Standing up to tyrants

Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God",

Was one of the proposed motto's for The American Nation:
Motto. Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.
- Journals of the Continental Congress, August 20, 1776
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"...many private men are tyrants."

"[E]veryone is tyrant who abuses any power over those subject to him which has been conceded from above."

"All tyrants reach a miserable end," - John of Salisbury, From the book 'Policraticus' 1159 A.D.

('Policraticus' was studied by men such as Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and other Founders.

"Man will ultimately be governed by GOD or by ty-rants."
- Benjamin Franklin
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"O! Ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!"

"'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."
- Thomas Paine
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I. Natural Rights of the Colonists as Men. "Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.

These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature."

""Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty," in matters spiritual and temporal, is a thing that all men are clearly entitled to by the eternal and immutable laws of God and nature, [418]as well as by the law of nations and all well-grounded municipal laws, which must have their foundation in the former."

"In short, it is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property.

If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave."
- Samuel Adams, The Rights of The Colonists, November 20, 1772
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