Governments are instituted among men [to secure rights]…. Whenever [it] becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it....
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 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.
When a long train of abuses and usurpations…evinces a design to reduce [the people] 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.
