The fact that you need to refer to the Declaration of Independence makes it performative. Otherwise it would just be self-evident.

It is self-evident because it is a moral proposition. It is the same as saying stealing your friend's cherished pet is wrong. It is obvious and needs no more explanation.

What if they’re bad owners?

Hah that is why I said cherished. It assumes they care and protect the dog.

What if they’re just incompetent

A person is the same person when their limbs are removed. It is self-evident that equality of people is not performative.

I think you are saying that as soon as anyone says it is performative, it is performative, even if otherwise it is self-evident.

Your logic system strongly supports bad-faith arguments.

I'm pretty sure that the "all men" in that document wasn't literally "all men" (even, never mind all people) either, so perhaps we wouldn't consider it the last word on the subject.

Or more simply requires acknowledging that the declaration of independance is in on the performance.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident..."

The statement is explicitly performative. It is a statement of belief, not fact.

The truth of the statements is presupposed (“these truths”). It’s only the self-evidence of their truth that’s asserted. There’s no component of the statement that’s performative in Austin’s sense (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performative_utterance). For example, a statement of the form “A holds B to be C” is clearly truth evaluable, and so doesn’t qualify as performative.

The Declaration of Independence holds no legal weight.