THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, JULY
FOURTH, SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND
SEVENTY-SIX.
When in the course of human events it becomes neces-
sary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another, and to assume among the
powers of 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 compel them to a separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable 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, and that whenever
any form of government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to
institute new government, laying its foundations 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 es-
tablished should not be changed for light and transient causes,
and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are
more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the form 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 provide new guards for their
future security.
