Declaration of Independence on the right of secession

To secure these rights  [of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness] 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 to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.

~ Declaration of Independence, 1776

Declaration of Independence - July 4, 1776
1976