The Declaration of Independence was a foundational document to the United States of America, issued on 4 July 1776. It set out the case for dissolution from the British government. Later, in 1860 it was the basis for the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union, a much more long-winded affair by which the state of South Carolina offered its reasons for wanting to break off its ties to Washington, DC.
The Declaration of Independence read in part:
- When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
- We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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 organising its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. (PROSE: Blood and Hope)