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When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the
family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that
which they have hitherto occupied, but one in 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 that impel them to such a course.
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 inalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments
are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever
any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who
suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a 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.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes. . . . 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 duty to throw off such government, and to provide new
guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women
under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand
the equal station to which they are entitled.
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