The Declaration of Independence: When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for onepeople to dissolve the political bands which have connected them withanother and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate andequal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitlethem, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that theyshould declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are createdequal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienableRights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit ofHappiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are institutedamong Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of theseends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and toinstitute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles andorganizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likelyto effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictatethat Governments long established should not be changed for light andtransient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn thatmankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than toright themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
