"If the representatives of the people betray their
constituents, there is then no resource left but in the
exertion of that original right of self-defense which is
paramount to all positive forms of government, and which
against the usurpations of the national rulers, may be
exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than
against those of the rulers of an individual state."
-Alexander Hamilton-Federalist No.28 December 28, 1787,
under the pseudonym Publius
Declaration of Independence Fragment
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
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