University of Virginia Library

6260. OPINION (Public), Respect for.—

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.—
Declaration of Independence as Drawn by Jefferson.