self-evident truth, the proposition that all men "are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness." The primary and universal needs of all
mankind, regarded as equal creatures of a common Creator, are the need
of life, the need of liberty and the need of pursuing happiness. These
needs are unalienable. No man can rid himself of them without
destroying himself as an equal creature of a common Creator.
Consequently the rights and duties corresponding to these unalienable
needs are themselves unalienable. There is no denial here of alienable
rights and duties. But it is clearly laid down as a fundamental
principle of the all-pervasive common law, that rights given by the
Creator are unalienable, and that no human being, however
emphatically he may declare, or will, or agree to the contrary, may by
any possible act of any other human being or of any set of human
beings, whether calling themselves a government or not, or by any
possible means, deprive himself, or be deprived of the right of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness--these being necessarily
incidental to the original right of equality.

To apply this interpretation to the relationship between ourselves and
our brethren of the Insular regions: They are, according to the
universal and common law of nature and of nations, as we and all other
human beings are, equally creatures of a common Creator and equal with
us. Under that all-pervasive law, they, with us, and all other human
beings, are created with the unalienable need of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness, and therefore with corresponding unalienable
rights. Under that law we cannot deprive them of these unalienable
rights, nor allow them to deprive themselves of their unalienable
rights, nor allow a part of them to deprive the others of their
unalienable rights. According to the philosophy of the Revolution,