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THE Declaration of Independence! ... It was the first solemn declaration, by a nation, of the only legitimate foundation of civil government. It was the cornerstone of a new fabric, destined to cover the surface of the globe. It demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest... It announced in practical form to the world the transcendent truth of the inalienable sovereignty of the people. From the day of this declaration the people of North America were no longer the fragment of a distant empire... They were a nation, asserting as of right, and maintaining by war, its own existence. A nation was born in a day.
--John Quincy Adams