United States Declaration of Independence (1776)

Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed the separation of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain and articulated the philosophical basis for that act. Its core claim — that all men are endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed — drew directly on Lockean natural rights theory. The Declaration's assertion that people may alter or abolish governments that fail to secure their rights remains one of the most forceful statements of voluntary, consent-based political legitimacy in the Western tradition.