Excerpt from The Civil Government of the United States and the State of Missouri: And the History of Missouri 1. Reason for Government. - The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain "unalienable rights," or rights that can not be taken from them, and that "among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and "that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men." This is the reason for government. Government is the result of investing certain officers with authority to protect the people in their right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Without government, life would be insecure, liberty uncertain, property valueless, and the varied pursuits of industry impossible. All civilized people have had government in some form, and the better they have become the more firmly established have been their governments. 2. Forms of Government. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.