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When a government has ceased
to protect the lives, liberty and property
of the people, from whom its legitimate
powers are derived, and for the advance-
ment of whose happiness it was inst-
ituted, and so far from being a guaran-
tee for the enjoyment of those inesti-
mable and inalienable rights, becomes
an instrument in the hands of evil
rulers for their oppression. When the
Federal Republican Constitution
of their country, which they have sworn
to support, no longer has a substan-
tial existence, and the whole nature of
their government has been forcibly chan-
ged, without their consent, from a
restricted federative republic, composed
of sovereign states, to a consolidated
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