powers from the consent of the governed," is and was intended to be an
epitome of the two fundamental principles of the law of agency,
brought over into the English law from the Roman. These principles
are: "_Obligatio mandati consensu contrahentium consistit,"_ a
translation of which is, "The powers of an agent are derived from the
consent of the contracting parties," and "_Rei turpis nullum mandatum
est_," a translation of which is "No agent can have unjust powers." If
this interpretation be correct, the expression "that to secure these
rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed" means that there is no
universal absolute right of communities, states, or nations, to
institute their own governments, but that every government, however
instituted, is universally the agent of the governed, to secure to
every individual, every community, every state, and every nation
governed, his and their unalienable rights of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness and to effectuate the equality of all men as the
creatures of a common Creator.

On this interpretation a rule is laid down to determine under what
circumstances a community, state, or nation has the right to institute
its own government. Its rights are to be determined by the principles
of agency. Agencies among individuals are of several kinds, express
and implied, voluntary and involuntary. There may be co-agencies, in
which the performance of one general agency is distributed among
several agents. A person of full capacity has the right, according to
the common law of persons, to appoint his own agent, unless he is in
such just relationship with others that the common interests require
that he should adopt as his agent an agent appointed by the others. So
communities, states and nations which are of full capacity, have the
right, assuming the existence of this common law of nature and of