The Declaration of Independence proclaims that "all men" are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." In accord with these principles, six of the original 13 colonies voted to abolish the perennial institution of slavery within 10 years of the signing of the Declaration on July 4, 1776. Within 32 years, the U.S. enacted a law in 1808 barring the entire nation from participating in the international slave trade. And within 90 years of the Declaration's signing, the U.S. enacted a Constitutional amendment in 1865 banning slavery, a practice that widely existed throughout the world since the dawn of recorded history.