言全文

在人类历史事件的进程中，当一个民族必须解除其与另一个民族之间迄今所存在着的政治联系，而在世界列国之中取得那“自然法则”和“自然神明”所规定给他们的独立与平等的地位时，就有一种真诚的尊重人类公意的心理，要求他们一定要把那些迫使他们不得已而独立的原因宣布出来。

　　我们认为这些真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，他们都从他们的“造物主”那边被赋予了某些不可转让的权利，其中包括生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。这句话早已脍炙人口，成为回响在世界的解放号角了。为了保障这些权利，所以才在人们中间成立政府。而政府的正当权力，则系得自统治者的同意。如果遇有任何一种形式的政府变成损害这些目的的话，那末，人民就有权利来改变它或废除它，以建立新的政府。这新的政府，必须是建立在这样的原则的基础上，并且是按照这样的方式来组织它的权力机关，庶几就人民看来那是最能够促进他们的安全和幸福的。诚然，谨慎的心理会主宰着人们的意识，认为不应该为了轻微的、暂时的原因而把设立已久的政府予以变更；而过去一切的经验也正是表明，只要当那些罪恶尚可容忍时，人类总是宁愿默然忍受，而不愿废除他们所习惯了的那种政治形式以恢复他们自己的权利。然而，当一个政府恶贯满盈、倒行逆施、一贯地奉行着那一个目标，显然是企图把人民抑压在绝对专制主义的淫威之下时，人民就有这种权利，人民就有这种义务，来推翻那样的政府，而为他们未来的安全设立新的保障这一段同样经典、精辟的语言，阐述了美国的立国原则，欧洲的“社会契约论”在北美大陆上结出丰硕的果实。?

　　这种立国思想第一次在一份民族独立宣言这样正式的政治文件里被如此全面透彻地阐述。——。我们这些殖民地的人民过去一向是默然忍辱吞声，而现在却被迫地必须起来改变原先的政治体制，其原因即在于此。现今大不列颠国王(乔治三世)的历史，就是一部怙恶不悛、倒行逆施的历史，他那一切的措施都只有一个直接的目的，即在我们各州建立一种绝对专制的统治。为了证明这一点，让我们把具体的事实胪陈于公正的世界人士之前：下面开始列举英王在殖民地所犯下的罪恶，而这成为美国独立的主要依据，也是《独立宣言》的重要组成部分。?

　　他一向拒绝批准那些对于公共福利最有用和最必要的法律。?

　　他一向禁止他的总督们批准那些紧急而迫切需要的法令，除非是那些法令在未得其本人同意以前，暂缓发生效力；而在这样暂缓生效的期间，他又完全把那些法令置之不理。?

　　他一向拒绝批准其他的把广大地区供人民移居垦殖的法令，除非那些人民愿意放弃其立法机关中的代表权。此项代表权对人民来说实具有无可估量的意义，而只有对暴君来说才是可怕的。?

　　他一向是把各州的立法团体召集到那些特别的、不方便的、远离其公文档案库的地方去开会。其惟一目的就在使那些立法团体疲于奔命，以服从他的指使。?

　　他屡次解散各州的议会，因为这些议会曾以刚强不屈的坚毅的精神，反抗他那对于人民权利的侵犯。?

　　他在解散各州的议会以后，又长时期地不让人民另行选举；这样，那不可抹杀的“立法权”便又重新回到广大人民的手中，归人民自己来施行了；而这时各州仍然险象环生，外有侵略的威胁，内有动乱的危机。?

　　他一向抑制各州人口的增加；为此目的，他阻止批准“外籍人归化法案”，他又拒绝批准其他的鼓励人民移植的法令，并且更提高了新的“土地分配法令”的限制条例。?

　　他拒绝批准那些设置司法权力机关的法案，借此来阻止司法工作的执行。到这里为止，宣言主要历数英王在法治上，包括立法、司法方面的专制与**，这从一个侧面说明了殖民地人民民主观念、权利义务观念的成熟。?

　　他一向要使法官的任期年限及其薪金数额，完全由他个人的意志来决定。?

　　他滥设了许多新的官职，派了大批的官吏到这边来钳制我们人民，并且盘食我们的民脂民膏。?

　　在和平时期，他不得到我们立法机关的同意，就把常备军驻屯在我们各州。?

　　他一向是使军队不受民政机关的节制，而且凌驾于民政机关之上。?

　　他一向与其他人狼狈为奸，要我们屈服在那种与我们的宪法格格不入，并且没有被我们的法律所承认的管辖权之下；他批准他们那些假冒的法案。?

　　他把大批的武装部队驻扎在我们各州。?

　　他是用一种欺骗性的审判来包庇那些武装部队，使那些对各州居民犯了任何谋杀罪的人得以逍遥法外。在历数这些罪状中，可以看到殖民地人民对“三权分立”原则的信仰和认同。?

　　他割断我们与世界各地的贸易。?

　　他不得到我们的允许就向我们强迫征税。?

　　他在许多案件中剥夺了我们在司法上享有“陪审权”的利益。?

　　他是以“莫须有”的罪名，把我们逮解到海外的地方去受审。?

　　他在邻近的地区废除了那保障自由的英吉利法律体系，在那边建立了一个横暴的政府，并且扩大它的疆界，要使它迅速即成为一个范例和适当的工具，以便把那同样专制的统治引用到这些殖民地来。?

　　他剥夺了我们的“宪章”，废弃了我们那些宝贵的法令，并且从根本上改变了我们政府的形式。?

　　他停闭我们自己的立法机关，反而说他们自己有权在任何一切场合之下为我们制定法律。?

　　他宣布我们不在其保护范围之内并且对我们作战，这样，他就已经放弃了在这里的政权了。?

　　他一向掠夺我们的海上船舶，骚扰我们的沿海地区，焚毁我们的市镇，并且残害我们人民的生命。?

　　他此刻正在调遣着大量的外籍雇佣军，要求把我们斩尽杀绝，使我们庐舍为墟，并肆行专制的荼毒。他已经造成了残民以逞的和背信弃义的气氛，那在人类历史上最野蛮的时期都是罕有其匹的。他完全不配做一个文明国家的元首。?

　　他一向强迫我们那些在海上被俘虏的同胞公民们从军以反抗其本国，充当屠杀其兄弟朋友的刽子手，或者他们自己被其兄弟朋友亲手所杀死。?

　　他一向煽动我们内部的叛乱，并且一向竭力勾结我们边疆上的居民、那些残忍的印第安蛮族来侵犯。印第安人所著称的作战方式，就是不论男女、老幼和情况，一概毁灭无遗。?

　　在他施行这些高压政策的每一个阶段，我们都曾经用最谦卑的词句吁请改革；然而，我们屡次的吁请，结果所得到的答复却只是屡次的侮辱。一个如此罪恶昭彰的君主，其一切的行为都可以确认为暴君，实不堪做一个自由民族的统治者。通过阅读这些历数的罪恶，可以看到北美殖民地人民在政治上的成熟。同时，作者在罗列时也是经过深思熟虑的，没有罗列那些具体的罪行，更多的是充满理性的权利上的诉求，这反而使理由显得更具有力量，现在读来仍令人心动。?

　　我们对于我们的那些英国兄弟们也不是没有注意的。我们曾经时时警告他们不要企图用他们的立法程序，把一种不合法的管辖权横加到我们身上来。继续论证采取独立行动的正当性与合理性。我们曾经提醒他们注意到我们在此地移植和居住的实际情况。我们曾经向他们天生的正义感和侠义精神呼吁，而且我们也曾经用我们那同文同种的亲谊向他们恳切陈词，要求取消那些倒行逆施的暴政，认为那些暴政势必将使我们之间的联系和友谊归于破裂。然而，他们也同样地把这正义的、血肉之亲的呼吁置若罔闻。因此，他们不得不承认与他们有分离的必要，而我们对待他们也如同对待其他的人类一样，在战时是仇敌，在平时则为朋友。理性的力量继续洋溢其中。在其独立宣言中，在历数了宗主国的罪恶后，进而表示愿意与其在和平时期和平相处，令人赞叹宣言起草人的战略眼光和理性力量。?

　　因此，我们这些集合在大会中的美利坚合众国的代表们，吁请世界人士的最高裁判，来判断我们这些意图的正义性。开始接近结论了。我们以这些殖民地的善良人民的名义和权力，谨庄严地宣布并昭告：这些联合殖民地从此成为而且名正言顺地应当成为自由独立的合众国；它们解除对于英王的一切隶属关系，而它们与大不列颠王国之间的一切政治联系亦应从此完全废止。作为自由独立的合众国，它们享有全权去宣战、媾和、缔结同盟、建立商务关系或采取一切其他凡为独立国家所理应采取的行动和事宜。为了拥护此项“宣言”，怀着深信神明福佑的信心，我们谨以我们的生命、财产和神圣的荣誉互相共同保证，永誓不贰。最后的宣言庄严神圣而严谨到位，十分得体。使人感到巨大的力量。

　　原文：

　　IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
　　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.

　　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.

　　He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

　　He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

　　He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

　　He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

　　He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

　　He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

　　He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

　　He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

　　He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

　　He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

　　He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

　　He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

　　He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

　　For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

　　For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

　　For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

　　For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

　　For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

　　For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

　　For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

　　For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

　　For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

　　He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

　　He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

　　He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

　　He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

　　He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

　　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 British 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.

　　--John Hancock

　　New Hampshire:
　　Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

　　Massachusetts:
　　John Hancock, 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 Paca, 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 Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

独立宣言

〔美〕托马斯.杰非逊

1776年7月4日，美利坚合众国十三州议会一致通过的宣言。
在人类事务发展的过程中，当一个民族必须解除同另一个民族的联系，并按照自然法则和上帝的旨意，以独立平等的身份立于世界列国之林时，出于对人类舆论的尊重，必须把驱使他们独立的原因予以宣布。
我们认为下述真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主赋予他们若干不可
让与的权利，其中包括生存权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。为了保障这些权利，人们才在他们中间建立政府，而政府的正当权利，则是经被统治者同意授予的。
任何形式的政府一旦对这些目标的实现起破坏作用时，人民便有权予以更换或废除，以建立一个新的政府。新政府所依据的原则和组织其权利的方式，务使人民认为唯有这样才最有可能使他们获得安全和幸福。若真要审慎的来说，成立多年的政府是不应当由于无关紧要的和一时的原因而予以更换的。过去的一切经验都说明，任何苦难，只要尚能忍受，人类还是情愿忍受，也不想为申冤而废除他们久已习惯了的政府形式。
然而，当始终追求同一目标的一系列滥用职权和强取豪夺的行为表明政府企图把人民至于专制暴政之下时，人民就有权也有义务去推翻这样的政府，并为其未来的安全提供新的保障。这就是这些殖民地过去忍受苦难的经过，也是他们现在不得不改变政府制度的原因。当今大不列颠王国的历史，就是屡屡伤害和掠夺这些殖民地的历史，其直接目标就是要在各州之上建立一个独裁暴政。为了证明上述句句属实，现将事实公诸于世，让公正的世人作出评判。
他拒绝批准对公众利益最有益、最必需的法律。
他禁止他的殖民总督批准刻不容缓、极端重要的法律，要不就先行搁置这些法律
直至征得他的同意，而这些法律被搁置以后，他又完全置之不理。
他拒绝批准便利大地区人民的其他的法律，除非这些地区的人民情愿放弃自己在自己在立法机构中的代表权；而代表权对人民是无比珍贵的，只有暴君才畏惧它。
他把各州的立法委员召集到一个异乎寻常、极不舒适而有远离他们的档案库的地方去开会，其目的无非是使他们疲惫不堪，被迫就范。
他一再解散各州的众议院，因为后者坚决反对他侵犯人民的权利。他在解散众议院之后，又长期拒绝另选他人，于是这项不可剥夺的立法权便归由普通人民来行使，致使在这其间各州仍处于外敌入侵和内部骚乱的种种危险之中。他力图阻止各州增加人口，为此目的，他阻挠外国人入籍法的通过，拒绝批准其他鼓励移民的法律，并提高分配新土地的条件。
他拒绝批准建立司法权利的法律，以阻挠司法的执行。
他迫使法官为了保住任期、薪金的数额和支付而置于他个人意志的支配之下。他滥设新官署，委派大批官员到这里骚扰我们的人民，吞噬他们的财物。
他在和平时期，未经我们立法机构同意，就在我们中间维持其常备军。他施加影响，使军队独立于文官政权之外，并凌驾于文官政权之上。他同他人勾结，把我们置于一种既不符合我们的法规也未经我们法律承认的管辖之下，而且还批准他们炮制的各种伪法案，以便任其在我们中间驻扎大批武装部队；不论这些人对我们各州居民犯下何等严重的谋杀罪，他可用加审判来庇护他们，让他们逍遥法外；他可以切断我们同世界各地的贸易；未经我们同意便向我们强行征税；在许多案件中剥夺我们享有陪审制的权益；以莫须有的罪名把我们押送海外受审；他在一个邻省废除了英国法律的自由制度，在那里建立专制政府，扩大其疆域，使其立即成为一个样板和合适的工具，以便向这里各殖民地推行同样的专制统治；他取消我们的许多特许状，废除我们最珍贵的法律并从根本上改变我们各州政府的形式；
他终止我们立法机构行使权力，宣称他们自己拥有在任何情况下为我们制定法律的权力。
他们放弃设在这里的政府，宣称我们已不属他们保护之列，并向我们发动战争。
他在我们的海域里大肆掠夺，蹂躏我们的沿海地区，烧毁我们的城镇，残害我们人民的生命。
他此时正在运送大批外国雇佣兵，来从事其制造死亡、荒凉和暴政的勾当，其残忍与卑劣从一开始就连最野蛮的时代也难以相比，他已完全不配当一个文明国家的元首。
他强迫我们在公海被他们俘虏的同胞拿起武器反对自己的国家，使他们成为残杀自己亲友的刽子手，或使他们死于自己亲友的手下。
他在我们中间煽动内乱，并竭力挑唆残酷无情的印地安蛮子来对付我们边疆的居民，而众所周知，印地安人作战的准则是不分男女老幼、是非曲直，格杀勿论。
在遭受这些压迫的每一阶段，我们都曾以最谦卑的言辞吁请予以纠正。而我们一次又一次的情愿，却只是被报以一次又一次的伤害。
一个君主，其品格被他的每一个只有暴君才干的出的行为所暴露时，就不配君临自由的人民。
我们并不是没有想到我们英国的弟兄。他们的立法机关想把无理的管辖权扩展到我们这里来，我们时常把这个企图通知他们。我们也曾把我们移民来这里和在这里定居的情况告诉他们。我们曾恳求他们天生的正义感和雅量，念在同种同宗的分上，弃绝这些掠夺行为，因为这些掠夺行为难免会使我们之间的关系和来往中断。可他们对这种正义和同宗的呼声也同样充耳不闻。因此，我们不得不宣布脱离他们，以对待世界上其他民族的态度对待他们：同我交战者，就是敌人；同我和好者，即为朋友。
因此我们这些在大陆会议上集会的美利坚合众国的代表们，以各殖民地善良人民
的名义，并经他们授权，向世界最高裁判者申诉，说明我们的严重意向，同时郑重宣布：
我们这些联合起来的殖民地现在是，而且按公理也应该是，独立自由的国家；我们对英国王室效忠的全部义务，我们与大不列颠王国之间大不列颠一切政治联系全部断绝，而且必须断绝。
作为一个独立自由的国家，我们完全有权宣战、缔和、结盟、通商和采取独立国家有权采取的一切行动。
我们坚定地信赖神明上帝的保佑，同时以我们的生命、财产和神圣的名誉彼此宣誓来支持这一宣言。
〔说明〕
1776年6月7日，大陆会议弗吉尼亚代表提出北美各殖民地脱离英国的决议案。大陆会议选出托马斯．杰斐逊、约翰．亚当斯和本杰明.富兰克林等人组成的委员会，起草美国的独立宣言。杰斐逊起草了《独立宣言》的第一稿，富兰克林等人又进行了润色。大陆会议对此稿又进行了长时间的、激烈的辩论，最终作出了重大的修改。特别是在佐治亚和卡罗来纳代表们的坚持下，删去了杰斐逊对英王乔治三世允许在殖民地保持奴隶制和奴隶买卖的有力谴责。这一部分的原文是这样的：他的人性本身发动了残酷的战争，侵犯了一个从未冒犯过他的远方民族的最神圣的生存权和自由权；他诱骗他们，并把他们运往另一半球充当奴隶，或使他们惨死在运送途中。美国的奴隶制度直到80多年以后的南北战争时期才得到解决。1862年9月22日，林肯总统颁布《解放黑人奴隶宣言》，宣布奴隶获得自由，但范围仅限于叛乱各州的奴隶，却不包括未参与叛乱的几个蓄奴州的奴隶。从法律上真正奴隶制，是在战争结束后的1865年年底。而对有色人种的种族歧视，至今犹存。《独立宣言》认定的真理“人人生而平等”与奴隶制的得以保护，这对比是如此的强烈。然而，这就是真正的历史。但是，自1776年以来，“人人生而平等”作为美国立国的基本原则，作为人们的信念和理想，就一直在全世界为人传颂。美国正义的社会改革者们，在各个社会的历史阶段，为了废除奴隶制，为了禁止种族隔离，为了妇女解放，都提到这一理想；而人民在反对不民主、不公正的统治时，也都以此作为最有力的思想武器。
托马斯．杰斐逊（1743-1826），生于弗吉尼亚的一个富裕家庭。曾就读于威廉-玛丽学院。1767年成为律师，1769年当选为弗吉尼亚下院议院。他积极投身于独立运动之中，并代表弗吉尼亚出席大陆会议。他曾两次当选弗吉尼亚州长。1800年当选美国总统。
杰斐逊在为自己的墓碑而作的墓志铭中这样写到：
这里埋葬着托马斯．杰斐逊，美国《独立宣言》的作者，弗吉尼亚宗教自由
法规的制定者和弗吉尼亚大学之父。

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
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.

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.

He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

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 British 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&n