Английский язык. Юлаева С.С. - 50 стр.

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The men who drew up and adopted this epoch-making document were not
content with a mere declaration of independence. They were at pains to set forth
in detail the causes that “impelled them to separation” and the philosophy that
justified it. It is significant that at the very beginning of their national history
Americans took their stand on principles and proclaimed a philosophy.
And what are these principles of government here given immortal
expression? “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” wrote Jefferson:
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.
What we have here, of course, is the philosophy of democracy, a
philosophy which had never before been given so eloquent a statement. There
are certain things – so the Americans said – that no reasonable man can doubt –
self-evident truths. There is the truth that all men are created equal – that all men
are equal in the sight of God and equal before the law.
Another great truth proclaimed in the Declaration is that men are
“endowed” with “unalienable” rights – among them life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness. These are not rights granted to men by some benevolent
government and held at the pleasure of that government. They are rights with
which all men are born and which they cannot lose. This principle, too, worked
as a ferment in the minds of Americans and others, changing their attitude
toward authority; for, as the Declaration pointed out, it was precisely to secure
these rights that governments were organized in the first place. What we have
here is the “compact” theory of government – the theory that man once lived in
a “state of nature,” that in such a state they were continually in danger, and that
in order to protect themselves they came together and set up governments,
granting to those government just enough power to protect their lives, their
liberty, and their property. In short, men made government to do good, not evil;
made it to protect them, not to injure them. And the moment government failed
of the purposes for which it was established, it no longer deserved the support or
allegiance of men.
If men could make governments, they could unmake them, for it is their
right to alter or abolish a bad government and to institute a new one. And they
shortly proved that this was not mere theory. Even as Revolution was under
way, during the stress and turbulence of war, they set about to translate this idea
into reality.
The ideas that had for centuries been the property of philosophers were
taken out of the realm of philosophy and made law.
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