Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/340

 300 on its true grounds. Men are endowed, it declares, with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people (plainly intending, the majority of the people) to alter, or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such forms, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

§ 331. But whatever may be the true doctrine, as to the nature of the original compact of society, or of the subsequent institution and organization of governments consequent thereon, it is a very unjustifiable course of reasoning to connect with the theory all the ordinary doctrines applicable to municipal contracts between individuals, or to public conventions between nations. We have already seen, that the theory itself is subject to many qualifications; but whether true or not, it is impossible, with a just regard to the objects and interests of society, or the nature of compacts of government, to subject them to the same constructions and conditions, as belong to positive obligations, created between independent parties, contemplating a distinct and personal responsibility. One of the first elementary principles of all contracts is, to interpret them according to the intentions and objects of the parties. They are not to be so construed, as to subvert the obvious objects, for which they were made; or to lead to results wholly beside the apparent intentions of those, who framed them.