every man, every community, every state and every nation is bound to
enforce, and cause to be enforced, this law of nature and of nations,
which prevents the voluntary or involuntary alienation by any man, any
community, any state or any nation of his or its rights of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The Declaration, having thus described the ends of all government,
proceeds to describe the methods by which these ends are accomplished.
It declares that "to secure these rights governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed." Governments, it is declared, are instituted solely to
secure to each and every being his and their unalienable rights, as
equal creatures of a common Creator, to life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness. Here is a plain denial that government is universally
the expression of the will of the majority, for it is matter of common
knowledge that in only a few of the most highly civilized countries of
the world does the will of the majority, as it is expressed, secure to
each and every person his and their unalienable rights of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

There is also an implied denial of the proposition that government is
the will of the majority, in the proposition that "governments are
instituted among men." If the Fathers had meant that government was
the will of the majority they would have said, "Men have the right to
institute governments for themselves, according to the will of the
majority." What they did was simply to state as a fact that
"governments are instituted among men," which fact is wholly
inconsistent with the hypothesis of a universal right of each and all
communities to institute government for themselves.