DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. This is a state paper issued by the congress of the United States of America, in the name and by the authority of the people, on the fourth day of July, 17 76, wherein are set forth¹:

2. - 1. Certain natural and unalienable rights of man; the uses and purposes of governments the right of the people to institute or to abolish them; the sufferings of the colonies, and their right to withdraw from the tyranny of the king of Great Britain.

3. -2. The various acts of tyranny of the British Icing.

4. - 3. The petitions for redress² of these injuries, and the refusal. to redress them; the recital³ of an appeal to the people of "Great Britain, and of their being deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity⁴.

5. - 4. An appeal to the Supreme⁵ Judge of the world for the rectitude of the intentions of the representatives.

6. - 5. A declaration that the United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved⁶ from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be dissolved.

7. - 6. A pledge by the representatives to each other, of their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

8. The effect of this declaration was the establishment of the government of the United States as free and independent) and thenceforth the people of Great Britain have been held, as the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

DECLARATION OF lNTENTION. The act of an alien, who goes before a court of record, and in a forma manner declares that it is, bona fide, his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce⁷ forever all allegiance and fidelity⁸ to any foreign prince, potentate⁹, state, or sovereignty, whereof he may at the time be a citizen or subject. Act of Congress of April 14, 18O2, s. 1.

2. This declaration must, in usual cases, be made at least three years before his admission. Id. But there are numerous exceptions to this rule. See Naturalization.

DECLARATION OF TRUST. The act by which an individual acknowledges that a property, the title of which he holds, does in fact belong to another, for whose use he holds the same. The instrument in which the acknowledgment is made, is also called a declaration of trust; but such a declaration is not always in writing, though it is highly proper it should be so. Will. on Trust, 49, note y; Sudg. on Pow. 200. See Merl. Rep. Declaration au profit d'un tiers.