instituted among men." If the Fathers had meant that government was
the will of the majority they would have said, "Men have the right to
institute governments for themselves, according to the will of the
majority." What they did was simply to state as a fact that
"governments are instituted among men," which fact is wholly
inconsistent with the hypothesis of a universal right of each and all
communities to institute government for themselves.

There is, however, it would seem, clearly implied in the statement
that "to secure these rights governments are instituted among men,"
the statement that governments are universal, that they begin with and
continue through human existence,--that government is, as Calvin said,
of "not less use among men than bread and water, light and air, and of
much more excellent dignity," and therefore the prime necessity of
human life,--and that there is a universal right of all men, all
communities, all states and all nations, to such government as will
secure these rights; for the rights which are to be secured being
universal, government, which is the instrumentality for securing them,
must also be universal.

Having thus declared governments of a kind suitable to secure the
unalienable rights of the individual to be a universal right, and
having by implication declared that it is not essential in all cases
that governments should be instituted by the people governed, and that
therefore there may be cases in which governments may justly be
instituted by an external power, the Declaration proceeds to lay down
as a universal proposition that all governments,--existing, as they
do, solely for the purpose of securing to each and every individual
his and their unalienable rights,--do, universally, whether instituted
by the consent of the governed or not, "derive their just powers from
the consent of the governed." The expression "deriving their just
powers from" is generally read as if it were "by," and the expression
"the consent of the governed" as if it were "the will of the
majority." Both of these readings are so plainly inconsistent with
both the text and the context as to be clearly inadmissible. If the
words are taken in their usual and proper meaning and read in the
light of the context and the surrounding circumstances, it seems at
least reasonable to conclude that the expression "deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed," is and was intended to be an
epitome of t