"When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom it's legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and, so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression. . ."

an excerpt from

Texas Declaration of Independence ... March 2, 1836

( Wikisource )