"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; 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 organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness."

* * * * *

"Finally we do assert and declare ... that these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent
states,... and that all political connection between them
and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally
dissolved."

The most reasonable interpretation, as it seems to me, of the
statement that "all men are created equal" is, as I have said, that it
is, and was intended to be, an epitome of the doctrine of the
Reformation. There will be those who will scoff at the suggestion
that a political body like the Continental Congress should have based
the whole political life of the nation upon a religious doctrine. But
it is to be remembered that the Continental Congress was not an
ordinary political body. It was the most philosophic and at the same