Natural rights: Rights, freedoms and privileges which are such a basic part of human nature that they cannot be taken away.

Popular sovereignty: A pre-Civil War doctrine asserting the right of the people living in a newly organized territory to decide by vote of their territorial legislature whether or not slavery would be permitted there. Right to revolution: A right or duty, variously stated throughout history, possessed by subjects of a state that justifies their action to overthrow the government to whom the subjects otherwise would owe allegiance.

Right of self determination: It is the right of the people of a nation to decide how they want to be governed without the influence of any other country.

Social contract: An agreement among the members of an organized society or between the governed and the government defining and limiting the rights and duties of each.