We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men 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 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 ...
-- Part of the second paragraph of one of the most revolutionary documents ever written, the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America which was ratified by Congress on July 4, 1776.