Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence

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

All people have some basic rights that cannot be taken away. Liberty is one of those rights.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler.

Every time we colonists felt we were being treated unfairly, we wrote to the king. He answered by treated us more unfairly. A ruler who abuses should not rule us.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

Governments are formed to make sure people's rights are protected. the power to govern comes from the people

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

The current ruler of Great Britain has repeatedly interfered with colonists rights, sometimes even taking them away. He has ruled unfairly over the American colonist.

These Untied Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent Sates; that they Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved.

We now consider ourselves to be an independent country. We have no more loyalty to Great Britain and they no longer have power to rule over us.

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.

When a government takes away the rights of citizens, the citizens have the right to change the government or create a new one.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another... a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation

When people break away from a country to form a new nation, they should explain why they are doing it