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How did the Declaration of Independence justify rebellion?

The first section of the Declaration of Independence essentially stated the purpose of government. Borrowing heavily from John Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government (1689), the document laid out what is often called the "social contract" theory of government. Men are created equal, the Declaration says, and are endowed with "certain unalienable rights." These rights include "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and the purpose of government is to protect and preserve these rights. When governments fail to do so, or become "destructive" of these rights, then it is the right of the people to "alter or abolish it." The Declaration went on to give a host of examples of the ways in which King George III had, in fact, acted in violation of these rights, a "long train of abuses," that, according to the revolutionaries, justified revolution and colonial independence from Great Britain. In short, the British government had violated the rights of the colonists, and this gave them the right to rebel, declare independence, and create a government that would protect their rights. 

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