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United States Declaration of Independence

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United States Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress, who were convened at Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in the colonial city of Philadelphia. These delegates became known as the nation's Founding Fathers. The Declaration explains why the Thirteen Colonies regarded themselves as independent sovereign states no longer subject to British colonial rule, and has become one of the most circulated, reprinted, and influential documents in history. The American Revolutionary War commenced in April 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Amid the growing tensions, the colonies reconvened the Congress on May 10. Their king, George III, proclaimed them to be in rebellion on August 23. On June 11, 1776, Congress appointed the Committee of Five (John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman) to draft and present the Declaration. Adams, a leading proponent of independence, persuaded the committee to charge Jefferson with writing the document's original draft, which the Congress then edited. Jefferson largely wrote the Declaration between June 11 and June 28, 1776. The Declaration was a formal explanation of why the Continental Congress voted to declare American independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Two days prior to the Declaration's adoption, Congress passed the Lee Resolution, which resolved that the British no longer had governing authority over the Thirteen Colonies. The Declaration justified the independence of the colonies, citing 27 colonial grievances against the king and asserting certain natural and legal rights, including a right of revolution. The Declaration was unanimously ratified on July 4 by the Second Continental Congress, whose delegates represented each of the Thirteen Colonies. In ratifying and signing it, the delegates knew they were committing an act of high treason against The Crown, which was punishable by torture and death. Congress then issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. Two days following its ratification, on July 6, it was published by The Pennsylvania Evening Post. The first public readings of the Declaration occurred simultaneously on July 8, 1776, at noon, at three previously designated locations: in Trenton, New Jersey; Easton, Pennsylvania; and Philadelphia. The Declaration was published in several forms. The printed Dunlap broadside was widely distributed following its signing. It is now preserved at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The signed copy of the Declaration is now on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and is generally considered the official document; this copy, engrossed by Timothy Matlack, was ordered by Congress on July 19, and signed primarily on August 2, 1776. The Declaration has proven an influential and globally impactful statement on human rights. The Declaration was viewed by Abraham Lincoln as the moral standard to which the United States should strive, and he considered it a statement of principles through which the Constitution should be interpreted. In 1863, Lincoln made the Declaration the centerpiece of his Gettysburg Address, widely considered among the most famous speeches in American history. The Declaration's second sentence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness", is considered one of the most significant and famed lines in world history. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis has written that the Declaration contains "the most potent and consequential words in American history".

Infobox

Created
June–July 1776
Purpose
To announce and explain separation from Great Britain: 5
Location
Engrossed copy: National Archives BuildingRough draft: Library of Congress
Ratified
July 4, 1776; 249 years ago (1776-07-04)
Author(s)
Thomas Jefferson, Committee of Five
Signatories
56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress

Tables

· Annotated text of the engrossed declaration
Preamble Outlines a general philosophy of government that justifies revolution when government harms natural rights.
Preamble Outlines a general philosophy of government that justifies revolution when government harms natural rights.
Introduction Asserts as a matter of natural law the ability of a people to assume political independence; acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained.
Preamble Outlines a general philosophy of government that justifies revolution when government harms natural rights.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they 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,—That 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, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Indictment A bill of grievances documenting the king's "repeated injuries and usurpations" of the Americans' rights and liberties.
Indictment A bill of grievances documenting the king's "repeated injuries and usurpations" of the Americans' rights and liberties.
Introduction Asserts as a matter of natural law the ability of a people to assume political independence; acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained.
Indictment A bill of grievances documenting the king's "repeated injuries and usurpations" of the Americans' rights and liberties.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. "He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. "He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. "He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. "He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness of his invasions on the rights of the people. "He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. "He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. "He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. "He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. "He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: "For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: "For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: "For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: "For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: "For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: "For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: "For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. "He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. "He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. "He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. "In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."
Failed warnings Describes the colonists' attempts to inform and warn the British people of the king's injustice, and the British people's failure to act. Even so, it affirms the colonists' ties to the British as "brethren."
Failed warnings Describes the colonists' attempts to inform and warn the British people of the king's injustice, and the British people's failure to act. Even so, it affirms the colonists' ties to the British as "brethren."
Introduction Asserts as a matter of natural law the ability of a people to assume political independence; acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained.
Failed warnings Describes the colonists' attempts to inform and warn the British people of the king's injustice, and the British people's failure to act. Even so, it affirms the colonists' ties to the British as "brethren."
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity."
Denunciation This section essentially finishes the case for independence. The conditions that justified revolution have been shown.
Denunciation This section essentially finishes the case for independence. The conditions that justified revolution have been shown.
Introduction Asserts as a matter of natural law the ability of a people to assume political independence; acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained.
Denunciation This section essentially finishes the case for independence. The conditions that justified revolution have been shown.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends."
Conclusion The signers assert that there exist conditions under which people must change their government, that the British have produced such conditions and, by necessity, the colonies must throw off political ties with the British Crown and become independent states. The conclusion contains, at its core, the Lee Resolution that had been passed on July 2.
Conclusion The signers assert that there exist conditions under which people must change their government, that the British have produced such conditions and, by necessity, the colonies must throw off political ties with the British Crown and become independent states. The conclusion contains, at its core, the Lee Resolution that had been passed on July 2.
Introduction Asserts as a matter of natural law the ability of a people to assume political independence; acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained.
Conclusion The signers assert that there exist conditions under which people must change their government, that the British have produced such conditions and, by necessity, the colonies must throw off political ties with the British Crown and become independent states. The conclusion contains, at its core, the Lee Resolution that had been passed on July 2.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
Signatures The first and most famous signature on the engrossed copy was that of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. Two future presidents (Thomas Jefferson and John Adams) and a father and great-grandfather of two other presidents (Benjamin Harrison V) were among the signatories. Edward Rutledge (age 26) was the youngest signer, and Benjamin Franklin (age 70) was the oldest signer. The fifty-six signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows (from north to south):
Signatures The first and most famous signature on the engrossed copy was that of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. Two future presidents (Thomas Jefferson and John Adams) and a father and great-grandfather of two other presidents (Benjamin Harrison V) were among the signatories. Edward Rutledge (age 26) was the youngest signer, and Benjamin Franklin (age 70) was the oldest signer. The fifty-six signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows (from north to south):
Introduction Asserts as a matter of natural law the ability of a people to assume political independence; acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained.
Signatures The first and most famous signature on the engrossed copy was that of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. Two future presidents (Thomas Jefferson and John Adams) and a father and great-grandfather of two other presidents (Benjamin Harrison V) were among the signatories. Edward Rutledge (age 26) was the youngest signer, and Benjamin Franklin (age 70) was the oldest signer. The fifty-six signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows (from north to south):
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: George Read, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Introduction Asserts as a matter of natural law the ability of a people to assume political independence; acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
Preamble Outlines a general philosophy of government that justifies revolution when government harms natural rights.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they 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,—That 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, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Indictment A bill of grievances documenting the king's "repeated injuries and usurpations" of the Americans' rights and liberties.
"Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. "He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. "He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. "He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. "He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness of his invasions on the rights of the people. "He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. "He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. "He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. "He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. "He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: "For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: "For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: "For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: "For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: "For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: "For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: "For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. "He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. "He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. "He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. "In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."
Failed warnings Describes the colonists' attempts to inform and warn the British people of the king's injustice, and the British people's failure to act. Even so, it affirms the colonists' ties to the British as "brethren."
"Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity."
Denunciation This section essentially finishes the case for independence. The conditions that justified revolution have been shown.
"We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends."
Conclusion The signers assert that there exist conditions under which people must change their government, that the British have produced such conditions and, by necessity, the colonies must throw off political ties with the British Crown and become independent states. The conclusion contains, at its core, the Lee Resolution that had been passed on July 2.
"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
Signatures The first and most famous signature on the engrossed copy was that of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. Two future presidents (Thomas Jefferson and John Adams) and a father and great-grandfather of two other presidents (Benjamin Harrison V) were among the signatories. Edward Rutledge (age 26) was the youngest signer, and Benjamin Franklin (age 70) was the oldest signer. The fifty-six signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows (from north to south):
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: George Read, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

References

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    https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2005/nr05-83.html
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  6. Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution
  7. The ultimate guide to the Declaration of Independence
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  10. Hazelton, Declaration History, 19.
  11. Christie and Labaree, Empire or Independence, 31.
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  14. Journal of the American Revolution
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  15. www.wearehistoricalsociety.org
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  16. Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 241–42. The writings in question include Wilson's Considerations on the Authority of Parlia
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  18. Ferling, Leap in the Dark, 123–24
  19. Hazelton, Declaration History, 13
  20. Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 318
  21. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence
  22. The text of the 1775 king's speech is online Archived January 19, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, published by the America
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  23. Friedenwald, Interpretation, 77.
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  26. Rakove, Beginnings of National Politics, 88–90.
  27. Rakove, Beginnings of National Politics, 89
  28. The American crisis (No. 1)
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  29. Christie and Labaree, Empire or Independence, 270
  30. Hazelton, Declaration History, 209
  31. Friedenwald, Interpretation, 67.
  32. Friedenwald, Interpretation, 92–93.
  33. Rhode Island Department of State
    http://sos.ri.gov/divisions/Civics-And-Education/ri-history/archives-treasures/renunciation
  34. "Journals of the Continental Congress"
    https://web.archive.org/web/20190329080755/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r%3Fammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID%2B@lit(jc004109)):
  35. Burnett, Continental Congress, 159. The text of Adams's letter is online Archived March 29, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
    http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(dg003624))::
  36. May 15 preamble Journals of the Continental Congress Archived March 29, 2019, at the Wayback Machine.
    http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc004113))
  37. Rakove, National Politics, 96
  38. Friedenwald, Interpretation, 94.
  39. Rakove, National Politics, 97
  40. Boyd, Evolution, 18
  41. The text of the May 15 Virginia resolution is online Archived June 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine at Yale Law School's
    http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/const/const02.htm
  42. World Digital Library
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  43. Boyd, Evolution, 19.
  44. The Declaration of Independence: A Global History
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  45. Boyd, Papers of Jefferson, 1:311
  46. Friedenwald, Interpretation, 106.
  47. Dupont and Onuf, 3.
  48. Friedenwald, Interpretation, 106–07
  49. Friedenwald, Interpretation, 96
  50. Friedenwald, Interpretation, 118
  51. Friedenwald, Interpretation, 119–20.
  52. Boyd, Evolution, 21.
  53. Boyd, Evolution, 22.
  54. Digital History
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  55. "Visit the Declaration House", National Park Service official website
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  56. John E. Ferling, Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution, Oxford University
    https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/468591593
  57. Shipler, David K., The Paragraph Missing From The Declaration of Independence Archived July 8, 2020, at the Wayback Mach
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  58. New York Public Library
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  60. Burnett, Continental Congress, 182
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  62. memory.loc.gov
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  63. George Billias American Constitutionalism Heard Round the World, 1776–1989 (2011) p 17.
  64. "The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence"
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  65. National Archives
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  66. "Index of Signers by State"
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  67. "Mary Katharine Goddard, the Woman Who Signed the Declaration of Independence"
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  68. To Henry Lee – Thomas Jefferson The Works, vol. 12 (Correspondence and Papers 1816–1826; 1905)
  69. Malone, Jefferson the Virginian, 221
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  73. Boyd, Evolution, 16–17.
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  75. Ray Forrest Harvey, Jean Jacques Burlamaqui: A Liberal Tradition in American Constitutionalism (Chapel Hill, North Carol
  76. A brief, online overview of the classical liberalism vs. republicanism debate is Alec Ewald, "The American Republic: 176
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  77. Wills, Inventing America, especially chs. 11–13. Wills concludes (p. 315) that "the air of enlightened America was full
  78. Hamowy, "Jefferson and the Scottish Enlightenment", argues that Wills gets much wrong (p. 523), that the Declaration see
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  79. Law in the American Revolution and the Revolution in the Law
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  80. Whitford, David, Tyranny and Resistance: The Magdeburg Confession and the Lutheran Tradition, 2001, 144 pages and Kelly
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  81. Benjamin Franklin to Charles F.W. Dumas, December 19, 1775, in The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Albert Henry Smyth
  82. Gulf, C. & SFR Co. v. Ellis, 165 US 150 Archived May 23, 2020, at the Wayback Machine (1897): "While such declaration of
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  83. Wills, Gary. Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence Archived September 26, 2015, at the Wayback Mach
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  84. Cuomo, Mario. Why Lincoln Matters: Now More Than Ever, p. 137 (Harcourt Press 2004) (it "is not a law and therefore is n
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  86. The U.S. State Department (1911), The Declaration of Independence, 1776, pp. 10, 11.
  87. Warren, "Fourth of July Myths", 242–43.
  88. Hazelton, Declaration History, 299–302; Burnett, Continental Congress, 192.
  89. Warren, "Fourth of July Myths", 245–46
  90. Hazelton, Declaration History, 208–19
  91. Wills, Inventing America, 341.
  92. Hazelton, Declaration History, 208–19.
  93. "Benjamin Rush to John Adams, July 20, 1811"
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  94. Hazelton, Declaration History, 209.
  95. Merriam-Webster online Archived April 24, 2009, at the Wayback Machine; Dictionary.com Archived April 9, 2009, at the Wa
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  96. "TeachAmericanHistory.org: John Hancock"
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  97. The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist
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  99. Papas, Philip. That Ever Loyal Island. Staten Island in the American Revolution. New York University Press, 2007, pp. 74
  100. "The Declaration of Independence in World Context"
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  101. The Journal of American History
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  102. "The Contagion of Sovereignty: Declarations of Independence since 1776"
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  103. Life
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  104. Strictures upon the Declaration of the Congress at Philadelphia in a Letter to a Noble Lord, &c.
  105. Peter Kolchin, American Slavery, 1619–1877 (1993), pp. 77–79, 81
  106. Journal of the American Revolution
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  109. "Charters of Freedom Re-encasement Project"
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  110. The Daily Telegraph
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  111. A Multitude of Amendments, Alterations and Additions: The Writing and Publicizing of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States
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  112. STLtoday.com
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  113. Boyd, "Lost Original", 446.
  114. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
  115. Boyd, Papers of Jefferson, 1:421.
  116. www.thomaspaine.org
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  117. Boyd, "Lost Original", 448–50. Boyd argued that, if a document was signed on July 4 (which he thought unlikely), it woul
  118. Ritz, "From the Here", speculates that the Fair Copy was immediately sent to the printer so that copies could be made fo
  119. BBC News
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  120. The Guardian
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  121. Declaration Resources Project
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  122. Pappalardo, Joe (July 3, 2020). "The Science of Saving the Declaration of Independence." Archived November 9, 2020, at t
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  123. The Washington Post
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  124. AP News
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  125. McDonald, "Jefferson's Reputation", 178–79
  126. The Coming of the French Revolution
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  127. American Constitutionalism Heard Round the World, 1776–1989: A Global Perspective
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  128. Susan Dunn, Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light (1999) pp. 143–145
  129. The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia 1888–1965, with Special Reference to Imperial Control
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  130. Sourcebook on Public International Law
  131. Collective Responses to Illegal Acts in International Law: United Nations action in the question of Southern Rhodesia
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  133. McDonald, "Jefferson's Reputation", 172, 179.
  134. McDonald, "Jefferson's Reputation", 179
  135. McDonald, "Jefferson's Reputation", 180–184
  136. The William and Mary Quarterly
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  137. Wills, Inventing America, 324
  138. John C. Fitzpatrick, Spirit of the Revolution (Boston 1924).
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  140. The William and Mary Quarterly
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  141. Philip S. Foner, ed., We, the Other People: Alternative Declarations of Independence by Labor Groups, Farmers, Woman's R
  142. Wills, Inventing America, 348.
  143. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
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  144. Cornell Law Review
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  145. Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence, Library of Congress, citing: The Papers of Thom
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  146. Cohen (1969), Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Slavery
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  148. The Founding Project
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  149. Wyatt-Brown, Lewis Tappan, 287.
  150. Mayer, All on Fire, 53, 115.
  151. American Historical Review
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  152. John Brown. An Address at the Fourteenth Anniversary of Storer College, May 30, 1881
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  153. West Virginia Division of Culture and History
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  154. John Brown and his men; with some account of the roads they traveled to reach Harper's Ferry
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  155. Slate
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  156. A Declaration of Liberty By the Representatives of the slave Popolation of the United States of America
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  157. The Untold Story of Shields Green: The Life and Death of a Harper's Ferry Raider
  158. Journal for the Study of Radicalism
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  159. "Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865): Political Debates Between Lincoln and Douglas 1897"
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  162. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (2000)
  163. Willmoore Kendall and George W. Carey, The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition (1970)
  164. M. E. Bradford (1976), "The Heresy of Equality: A Reply to Harry Jaffa", reprinted in A Better Guide than Reason (1979)
  165. Norton, et al (2010), p. 301.
  166. "Modern History Sourcebook: Seneca Falls: The Declaration of Sentiments, 1848"
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  167. The Guardian
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  168. "Crews finish installing World Trade Center spire"
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  169. "Tallest buildings in NY"
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  170. "Tallest buildings under construction in the world"
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  171. "1776: The Musical About Us"
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  172. "John Adams: Independence"
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  173. Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
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  174. Rotten Tomatoes
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  175. "Stealing Independence"
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  176. The Price of Freedom
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