208 Declaration of Independence. [i776 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 men, 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 organising its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." The statement follows that " Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes." The foregoing makes up the constitutional part of the document. The rest is a statement of grievances against, chiefly, the King of Great Britain, of the vain appeal to the "native justice and magnanimity" of " our British brethren," and then the solemn declaration that " these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connexion between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved " ; and that they have full power to do all acts " which independent States may of right do." The Declaration, with some slight alterations introduced in com- mittee, was by the hand of Jefferson.
