sentence "that to secure these rights, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed," is, it would seem, that there is a universal right of all
communities to have a government of a kind best adapted for the
securing of the unalienable rights of individuals, instituted either
by their own selection or by the appointment of an external power, and
that all governments, however instituted, are universally the agents
of the governed to secure these rights. Government is thus declared
not to be the expression of the will of the majority, but the
application of the just public sentiment justly ascertained through
forms best adapted for this purpose.

The free statehood which is claimed in the concluding part of the
Declaration to be the right of the Colonies is by the Declaration
based on the philosophical declarations of the preamble. The
particular proposition which bears upon the right of free statehood is
evidently the one which declares that, "to secure these [unalienable]
rights [of individuals], governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." The
intermediate propositions, as the result of which the universal right
of free statehood follows from this proposition, are, it would seem,
these: If government is the doing of justice according to public
sentiment, government is the expression and application of a
spiritually and intellectually educated public sentiment, since,
although a rudimentary knowledge of what is just is implanted in every
human being, a full knowledge of what is just comes only after a
course of spiritual and intellectual education. Hence it follows that
the forms and methods of government should be such as are adapted to
such spiritual and intellectual education. Education takes place by
direct personal contact, and can be best accomplished only through the