WHAT DO THE PEOPLE THINK
WHEN, IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS, it becomes necessary for one People to re-examine the political bonds which have connected them to their government, and to re-assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Humanity requires that they should determine whether or not there are sufficient and irreconcilable causes which shall impel them to a Separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women 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 People, 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
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 Our People; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former System of Government.
