United States Declaration of Independence
Laboulaye was received at the bar in 1842, and was chosen professor of comparative law at the Collège de France in 1849. Following the Paris Commune of 1870, he was elected to the national assembly, DELL Inspiron N4050 laptop keyboard
representing the département of the Seine. As secretary of the committee of thirty on the constitution he was effective in combatting the Monarchists in establishing theThird Republic. In 1875 he was elected a life senator, Lenovo 04W0872 laptop keyboard
and in 1876 he was appointed administrator of the Collège de France, resuming his lectures on comparative legislation in 1877. Laboulaye was also chairman of the French Anti-Slavery Society.[2] HP Pavilion dv4-1318tu laptop keyboard
Always a careful observer of the politics of the United States, and an admirer of its constitution, he wrote a three-volume work on the political history of the United States, and published it in Paris during the height of the politically repressedSecond Empire. HP Mini 210-1107TU laptop keyboard
During the American Civil War, he was a zealous advocate of the Union cause and the abolition of slavery, publishing histories of the cultural connections of the two nations. At the war's conclusion in 1865, he became president of the French Emancipation Committee that aided newly freed slaves in the U.S.[2] TOSHIBA Satellite A215-S7414 laptop keyboard
The same year he had the idea of presenting a statue representing liberty as a gift to the United States, a symbol for ideas suppressed by Napoleon III. The sculptorFrédéric Auguste Bartholdi, one of Laboulaye's friends, turned the idea into reality. SONY VAIO VGN-CR31/P laptop keyboard
The Declaration of Independence is the usual name of a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, TOSHIBA Portege M500 laptop keyboard
regarded themselves as 13 newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was unanimously approved on July 2. SONY VAIO VGN-CS16G/R laptop keyboard
Acommittee had already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress voted on independence. The term "Declaration of Independence" is not used in the document itself.
Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document,[2] Compaq Presario CQ71-420ED laptop keyboard
which congress would edit to produce the final version. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The national birthday, the Independence Day is celebrated on July 4, although Adams wanted July 2. SONY VGN-FE790 laptop keyboard
After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for this printing has been lost, and may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand. [3] HP Pavilion dv6-2150es laptop keyboard
Jefferson's original draft, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress, is preserved at the Library of Congress. The most famous version of the Declaration, HP Pavilion dv6-3124tx laptop keyboard
a signed copy that is popularly regarded as the official document, is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. This engrossed copy was ordered by Congress on July 19, and signed primarily on August 2.[4] [5] SONY VGN-FE790 laptop keyboard
The sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances against King George III, and by asserting certain natural and legal rights, HP Pavilion dv6-3136ee laptop keyboard
including a right of revolution. Having served its original purpose in announcing independence, references to the text of the Declaration were few for the next four score years. Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his rhetoric (as in the Gettysburg Address of 1863), HP Pavilion DV6-1350us laptop keyboard
and his policies. Since then, it has become a well-known statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence: Lenovo 45N2141 laptop keyboard
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. HP Mini 210 laptop keyboard
This has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language",[6] containing "the most potent and consequential words in American history".[7] The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive. HP Pavilion dv6-3034ca laptop keyboard
This view was notably promoted by Abraham Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy, and argued that the Declaration is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted.[8] Itprovided inspiration to numerous national declarations of independence throughout the world. Lenovo 63Y0011 laptop keyboard
By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year. Relations between the colonies and the mother country had been deteriorating since the end of the Seven Years' Warin 1763. HP 519265-001 laptop keyboard
The war had plunged the British government deep into debt, and so Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies. Parliament believed that these acts, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, were a legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs to keep the colonies in the British Empire.[10] SONY Vaio PCG-K23 laptop keyboard
Many colonists, however, had developed a different conception of the empire. Because the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them. TOSHIBA PK13CW10200 laptop keyboard
This tax dispute was part of a larger divergence between British and American interpretations of the British Constitution and the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies.[11] The orthodox British view, dating from the Glorious Revolution of 1688, DELL NSK-DJ301 laptop keyboard
was that Parliament was the supreme authoritythroughout the empire, and so by definition anything Parliament did was constitutional.[12] In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that the British Constitution recognized certain fundamental rights that no government—not even Parliament—could violate.[13] ACER TravelMate 3020 laptop keyboard
After the Townshend Acts, some essayists even began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all.[14]Anticipating the arrangement of the British Commonwealth,[15] HP G42-364LA Laptop Keyboard
by 1774 American writers such as Samuel Adams, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson were arguing that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and that the colonies, which had their own legislatures, were connected to the rest of the empire only through their allegiance to the Crown.[16] SAMSUNG Q330-JS02 Laptop Keyboard
Congress convenes
The issue of Parliament's authority in the colonies became a crisis after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774 to punish the Province of Massachusettsfor the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Many colonists saw the Coercive Acts as a violation of the British Constitution and thus a threat to the liberties of all ofBritish America. In September 1774, HP 597635-001 Laptop Keyboard
the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to coordinate a response. Congress organized a boycott of British goods and petitioned the king for repeal of the acts. These measures were unsuccessful because King George III SONY VAIO VGN-C2S Series Laptop Keyboard
and the ministry of Prime Minister Lord Northwere determined not to retreat on the question of parliamentary supremacy. As the king wrote to North in November 1774, "blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent".[17] TOSHIBA Satellite l20-101 Laptop Keyboard
Even after fighting in the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with Great Britain.[18] When the Second Continental Congress convened at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia in May 1775, some delegates hoped for eventual independence, but no one yet advocated declaring it.[19] TOSHIBA Satellite U305-S2812 Laptop Keyboard
Although many colonists no longer believed that Parliament had any sovereignty over them, they still professed loyalty to King George, whom they hoped would intercede on their behalf. They were to be disappointed: in late 1775, LENOVO IdeaPad S10 4231 laptop keyboard
the king rejected Congress'ssecond petition, issued a Proclamation of Rebellion, and announced before Parliament on October 26 that he was considering "friendly offers of foreign assistance" to suppress the rebellion.[20] A pro-American minority in Parliament warned that the government was driving the colonists toward independence.[21] Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E125 laptop keyboard
Toward independence
In January 1776, just as it became clear in the colonies that the king was not inclined to act as a conciliator, Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense was published.[22] Paine, who had only recently arrived in the colonies from England, argued in favor of colonial independence, advocating republicanism as an alternative to monarchy and hereditary rule.[23] Lenovo 45N2141 laptop keyboard
Common Sense introduced no new ideas,[24] and probably had little direct effect on Congress's thinking about independence; its importance was in stimulating public debate on a topic that few had previously dared to openly discuss.[25] Public support for separation from Great Britain steadily increased after the publication of Paine's enormously popular pamphlet.[26] Lenovo 3000 Y500 laptop keyboard
By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year. Relations between the colonies and the mother country had been deteriorating since the end of the Seven Years' Warin 1763. The war had plunged the British government deep into debt, ACER Aspire One D250-1151 laptop keyboard
and so Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies. Parliament believed that these acts, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, were a legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs to keep the colonies in the British Empire.[10] HP Pavilion dv6-3136ee laptop keyboard
Many colonists, however, had developed a different conception of the empire. Because the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them. HP G42-380LA Laptop Keyboard
This tax dispute was part of a larger divergence between British and American interpretations of the British Constitution and the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies.[11] HP G61-400SL Laptop Keyboard
The orthodox British view, dating from the Glorious Revolution of 1688, was that Parliament was the supreme authoritythroughout the empire, and so by definition anything Parliament did was constitutional.[12] HP 381068-001 Laptop Keyboard
In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that the British Constitution recognized certain fundamental rights that no government—not even Parliament—could violate.[13] After the Townshend Acts, some essayists even began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all.[ TOSHIBA Mini NB 505-SP0160 Laptop Keyboard
HP 519265-001 Laptop Keyboard
14]Anticipating the arrangement of the British Commonwealth,[15] by 1774 American writers such as Samuel Adams, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson were arguing that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and that the colonies, which had their own legislatures, were connected to the rest of the empire only through their allegiance to the Crown.[16]
Congress convenes HP G61-400SP Laptop Keyboard
The issue of Parliament's authority in the colonies became a crisis after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774 to punish the Province of Massachusettsfor the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Many colonists saw the Coercive Acts as a violation of the British Constitution and thus a threat to the liberties of all ofBritish America. Lenovo 63Y0047 Laptop Keyboard
In September 1774, the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to coordinate a response. Congress organized a boycott of British goods and petitioned the king for repeal of the acts. Lenovo 63Y0011 Laptop Keyboard
These measures were unsuccessful because King George III and the ministry of Prime Minister Lord Northwere determined not to retreat on the question of parliamentary supremacy. As the king wrote to North in November 1774, "blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent".[17] SONY VGN-FE41M Laptop Keyboard
Even after fighting in the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with Great Britain.[18] When the Second Continental Congress convened at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia in May 1775, HP G56-118CA Laptop Keyboard
some delegates hoped for eventual independence, but no one yet advocated declaring it.[19] Although many colonists no longer believed that Parliament had any sovereignty over them, they still professed loyalty to King George, HP Mini 210-1142CL Laptop Keyboard
whom they hoped would intercede on their behalf. They were to be disappointed: in late 1775, the king rejected Congress'ssecond petition, issued a Proclamation of Rebellion, and announced before Parliament on October 26 that he was considering "friendly offers of foreign assistance" HP G62-b98EL Laptop Keyboard
to suppress the rebellion.[20] A pro-American minority in Parliament warned that the government was driving the colonists toward independence.[21]
Toward independence HP Envy 15-1050nr Laptop Keyboard
In January 1776, just as it became clear in the colonies that the king was not inclined to act as a conciliator, Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense was published.[22] Paine, who had only recently arrived in the colonies from England, argued in favor of colonial independence, advocating republicanism as an alternative to monarchy and hereditary rule.[23] Packard Bell PEW91 laptop keyboard
Common Sense introduced no new ideas,[24] and probably had little direct effect on Congress's thinking about independence; its importance was in stimulating public debate on a topic that few had previously dared to openly discuss.[25] Public support for separation from Great Britain steadily increased after the publication of Paine's enormously popular pamphlet.[26] IBM 42T3961 laptop keyboard
In the campaign to revise Congressional instructions, many Americans formally expressed their support for separation from Great Britain in what were effectively state and local declarations of independence. Historian Pauline Maier identified more than ninety such declarations that were issued throughout the Thirteen Colonies from April to July 1776.[33] HP Pavilion dv6-2030ev laptop keyboard
These "declarations" took a variety of forms. Some were formal, written instructions for Congressional delegations, such as the Halifax Resolves of April 12, with which North Carolina became the first colony to explicitly authorize its delegates to vote for independence.[34] LENOVO IdeaPad S10 20015 laptop keyboard
Others were legislative acts that officially ended British rule in individual colonies, such as on May 4, when the Rhode Island legislature became the first to declare its independence from Great Britain.[35] ACER TravelMate 3012 laptop keyboard
Many "declarations" were resolutions adopted at town or county meetings that offered support for independence. A few came in the form of jury instructions, such as the statement issued on April 23, 1776, by Chief Justice William Henry Drayton of South Carolina: "the law of the land authorizes me to declare...that George the Third, SONY 148084122 laptop keyboard
King of Great Britain...has no authority over us, and we owe no obedience to him."[36] Most of these declarations are now obscure, having been overshadowed by the declaration approved by Congress on July 4.[37] ACER Aspire 2920-302G25Mi laptop keyboard
Some colonies held back from endorsing independence. Resistance was centered in the middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.[38] Advocates of independence saw Pennsylvania as the key: if that colony could be converted to the pro-independence cause, it was believed that the others would follow.[38] On May 1, however, SONY Vaio VGN-AW21VY/Q laptop keyboard
opponents of independence retained control of the Pennsylvania Assembly in a special election that had focused on the question of independence.[39] In response, on May 10 Congress passed a resolution, which had been promoted by John Adams and Richard Henry Lee, calling on colonies without a "government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs" ACER Aspire 4736Z laptop keyboard
to adopt new governments.[40] The resolution passed unanimously, and was even supported by Pennsylvania's John Dickinson, the leader of the anti-independence faction in Congress, who believed that it did not apply to his colony.[41] Lenovo 45N2106 Laptop Keyboard
As was the custom, Congress appointed a committee to draft a preamble to explain the purpose of the resolution. John Adams wrote the preamble, which stated that because King George had rejected reconciliation and was hiring foreign mercenaries to use against the colonies, SONY VGN-FE41M Laptop Keyboard
"it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the said crown should be totally suppressed".[43] Adams's preamble was meant to encourage the overthrow of the governments of Pennsylvania and Maryland, which were still under proprietary governance.[44] TOSHIBA Satellite A305 Laptop Keyboard
Congress passed the preamble on May 15 after several days of debate, but four of the middle colonies voted against it, and the Maryland delegation walked out in protest.[45] Adams regarded his May 15 preamble effectively as an American declaration of independence, although a formal declaration would still have to be made.[46] FUJITSU Amilo Mini Ui 3520 Laptop Keyboard
Lee's resolution and the final push
On the same day that Congress passed Adams's radical preamble, the Virginia Convention set the stage for a formal Congressional declaration of independence. On May 15, DELL NSK-D5A01 laptop keyboard
the Convention instructed Virginia's congressional delegation "to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or dependence upon, the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain".[47] In accordance with those instructions, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented a three-part resolution to Congress on June 7.[48] TOSHIBA MP-06873US-9204 laptop keyboard
The motion, which was seconded by John Adams, called on Congress to declare independence, form foreign alliances, and prepare a plan of colonial confederation. The part of the resolution relating to declaring independence read: HP Pavilion DV7-3165dx laptop keyboard
Resolved, 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.[49] SONY VAIO VGN-FZ21E laptop keyboard
Lee's resolution met with resistance in the ensuing debate. Opponents of the resolution, while conceding that reconciliation with Great Britain was unlikely, argued that declaring independence was premature, and that securing foreign aid should take priority.[50] SONY VAIO VGN-FS315M laptop keyboard
Advocates of the resolution countered that foreign governments would not intervene in an internal British struggle, and so a formal declaration of independence was needed before foreign aid was possible. All Congress needed to do, they insisted, was to "declare a fact which already exists".[51] Packard Bell Easynote TK85 laptop keyboard
Delegates from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York were still not yet authorized to vote for independence, however, and some of them threatened to leave Congress if the resolution were adopted. SONY VAIO VGN-FS215M laptop keyboard
Congress therefore voted on June 10 to postpone further discussion of Lee's resolution for three weeks.[52] Until then, Congress decided that a committee should prepare a document announcing and explaining independence in the event that Lee's resolution was approved when it was brought up again in July. Packard Bell PEW91 laptop keyboard
Support for a Congressional declaration of independence was consolidated in the final weeks of June 1776. On June 14, the Connecticut Assembly instructed its delegates to propose independence, HP Mini 110-3505tu laptop keyboard
and the following day the legislatures of New Hampshire and Delaware authorized their delegates to declare independence.[53]In Pennsylvania, political struggles ended with the dissolution of the colonial assembly, SONY VGN-FE21M laptop keyboard
and on June 18 a new Conference of Committees under Thomas McKeanauthorized Pennsylvania's delegates to declare independence.[54] On June 15, the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, which had been governing the province since January 1776, COMPAQ 454954-001 laptop keyboard
resolved that Royal Governor William Franklin was "an enemy to the liberties of this country" and had him arrested.[55] On June 21, they chose new delegates to Congress and empowered them to join in a declaration of independence.[56] ASUS X53K laptop keyboard
Only Maryland and New York had yet to authorize independence. When the Continental Congress had adopted Adams's radical May 15 preamble, Maryland's delegates walked out and sent to the Maryland Convention for instructions.[57] HP 9J.N0Y82.H01 Laptop Keyboard
On May 20, the Maryland Convention rejected Adams's preamble, instructing its delegates to remain against independence, but Samuel Chase went to Maryland and, thanks to local resolutions in favor of independence, was able to get the Maryland Convention to change its mind on June 28. HP Pavilion dv4-1210ef Laptop Keyboard
When Congress had been considering the resolution of independence on June 8, the New York Provincial Congress told the delegates to wait.[59] But on June 30, the Provincial Congress evacuated New York as British forces approached, and would not convene again until July 10. Acer eMachines E730 laptop keyboard
This meant that New York's delegates would not be authorized to declare independence until after Congress had made its decision.[60]
While political maneuvering was setting the stage for an official declaration of independence, a document explaining the decision was being written. HP 640892-001 laptop keyboard
On June 11, 1776, Congress appointed a "Committee of Five", consisting of John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Lenovo 3000 Y510 7758 laptop keyboard
to draft a declaration. Because the committee left no minutes, there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded—accounts written many years later by Jefferson and Adams, although frequently cited, are contradictory and not entirely reliable.[62] SONY VAIO PCG-FR415B laptop keyboard
What is certain is that the committee, after discussing the general outline that the document should follow, decided that Jefferson would write the first draft.[63] The committee in general, and Jefferson in particular, thought Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded the committee to choose Jefferson and promised to consult with Jefferson personally. TOSHIBA Satellite P305D-S8995E laptop keyboard
[64] He then consulted the others, made some changes, and then produced another copy incorporating these alterations. The committee presented this copy to the Congress on June 28, 1776. The title of the document was "A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled."[65] SONY VAIO VGN-SR290 laptop keyboard
Congress ordered that the draft "lie on the table".[66] For two days Congress methodically edited Jefferson's primary document, shortening it by a fourth, removing unnecessary wording, and improving sentence structure.[67] SONY VAIO VGN-N11S laptop keyboard
Congress removed Jefferson's assertion that Britain had forced slavery on the colonies, in order to moderate the document and appease persons in Britain who supported the Revolution. Although Jefferson wrote that Congress had "mangled"DELL Vostro PP38L laptop keyboard
his draft version, the Declaration that was finally produced, according to his biographer John Ferling, was "the majestic document that inspired both contemporaries and posterity."[67]
On Monday, July 1, having tabled the draft of the declaration, DELL Vostro 3450 laptop keyboard
Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole, withBenjamin Harrison of Virginia presiding, and resumed debate on Lee's resolution of independence.[68] SONY VAIO VGN-SZ680 laptop keyboard
John Dickinson made one last effort to delay the decision, arguing that Congress should not declare independence without first securing a foreign alliance and finalizing the Articles of Confederation.[69] John Adams gave a speech in reply to Dickinson, restating the case for an immediate declaration. Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E520 laptop keyboard
After a long day of speeches, a vote was taken. As always, each colony cast a single vote; the delegation for each colony—numbering two to seven members—voted amongst themselves to determine the colony's vote. HP Pavilion DV7-3065dx Laptop Keyboard
Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against declaring independence. The New York delegation, lacking permission to vote for independence, abstained. Delaware cast no vote because the delegation was split between Thomas McKean (who voted yes) HP G62-b30SQ Laptop Keyboard
and George Read (who voted no). The remaining nine delegations voted in favor of independence, which meant that the resolution had been approved by the committee of the whole. The next step was for the resolution to be voted upon by the Congress itself. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, who was opposed to Lee's resolution but desirous of unanimity, moved that the vote be postponed until the following day.[70] ACER Aspire 5535 Laptop Keyboard
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On July 2, South Carolina reversed its position and voted for independence. In the Pennsylvania delegation, Dickinson and Robert Morris abstained, allowing the delegation to vote three-to-two in favor of independence. The tie in the Delaware delegation was broken by the timely arrival of Caesar Rodney, who voted for independence. Lenovo ThinkPad T410-2516 Laptop Keyboard
The New York delegation abstained once again, since they were still not authorized to vote for independence, although they would be allowed to do so by the New York Provincial Congress a week later.[71] HP G62t-250 CTO Laptop Keyboard
The resolution of independence had been adopted with twelve affirmative votes and one abstention. With this, the colonies had officially severed political ties with Great Britain.[72] In a now-famous letter written to his wife on the following day, John Adams predicted that July 2 ACER Aspire 5930 Laptop Keyboard
would become a great American holiday.[73] Adams thought that the vote for independence would be commemorated; he did not foresee that Americans—including himself—would instead celebrate Independence Day on the date that the announcement of that act was finalized.[74] SONY VGN-FE21M Laptop Keyboard
After voting in favor of the resolution of independence, Congress turned its attention to the committee's draft of the declaration. Over several days of debate, Congress made a few changes in wording and deleted nearly a fourth of the text, most notably a passage critical of the slave trade, changes that Jefferson resented.[75] DELL Vostro 1014 Laptop Keyboard
On July 4, 1776, the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved and sent to the printer for publication.
Jefferson's most immediate sources were two documents written in June 1776: his own draft of the preamble of theConstitution of Virginia, DELL Inspiron 1750 Laptop Keyboard
and George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Ideas and phrases from both of these documents appear in the Declaration of Independence.[79] They were, in turn, directly influenced by the 1689 English Declaration of Rights, which formally ended the reign of King James II.[80] During the American Revolution, HP Mini 210-2090nr Laptop Keyboard
Jefferson and other Americans looked to the English Declaration of Rights as a model of how to end the reign of an unjust king.[81] The Scottish Declaration of Arbroath (1320) and the Dutch Act of Abjuration (1581) have also been offered as models for Jefferson's Declaration, but these models are now accepted by few scholars.[82] SAMSUNG N140 Laptop Keyboard
Jefferson wrote that a number of authors exerted a general influence on the words of the Declaration.[83] The English political theorist John Locke, whom Jefferson called one of "the three greatest men that have ever lived",[84] DELL Inspiron 6400 Laptop Keyboard
is usually cited as one of the primary influences. In 1922, historian Carl L. Becker wrote that "Most Americans had absorbed Locke's works as a kind of political gospel; and the Declaration, in its form, in its phraseology, HP 640892-001 Laptop Keyboard
follows closely certain sentences in Locke's second treatise on government."[85] The extent of Locke's influence on the American Revolution has been questioned by some subsequent scholars, however. Historian Ray Forrest Harvey declared in 1937, as he argued for the dominant influence of the Swiss jurist Jean Jacques Burlamaqui, HP Pavilion G6-1223TX Laptop Keyboard
that Jefferson and Locke were at "two opposite poles" in their political philosophy, as evidenced by Jefferson's use in the Declaration of Independence of the phrase "pursuit of happiness" instead of "property".[86] DELL Latitude D830 Laptop Keyboard
Other scholars emphasized the influence of republicanism rather than Locke's classical liberalism.[87] Historian Garry Wills argued that Jefferson was influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, particularly Francis Hutcheson, rather than Locke,[88] an interpretation that has been strongly criticized.[89] TOSHIBA P205-S6267 Laptop Keyboard
Legal historian John Phillip Reid has written that the emphasis on the political philosophy of the Declaration has been misplaced. The Declaration is not a philosophical tract about natural rights, argues Reid, HP 519265-001 Laptop Keyboard
but is instead a legal document—an indictment against King George for violating the constitutional rights of the colonists.[90] In contrast, historian Dennis J. Mahoney argues that the Declaration is not a legal document at all, but a philosophical document influenced by Emerich de Vattel, Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, and Samuel Pufendorf.[91] SONY VAIO VGN-FS550 Laptop Keyboard
Historian David Armitage has argued that the Declaration is a document ofinternational law. According to Armitage, the Declaration was strongly influenced by de Vattel's The Law of Nations, a book that Benjamin Franklin said was "continually in the hands of the members of our Congress".[92] Armitage writes that because "VattelTOSHIBA NSK-TK001 Laptop Keyboard
made independence fundamental to his definition of statehood", the primary purpose of the Declaration was "to express the international legal sovereignty of the United States".HP Pavilion dv5-1050tx Laptop Keyboard
If the United States were to have any hope of being recognized by the European powers, the American revolutionaries had first to make it clear that they were no longer dependent on Great Britain.[93] HP G61-440SG Laptop Keyboard
The handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence that was signed by Congress is dated July 4, 1776. The signatures of fifty-six delegates are affixed; however, whether or not Congress actually signed the document on this date has long been the subject of debate. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, HP AEAT5U00010 Laptop Keyboard
and John Adams all wrote that the Declaration had been signed by Congress on July 4.[94] But in 1796, signer Thomas McKean disputed that the Declaration had been signed on July 4, pointing out that some signers were not then present, including several who were not even elected to Congress until after that date.[95] Lenovo 45N2106 Laptop Keyboard
According to the 1911 record of events by the U.S. State Department, under Sec. Philander C. Knox, the Declaration was transposed on paper, adopted by the Continental Congress, and signed by John Hancock, President of the Congress, on July 4, 1776.[96] SONY VAIO VGN-CR23G laptop keyboard
On August 2, 1776, a parchment paper copy of the Declaration was signed by 56 persons.[96] Many of these signers were not present when the original Declaration was adopted on July 4.[96] One signer, Matthew Thornton, from New Hampshire, who agreed to the Declaration and having joined the Continental Congress, signed on November 4, 1776.[96] Packard Bell Easynote TK85 laptop keyboard
Historians have generally accepted McKean's version of events, arguing that the famous signed version of the Declaration was created after July 19 and was not signed by Congress until August 2.[97] In 1986, legal historian Wilfred Ritz argued that historians had misunderstood the primary documents and given too much credence to McKean, HP Pavilion dv3-2175ee laptop keyboard
who had not been present in Congress on July 4.[98] According to Ritz, about thirty-four delegates signed the Declaration on July 4, and the others signed on or after August 2.[99] Historians who reject a July 4 signing maintain that most delegates signed on August 2HP Pavilion G6-1B87CL laptop keyboard
and that those eventual signers who were not present added their names later.[100] Two future U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, were among the signatories.
The most famous signature on the engrossed copy is that of John Hancock, who, as President of Congress, presumably signed first.[101] HP Pavilion G6-1227TU laptop keyboard
Hancock's large, flamboyant signature became iconic, and John Hancock emerged in the United States as an informal synonym for "signature".[102] A commonly circulated but apocryphal account claims that after Hancock signed, the delegate from Massachusetts commented, HP 633183-001 laptop keyboard
"The British ministry can read that name without spectacles." Another apocryphal report indicates that Hancock proudly declared, "There! I guess King George will be able to read that!" [103] HP Mini 1151NR laptop keyboard
Various legends about the signing of the Declaration emerged years later, when the document had become an important national symbol. In one famous story, John Hancock supposedly said that Congress, having signed the Declaration, LENOVO IdeaPad S10 4231 laptop keyboard
must now "all hang together", and Benjamin Franklin replied: "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." The quotation did not appear in print until more than fifty years after Franklin's death.[104] ACER Aspire 4736Z laptop keyboard
After Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration on July 4, a handwritten copy was sent a few blocks away to the printing shop of John Dunlap. Through the night Dunlap printed about 200 broadsides for distribution. Before long, SONY VAIO VGN-CS17G/R laptop keyboard
the Declaration was read to audiences and reprinted in newspapers across the thirteen states. The first official public reading of the document was by John Nixon in the yard of Independence Hall on July 8; DELL Inspiron N4050 laptop keyboard
public readings also took place on that day inTrenton, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania.[105] A German translation of the Declaration was published in Philadelphia by July 9.[106]
President of Congress John Hancock sent a broadside to General George Washington, instructing him to have it proclaimed "a FUJITSU Lifebook S7111 laptop keyboard
t the Head of the Army in the way you shall think it most proper".[107] Washington had the Declaration read to his troops inNew York City on July 9, with thousands of British troops on ships in the harbor. Washington and Congress hoped the Declaration would inspire the soldiers, SONY VAIO VGN-CR23G laptop keyboard
and encourage others to join the army.[105] After hearing the Declaration, crowds in many cities tore down and destroyed signs or statues representing royal authority. An equestrian statue of King George in New York City was pulled down and the lead used to make musket balls.[108] SONY VAIO PCG-FR55E/B laptop keyboard
British officials in North America sent copies of the Declaration to Great Britain.[109] It was published in British newspapers beginning in mid-August, it had reached Florence and Warsaw by mid-September, and a German translation appeared in Switzerland by October. The first copy of the Declaration sent to France got lost, DELL NSK-D5A01 laptop keyboard
and the second copy arrived only in November 1776.[110] It reached Portuguese America by Brazilian medical student ‘Vendek’ José Joaquim Maia e Barbalho, who had met with Thomas Jefferson in Nîmes in 1786. HP Pavilion DV7-3165dx laptop keyboard
[contradiction] Though the Spanish-American authorities banned the circulation of the Declaration, it was widely transmitted and translated, by the Venezuelan Manuel García de Sena, by the Colombian Miguel de Pombo, by the Ecuadorian Vicente Rocafuerte and by the New DELL NSK-DD101 laptop keyboard
Englanders Richard Cleveland and William Shaler, who distributed the Declaration and the United States Constitution among creoles in Chile and Indians in Mexico in 1821.[111] The North Ministry did not give an official answer to the Declaration, HP Pavilion dv6-2120sp laptop keyboard
but instead secretly commissioned pamphleteer John Lind to publish a response, which was entitled Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress.[112] British Tories denounced the signers of the Declaration for not applying the same principles of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to African Americans.[113] HP Pavilion DV7-3173nr laptop keyboard
Thomas Hutchinson, the former royal governor of Massachusetts, also published a rebuttal.[114][115] These pamphlets challenged various aspects of the Declaration. Hutchinson argued that the American Revolution was the work of a few conspirators who wanted independence from the outset, and who had finally achieved it by inducing otherwise loyal colonists to rebel.[116] SONY VAIO PCG-FR415S laptop keyboard
Lind's pamphlet had an anonymous attack on the concept of natural rights, written by Jeremy Bentham, an argument which he would repeat during the French Revolution.[117] Both pamphlets asked how the American slaveholders in Congress could proclaim that "all men are created equal" without freeing their own slaves.[118] HP Pavilion dv5-1110em laptop keyboard
Enslaved African Americans also heard the call to liberty and freedom. Tens of thousands of slaves left plantations in the South and farms in the North to join the British lines, or to escape during the disruption of war. SONY VGN-FE31B laptop keyboard
The British kept their promise and evacuated thousands of Black Loyalists with their troops in the closing days of the war, for resettlement as freedmen in Nova Scotia, Jamaica or England. Four to five thousand African Americans served in the Continental Army fighting for American Independence. HP Pavilion dv6-2125el laptop keyboard
The revolutionary government freed slaves who enlisted with the Continentals; 5% of George Washington's forces consisted of African-American troops.
William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who had fought in the war, freed his slave, Lenovo 3000 Y500 laptop keyboard
Prince Whipple, because of revolutionary ideals. In the postwar decades, so many other slaveholders also freed their slaves that from 1790 to 1810, the percentage of free blacks in the Upper South increased to 8.3 percent from less than one percent of the black population.[119] Most Northern states abolished slavery; although with gradual emancipation, slaves were still listed in some mid-Atlantic state censuses in 1840. HP Pavilion dv3-2320es laptop keyboard
Having fought for independence, after the war freedmen faced housing and job discrimination, were denied voting rights in several states, and needed passes to travel between the states.[120]
History of the documents Packard Bell Easynote TK87 laptop keyboard
Main article: Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence
The copy of the Declaration that was signed by Congress is known as the engrossed or parchment copy. It was probably engrossed (that is, carefully handwritten) by clerk Timothy Matlack. Lenovo Thinkpad W510 laptop keyboard
[121] In 1921, custody of the engrossed copy of the Declaration, along with the United States Constitution, was transferred from the State Department to the Library of Congress. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, HP Pavilion DV7-3173nr laptop keyboard
the documents were moved for safekeeping to the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox in Kentucky, where they were kept until 1944.[122] In 1952, the engrossed Declaration was transferred to theNational Archives, and is now on permanent display at the National Archives in the "Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom".[123] Packard Bell Easynote TM98 laptop keyboard
Although the document signed by Congress and enshrined in the National Archives is usually regarded as the Declaration of Independence, historian Julian P. Boyd argued that the Declaration, like Magna Carta, is not a single document. HP Mini 110-3109sl laptop keyboard
Boyd considered the printed broadsides ordered by Congress to be official texts as well. The Declaration was first published as a broadside that was printed the night of July 4 by John Dunlap of Philadelphia. Dunlap printed about 200 broadsides, of which 26 are known to survive. The 26th copy was discovered in The National Archives in England in 2009.[124] SONY 147977821 laptop keyboard
In 1777, Congress commissioned Mary Katherine Goddard to print a new broadside that, unlike the Dunlap broadside, listed the signers of the Declaration.[121][125] Nine copies of the Goddard broadside are known to still exist.[125] A variety of broadsides printed by the states are also extant.[125] DELL Inspiron N4050 laptop keyboard
Several early handwritten copies and drafts of the Declaration have also been preserved. Jefferson kept a four-page draft that late in life he called the "original Rough draught".[126] How many drafts Jefferson wrote prior to this one, FUJITSU Lifebook S7111 laptop keyboard
and how much of the text was contributed by other committee members, is unknown. In 1947, Boyd discovered a fragment of an earlier draft in Jefferson's handwriting.[127] Jefferson and Adams sent copies of the rough draft, with slight variations, to friends. TOSHIBA Satellite P105-S6217 laptop keyboard
During the writing process, Jefferson showed the rough draft to Adams and Franklin, and perhaps other members of the drafting committee,[126] who made a few more changes. Franklin, for example, may have been responsible for changing Jefferson's original phrase "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "We hold these truths to be self-evident".[128] SONY VAIO VGN-NW235D laptop keyboard
Jefferson incorporated these changes into a copy that was submitted to Congress in the name of the committee.[126] The copy that was submitted to Congress on June 28 has been lost, and was perhaps destroyed in the printing process,[129] or destroyed during the debates in accordance with Congress's secrecy rule.[130] SONY VAIO VGN-FS215E laptop keyboard
Legacy
Having served its original purpose in announcing the independence of the United States, the Declaration was initially neglected in the years immediately following the American Revolution.[131] SONY Vaio VGN-AW21VY/Q laptop keyboard
Early celebrations of Independence Day, like early histories of the Revolution, largely ignored the Declaration. Although the act of declaring independence was considered important, the text announcing that act attracted little attention.[132] Lenovo 3000 G430 4152 laptop keyboard
The Declaration was rarely mentioned during the debates about the United States Constitution, and its language was not incorporated into that document.[133] George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights was more influential, DELL Studio 1747 laptop keyboard
and its language was echoed in state constitutions and state bills of rights more often than Jefferson's words.[134]"In none of these documents", wrote Pauline Maier, "is there any evidence whatsoever that the Declaration of Independence lived in men's minds as a classic statement of American political principles."[135] ASUS F6S laptop keyboard
Influence in other countries
Many leaders of the French Revolution admired the Declaration of Independence[135] but were also interested in the new American state constitutions.[136] The inspiration and content of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) LENOVO IdeaPad S10e 4068 laptop keyboard
emerged largely from the ideals of the American Revolution.[137] Its key drafts were prepared by Lafayette, working closely in Paris with his friend Jefferson. It also borrowed language from George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights. [138][139] Packard Bell Easynote LM82 laptop keyboard
According to historian David Armitage, the Declaration of Independence did prove to be internationally influential, but not as a statement of human rights. Armitage argued that the Declaration was the first in a new genre of declarations of independence that announced the creation of new states. DELL Inspiron N4050 laptop keyboard
Other French leaders were directly influenced by the text of the Declaration of Independence itself. The Manifesto of the Province of Flanders (1790) was the first foreign derivation of the Declaration;[140] others include the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence (1811), the Liberian Declaration of Independence(1847), DELL V110546AS1 laptop keyboard
the declarations of secession by the Confederate States of America (1860–61), and the Vietnam Declaration of Independence (1945).[141] These declarations echoed the United States Declaration of Independence in announcing the independence of a new state, without necessarily endorsing the political philosophy of the original.[142] DELL NSK-DB301 laptop keyboard
Some other countries that used the Declaration as inspiration or directly copied sections from it is the Haitian declaration of 1 January 1804 from the Haitian Revolution, the United Provinces of New Granada in 1811, DELL V110546AS1 laptop keyboard
the Argentine Declaration of Independence in 1816, the Chilean Declaration of Independence in 1818,Costa Rica in 1821, El Salvador in 1821, Guatemala in 1821, Honduras in (1821), Mexico in 1821, Nicaragua in 1821, TOSHIBA Satellite L775D-S7226 Laptop Keyboard
Peru in 1821, Bolivian War of Independence in 1825, Uruguay in 1825, Ecuador in 1830, Colombia in 1831, Paraguay in 1842, Dominican Republic in 1844, Texas Declaration of Independence in March 1836,California Republic in November 1836, Hungarian Declaration of Independence in 1849, Compaq Presario CQ57 Series Laptop Keyboard
Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand in 1835, Czechoslovak declaration of independence from 1918 drafted in Washington D.C. with Gutzon Borglum among the drafters, Rhodesia in 11 November 1965.[111] HP Pavilion dv3-2106tu Laptop Keyboard
Revival of interest
In the United States, interest in the Declaration was revived in the 1790s with the emergence of America's first political parties.[143] Throughout the 1780s, few Americans knew, or cared, who wrote the Declaration.[144] DELL INSPIRON 1464 Laptop Keyboard
But in the next decade, Jeffersonian Republicans sought political advantage over their rivalFederalists by promoting both the importance of the Declaration and Jefferson as its author.[145] FUJITSU Lifebook S7111 laptop keyboard
Federalists responded by casting doubt on Jefferson's authorship or originality, and by emphasizing that independence was declared by the whole Congress, with Jefferson as just one member of the drafting committee. TOSHIBA Satellite P105-S6217 laptop keyboard
Federalists insisted that Congress's act of declaring independence, in which Federalist John Adams had played a major role, was more important than the document announcing that act.[146] But this view, like the Federalist Party, would fade away, and before long the act of declaring independence would become synonymous with the document. SONY VAIO VGN-NW235D laptop keyboard
A less partisan appreciation for the Declaration emerged in the years following the War of 1812, thanks to a growing American nationalism and a renewed interest in the history of the Revolution.[148] In 1817, Acer eMachines E732 laptop keyboard
Congress commissioned John Trumbull's famous painting of the signers, which was exhibited to large crowds before being installed in the Capitol.[149]The earliest commemorative printings of the Declaration also appeared at this time, offering many Americans their first view of the signed document.[150] SONY VAIO VGN-FS215E laptop keyboard
Collective biographies of the signers were first published in the 1820s,[151] giving birth to what Garry Wills called the "cult of the signers".[152] In the years that followed, many stories about the writing and signing of the document would be published for the first time. Lenovo 3000 G430 4152 laptop keyboard
When interest in the Declaration was revived, the sections that were most important in 1776—the announcement of the independence of the United States and the grievances against King George—were no longer relevant. But the second paragraph, with its talk of self-evident truths and unalienable rights, were applicable long after the war had ended.[153] DELL Studio 1747 laptop keyboard
Because the Constitution and the Bill of Rights lacked sweeping statements about rights and equality, advocates of marginalized groups turned to the Declaration for support.[154] Starting in the 1820s, variations of the Declaration were issued to proclaim the rights of workers, ASUS F6S laptop keyboard
farmers, women, and others.[155] In 1848, for example, the Seneca Falls Convention, a meeting of women's rights advocates, declared that "all men and women are created equal".[156]
Slavery and the Declaration LENOVO IdeaPad S10e 4068 laptop keyboard
Further information: Slavery in the colonial United States
The contradiction between the claim that "all men are created equal" and the existence of American slavery attracted comment when the Declaration was first published. Packard Bell Easynote LM82 laptop keyboard
As mentioned above, although Jefferson had included a paragraph in his initial draft that strongly indicted Britain's role in the slave trade, this was deleted from the final version.[75] Jefferson himself was a prominent Virginia slave holder having owned hundreds of slaves.[157] DELL 0NU956 Laptop Keyboard
Referring to this seeming contradiction, English abolitionist Thomas Day wrote in a 1776 letter, "If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves."[158] DELL V110546AS1 Laptop Keyboard
In the 19th century, the Declaration took on a special significance for the abolitionist movement. Historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown wrote that "abolitionists tended to interpret the Declaration of Independence as a theological as well as a political document".[159] DELL Vostro 1015 Laptop Keyboard
Abolitionist leaders Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison adopted the "twin rocks" of "the Bible and the Declaration of Independence" as the basis for their philosophies. "As long as there remains a single copy of the Declaration of Independence, or of the Bible, in our land," wrote Garrison, "we will not despair."[160] GATEWAY M-6849 Laptop Keyboard
For radical abolitionists like Garrison, the most important part of the Declaration was its assertion of the right of revolution: Garrison called for the destruction of the government under the Constitution, and the creation of a new state dedicated to the principles of the Declaration.[161] ACER 9J.N1H82.01D Laptop Keyboard
The controversial question of whether to add additional slave states to the United States coincided with the growing stature of the Declaration. The first major public debate about slavery and the Declaration took place during the Missouri controversy of 1819 to 1821.[162] TOSHIBA Qosmio F20 Series Laptop Keyboard
Antislavery Congressmen argued that the language of the Declaration indicated that the Founding Fathers of the United States had been opposed to slavery in principle, and so new slave states should not be added to the country.[163] DELL Vostro 1014 Laptop Keyboard
roslavery Congressmen, led by Senator Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, argued that since the Declaration was not a part of the Constitution, it had no relevance to the question.[164] TOSHIBA 9J.N7482.901 Laptop Keyboard
With the antislavery movement gaining momentum, defenders of slavery such as John Randolph and John C. Calhoun found it necessary to argue that the Declaration's assertion that "all men are created equal" was false, or at least that it did not apply to black people.[165] During the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1853, HP Pavilion dv4-1102tu Laptop Keyboard
for example, Senator John Pettit of Indiana argued that "all men are created equal", rather than a "self-evident truth", was a "self-evident lie".[166] Opponents of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, including Salmon P. Chase and Benjamin Wade, defended the Declaration and what they saw as its antislavery principles.[167] ASUS A3L Laptop Keyboard
The Declaration's relationship to slavery was taken up in 1854 by Abraham Lincoln, a little-known former Congressman who idolized the Founding Fathers.[168] Lincoln thought that the Declaration of Independence expressed the highest principles of the American Revolution, ACER Aspire 7745G Laptop Keyboard
and that the Founding Fathers had tolerated slavery with the expectation that it would ultimately wither away.[8] For the United States to legitimize the expansion of slavery in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, thought Lincoln, was to repudiate the principles of the Revolution. In his October 1854 Peoria speech, Lincoln said: HP G72-250US Laptop Keyboard
Nearly eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a "sacred right of self-government. ... HP G72-b10SG Laptop Keyboard
Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. ... Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. ... If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union: but we shall have saved it, as to make, and keep it, forever worthy of the saving.[169] FUJITSU Lifebook S7110 Laptop Keyboard
The meaning of the Declaration was a recurring topic in the famed debates between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858. Douglas argued that "all men are created equal" in the Declaration referred to white men only. SONY VAIO VGN-NW240F Laptop Keyboard
The purpose of the Declaration, he said, had simply been to justify the independence of the United States, and not to proclaim the equality of any "inferior or degraded race".[170] Lincoln, however, thought that the language of the Declaration was deliberately universal, Lenovo 3000 Y500 Laptop Keyboard
setting a high moral standard for which the American republic should aspire. "I had thought the Declaration contemplated the progressive improvement in the condition of all men everywhere", he said. DELL JVT97 Laptop Keyboard
I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development, TOSHIBA Mini NB 505-SP0160 Laptop Keyboard
or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal — equal in "certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." DELL Inspiron 510m Laptop Keyboard
This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, or yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. FUJITSU Amilo Mini Ui 3520 Laptop Keyboard
They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all, constantly looked to, TOSHIBA Satellite L750-ST4N02 Laptop Keyboard
constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere.[172] HP G42-415DX Laptop Keyboard
According to Pauline Maier, Douglas's interpretation was more historically accurate, but Lincoln's view ultimately prevailed. "In Lincoln's hands", wrote Maier, "the Declaration of Independence became first and foremost a living document" ASUS F6S Laptop Keyboard
with "a set of goals to be realized over time".[173]
Like Daniel Webster, James Wilson, and Joseph Story before him, Lincoln argued that the Declaration of Independence was a founding document of the United States, and that this had important implications for interpreting the Constitution, which had been ratified more than a decade after the Declaration.[175]Although the Constitution did not use the word "equality", HP Mini 1110TU Laptop Keyboard
Lincoln believed that "all men are created equal" remained a part of the nation's founding principles.[176] He famously expressed this belief in the opening sentence of his 1863 Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago [i.e. in 1776] Compaq Presario CQ57 Series Laptop Keyboard
our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Lincoln's view of the Declaration as a moral guide to interpreting the Constitution became influential. "For most people now," HP Mini 1109TU Laptop Keyboard
wrote Garry Wills in 1992, "the Declaration means what Lincoln told us it means, as a way of correcting the Constitution itself without overthrowing it."[177] Admirers of Lincoln, such as Harry V. Jaffa, praised this development. Critics of Lincoln, HP Envy 15-1100 Series Laptop Keyboard
notably Willmoore Kendall and Mel Bradford, argued that Lincoln dangerously expanded the scope of the national government, and violated states' rights, by reading the Declaration into the Constitution.[178] SONY VAIO VPCF12 Laptop Keyboard
The adoption of the Declaration of Independence was dramatized in the 1969 Tony Award-winning musical play 1776, and the 1972 movie of the same name, as well as in the 2008 television miniseries John Adams.
The engrossed copy of the Declaration is central to the 2004 Hollywood film National Treasure, in which the main character steals the document because he believes it has secret clues to a treasure hidden by some of the Founding Fathers. Lenovo 04W2236 laptop keyboard
The Declaration is featured in The Probability Broach (1980), an alternative history novel, when one word is added to the document, to read that governments "derive their just power from the unanimous consent of the governed". ACER TravelMate 2480 laptop keyboard
The Declaration document is at risk in Honour Among Thieves (1993), a novel by Jeffrey Archer in which Saddam Hussein tries to steal the Declaration to burn it publicly on July 4.
In July 1848, the first Woman's Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, Packard Bell Easynote LM85 laptop keyboard
New York. The convention was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann McClintock, Martha White, and Jane Hunt. In their "Declaration of Sentiments", patterned on the Declaration of Independence, HP Mini 110-3504tu laptop keyboard
the convention members demanded social and political equality for women. Their motto was that "All men and women are created equal" and the convention demanded suffrage for women. The suffrage movement was supported by William Lloyd Garrisonand Frederick Douglass.[179][180] TOSHIBA PK13CW10200 laptop keyboard
HP Pavilion dv6-3050ca laptop keyboard
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Laboulaye was received at the bar in 1842, and was chosen professor of comparative law at the Collège de France in 1849. Following the Paris Commune of 1870, he was elected to the national assembly, DELL Inspiron N4050 laptop keyboard
representing the département of the Seine. As secretary of the committee of thirty on the constitution he was effective in combatting the Monarchists in establishing theThird Republic. In 1875 he was elected a life senator, Lenovo 04W0872 laptop keyboard
and in 1876 he was appointed administrator of the Collège de France, resuming his lectures on comparative legislation in 1877. Laboulaye was also chairman of the French Anti-Slavery Society.[2] HP Pavilion dv4-1318tu laptop keyboard
Always a careful observer of the politics of the United States, and an admirer of its constitution, he wrote a three-volume work on the political history of the United States, and published it in Paris during the height of the politically repressedSecond Empire. HP Mini 210-1107TU laptop keyboard
During the American Civil War, he was a zealous advocate of the Union cause and the abolition of slavery, publishing histories of the cultural connections of the two nations. At the war's conclusion in 1865, he became president of the French Emancipation Committee that aided newly freed slaves in the U.S.[2] TOSHIBA Satellite A215-S7414 laptop keyboard
The same year he had the idea of presenting a statue representing liberty as a gift to the United States, a symbol for ideas suppressed by Napoleon III. The sculptorFrédéric Auguste Bartholdi, one of Laboulaye's friends, turned the idea into reality. SONY VAIO VGN-CR31/P laptop keyboard
The Declaration of Independence is the usual name of a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, TOSHIBA Portege M500 laptop keyboard
regarded themselves as 13 newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was unanimously approved on July 2. SONY VAIO VGN-CS16G/R laptop keyboard
Acommittee had already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress voted on independence. The term "Declaration of Independence" is not used in the document itself.
Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document,[2] Compaq Presario CQ71-420ED laptop keyboard
which congress would edit to produce the final version. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The national birthday, the Independence Day is celebrated on July 4, although Adams wanted July 2. SONY VGN-FE790 laptop keyboard
After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for this printing has been lost, and may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand. [3] HP Pavilion dv6-2150es laptop keyboard
Jefferson's original draft, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress, is preserved at the Library of Congress. The most famous version of the Declaration, HP Pavilion dv6-3124tx laptop keyboard
a signed copy that is popularly regarded as the official document, is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. This engrossed copy was ordered by Congress on July 19, and signed primarily on August 2.[4] [5] SONY VGN-FE790 laptop keyboard
The sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances against King George III, and by asserting certain natural and legal rights, HP Pavilion dv6-3136ee laptop keyboard
including a right of revolution. Having served its original purpose in announcing independence, references to the text of the Declaration were few for the next four score years. Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his rhetoric (as in the Gettysburg Address of 1863), HP Pavilion DV6-1350us laptop keyboard
and his policies. Since then, it has become a well-known statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence: Lenovo 45N2141 laptop keyboard
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. HP Mini 210 laptop keyboard
This has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language",[6] containing "the most potent and consequential words in American history".[7] The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive. HP Pavilion dv6-3034ca laptop keyboard
This view was notably promoted by Abraham Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy, and argued that the Declaration is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted.[8] Itprovided inspiration to numerous national declarations of independence throughout the world. Lenovo 63Y0011 laptop keyboard
By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year. Relations between the colonies and the mother country had been deteriorating since the end of the Seven Years' Warin 1763. HP 519265-001 laptop keyboard
The war had plunged the British government deep into debt, and so Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies. Parliament believed that these acts, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, were a legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs to keep the colonies in the British Empire.[10] SONY Vaio PCG-K23 laptop keyboard
Many colonists, however, had developed a different conception of the empire. Because the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them. TOSHIBA PK13CW10200 laptop keyboard
This tax dispute was part of a larger divergence between British and American interpretations of the British Constitution and the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies.[11] The orthodox British view, dating from the Glorious Revolution of 1688, DELL NSK-DJ301 laptop keyboard
was that Parliament was the supreme authoritythroughout the empire, and so by definition anything Parliament did was constitutional.[12] In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that the British Constitution recognized certain fundamental rights that no government—not even Parliament—could violate.[13] ACER TravelMate 3020 laptop keyboard
After the Townshend Acts, some essayists even began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all.[14]Anticipating the arrangement of the British Commonwealth,[15] HP G42-364LA Laptop Keyboard
by 1774 American writers such as Samuel Adams, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson were arguing that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and that the colonies, which had their own legislatures, were connected to the rest of the empire only through their allegiance to the Crown.[16] SAMSUNG Q330-JS02 Laptop Keyboard
Congress convenes
The issue of Parliament's authority in the colonies became a crisis after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774 to punish the Province of Massachusettsfor the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Many colonists saw the Coercive Acts as a violation of the British Constitution and thus a threat to the liberties of all ofBritish America. In September 1774, HP 597635-001 Laptop Keyboard
the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to coordinate a response. Congress organized a boycott of British goods and petitioned the king for repeal of the acts. These measures were unsuccessful because King George III SONY VAIO VGN-C2S Series Laptop Keyboard
and the ministry of Prime Minister Lord Northwere determined not to retreat on the question of parliamentary supremacy. As the king wrote to North in November 1774, "blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent".[17] TOSHIBA Satellite l20-101 Laptop Keyboard
Even after fighting in the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with Great Britain.[18] When the Second Continental Congress convened at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia in May 1775, some delegates hoped for eventual independence, but no one yet advocated declaring it.[19] TOSHIBA Satellite U305-S2812 Laptop Keyboard
Although many colonists no longer believed that Parliament had any sovereignty over them, they still professed loyalty to King George, whom they hoped would intercede on their behalf. They were to be disappointed: in late 1775, LENOVO IdeaPad S10 4231 laptop keyboard
the king rejected Congress'ssecond petition, issued a Proclamation of Rebellion, and announced before Parliament on October 26 that he was considering "friendly offers of foreign assistance" to suppress the rebellion.[20] A pro-American minority in Parliament warned that the government was driving the colonists toward independence.[21] Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E125 laptop keyboard
Toward independence
In January 1776, just as it became clear in the colonies that the king was not inclined to act as a conciliator, Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense was published.[22] Paine, who had only recently arrived in the colonies from England, argued in favor of colonial independence, advocating republicanism as an alternative to monarchy and hereditary rule.[23] Lenovo 45N2141 laptop keyboard
Common Sense introduced no new ideas,[24] and probably had little direct effect on Congress's thinking about independence; its importance was in stimulating public debate on a topic that few had previously dared to openly discuss.[25] Public support for separation from Great Britain steadily increased after the publication of Paine's enormously popular pamphlet.[26] Lenovo 3000 Y500 laptop keyboard
By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year. Relations between the colonies and the mother country had been deteriorating since the end of the Seven Years' Warin 1763. The war had plunged the British government deep into debt, ACER Aspire One D250-1151 laptop keyboard
and so Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies. Parliament believed that these acts, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, were a legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs to keep the colonies in the British Empire.[10] HP Pavilion dv6-3136ee laptop keyboard
Many colonists, however, had developed a different conception of the empire. Because the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them. HP G42-380LA Laptop Keyboard
This tax dispute was part of a larger divergence between British and American interpretations of the British Constitution and the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies.[11] HP G61-400SL Laptop Keyboard
The orthodox British view, dating from the Glorious Revolution of 1688, was that Parliament was the supreme authoritythroughout the empire, and so by definition anything Parliament did was constitutional.[12] HP 381068-001 Laptop Keyboard
In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that the British Constitution recognized certain fundamental rights that no government—not even Parliament—could violate.[13] After the Townshend Acts, some essayists even began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all.[ TOSHIBA Mini NB 505-SP0160 Laptop Keyboard
HP 519265-001 Laptop Keyboard
14]Anticipating the arrangement of the British Commonwealth,[15] by 1774 American writers such as Samuel Adams, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson were arguing that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and that the colonies, which had their own legislatures, were connected to the rest of the empire only through their allegiance to the Crown.[16]
Congress convenes HP G61-400SP Laptop Keyboard
The issue of Parliament's authority in the colonies became a crisis after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774 to punish the Province of Massachusettsfor the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Many colonists saw the Coercive Acts as a violation of the British Constitution and thus a threat to the liberties of all ofBritish America. Lenovo 63Y0047 Laptop Keyboard
In September 1774, the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to coordinate a response. Congress organized a boycott of British goods and petitioned the king for repeal of the acts. Lenovo 63Y0011 Laptop Keyboard
These measures were unsuccessful because King George III and the ministry of Prime Minister Lord Northwere determined not to retreat on the question of parliamentary supremacy. As the king wrote to North in November 1774, "blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent".[17] SONY VGN-FE41M Laptop Keyboard
Even after fighting in the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with Great Britain.[18] When the Second Continental Congress convened at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia in May 1775, HP G56-118CA Laptop Keyboard
some delegates hoped for eventual independence, but no one yet advocated declaring it.[19] Although many colonists no longer believed that Parliament had any sovereignty over them, they still professed loyalty to King George, HP Mini 210-1142CL Laptop Keyboard
whom they hoped would intercede on their behalf. They were to be disappointed: in late 1775, the king rejected Congress'ssecond petition, issued a Proclamation of Rebellion, and announced before Parliament on October 26 that he was considering "friendly offers of foreign assistance" HP G62-b98EL Laptop Keyboard
to suppress the rebellion.[20] A pro-American minority in Parliament warned that the government was driving the colonists toward independence.[21]
Toward independence HP Envy 15-1050nr Laptop Keyboard
In January 1776, just as it became clear in the colonies that the king was not inclined to act as a conciliator, Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense was published.[22] Paine, who had only recently arrived in the colonies from England, argued in favor of colonial independence, advocating republicanism as an alternative to monarchy and hereditary rule.[23] Packard Bell PEW91 laptop keyboard
Common Sense introduced no new ideas,[24] and probably had little direct effect on Congress's thinking about independence; its importance was in stimulating public debate on a topic that few had previously dared to openly discuss.[25] Public support for separation from Great Britain steadily increased after the publication of Paine's enormously popular pamphlet.[26] IBM 42T3961 laptop keyboard
In the campaign to revise Congressional instructions, many Americans formally expressed their support for separation from Great Britain in what were effectively state and local declarations of independence. Historian Pauline Maier identified more than ninety such declarations that were issued throughout the Thirteen Colonies from April to July 1776.[33] HP Pavilion dv6-2030ev laptop keyboard
These "declarations" took a variety of forms. Some were formal, written instructions for Congressional delegations, such as the Halifax Resolves of April 12, with which North Carolina became the first colony to explicitly authorize its delegates to vote for independence.[34] LENOVO IdeaPad S10 20015 laptop keyboard
Others were legislative acts that officially ended British rule in individual colonies, such as on May 4, when the Rhode Island legislature became the first to declare its independence from Great Britain.[35] ACER TravelMate 3012 laptop keyboard
Many "declarations" were resolutions adopted at town or county meetings that offered support for independence. A few came in the form of jury instructions, such as the statement issued on April 23, 1776, by Chief Justice William Henry Drayton of South Carolina: "the law of the land authorizes me to declare...that George the Third, SONY 148084122 laptop keyboard
King of Great Britain...has no authority over us, and we owe no obedience to him."[36] Most of these declarations are now obscure, having been overshadowed by the declaration approved by Congress on July 4.[37] ACER Aspire 2920-302G25Mi laptop keyboard
Some colonies held back from endorsing independence. Resistance was centered in the middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.[38] Advocates of independence saw Pennsylvania as the key: if that colony could be converted to the pro-independence cause, it was believed that the others would follow.[38] On May 1, however, SONY Vaio VGN-AW21VY/Q laptop keyboard
opponents of independence retained control of the Pennsylvania Assembly in a special election that had focused on the question of independence.[39] In response, on May 10 Congress passed a resolution, which had been promoted by John Adams and Richard Henry Lee, calling on colonies without a "government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs" ACER Aspire 4736Z laptop keyboard
to adopt new governments.[40] The resolution passed unanimously, and was even supported by Pennsylvania's John Dickinson, the leader of the anti-independence faction in Congress, who believed that it did not apply to his colony.[41] Lenovo 45N2106 Laptop Keyboard
As was the custom, Congress appointed a committee to draft a preamble to explain the purpose of the resolution. John Adams wrote the preamble, which stated that because King George had rejected reconciliation and was hiring foreign mercenaries to use against the colonies, SONY VGN-FE41M Laptop Keyboard
"it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the said crown should be totally suppressed".[43] Adams's preamble was meant to encourage the overthrow of the governments of Pennsylvania and Maryland, which were still under proprietary governance.[44] TOSHIBA Satellite A305 Laptop Keyboard
Congress passed the preamble on May 15 after several days of debate, but four of the middle colonies voted against it, and the Maryland delegation walked out in protest.[45] Adams regarded his May 15 preamble effectively as an American declaration of independence, although a formal declaration would still have to be made.[46] FUJITSU Amilo Mini Ui 3520 Laptop Keyboard
Lee's resolution and the final push
On the same day that Congress passed Adams's radical preamble, the Virginia Convention set the stage for a formal Congressional declaration of independence. On May 15, DELL NSK-D5A01 laptop keyboard
the Convention instructed Virginia's congressional delegation "to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or dependence upon, the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain".[47] In accordance with those instructions, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented a three-part resolution to Congress on June 7.[48] TOSHIBA MP-06873US-9204 laptop keyboard
The motion, which was seconded by John Adams, called on Congress to declare independence, form foreign alliances, and prepare a plan of colonial confederation. The part of the resolution relating to declaring independence read: HP Pavilion DV7-3165dx laptop keyboard
Resolved, 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.[49] SONY VAIO VGN-FZ21E laptop keyboard
Lee's resolution met with resistance in the ensuing debate. Opponents of the resolution, while conceding that reconciliation with Great Britain was unlikely, argued that declaring independence was premature, and that securing foreign aid should take priority.[50] SONY VAIO VGN-FS315M laptop keyboard
Advocates of the resolution countered that foreign governments would not intervene in an internal British struggle, and so a formal declaration of independence was needed before foreign aid was possible. All Congress needed to do, they insisted, was to "declare a fact which already exists".[51] Packard Bell Easynote TK85 laptop keyboard
Delegates from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York were still not yet authorized to vote for independence, however, and some of them threatened to leave Congress if the resolution were adopted. SONY VAIO VGN-FS215M laptop keyboard
Congress therefore voted on June 10 to postpone further discussion of Lee's resolution for three weeks.[52] Until then, Congress decided that a committee should prepare a document announcing and explaining independence in the event that Lee's resolution was approved when it was brought up again in July. Packard Bell PEW91 laptop keyboard
Support for a Congressional declaration of independence was consolidated in the final weeks of June 1776. On June 14, the Connecticut Assembly instructed its delegates to propose independence, HP Mini 110-3505tu laptop keyboard
and the following day the legislatures of New Hampshire and Delaware authorized their delegates to declare independence.[53]In Pennsylvania, political struggles ended with the dissolution of the colonial assembly, SONY VGN-FE21M laptop keyboard
and on June 18 a new Conference of Committees under Thomas McKeanauthorized Pennsylvania's delegates to declare independence.[54] On June 15, the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, which had been governing the province since January 1776, COMPAQ 454954-001 laptop keyboard
resolved that Royal Governor William Franklin was "an enemy to the liberties of this country" and had him arrested.[55] On June 21, they chose new delegates to Congress and empowered them to join in a declaration of independence.[56] ASUS X53K laptop keyboard
Only Maryland and New York had yet to authorize independence. When the Continental Congress had adopted Adams's radical May 15 preamble, Maryland's delegates walked out and sent to the Maryland Convention for instructions.[57] HP 9J.N0Y82.H01 Laptop Keyboard
On May 20, the Maryland Convention rejected Adams's preamble, instructing its delegates to remain against independence, but Samuel Chase went to Maryland and, thanks to local resolutions in favor of independence, was able to get the Maryland Convention to change its mind on June 28. HP Pavilion dv4-1210ef Laptop Keyboard
When Congress had been considering the resolution of independence on June 8, the New York Provincial Congress told the delegates to wait.[59] But on June 30, the Provincial Congress evacuated New York as British forces approached, and would not convene again until July 10. Acer eMachines E730 laptop keyboard
This meant that New York's delegates would not be authorized to declare independence until after Congress had made its decision.[60]
While political maneuvering was setting the stage for an official declaration of independence, a document explaining the decision was being written. HP 640892-001 laptop keyboard
On June 11, 1776, Congress appointed a "Committee of Five", consisting of John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Lenovo 3000 Y510 7758 laptop keyboard
to draft a declaration. Because the committee left no minutes, there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded—accounts written many years later by Jefferson and Adams, although frequently cited, are contradictory and not entirely reliable.[62] SONY VAIO PCG-FR415B laptop keyboard
What is certain is that the committee, after discussing the general outline that the document should follow, decided that Jefferson would write the first draft.[63] The committee in general, and Jefferson in particular, thought Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded the committee to choose Jefferson and promised to consult with Jefferson personally. TOSHIBA Satellite P305D-S8995E laptop keyboard
[64] He then consulted the others, made some changes, and then produced another copy incorporating these alterations. The committee presented this copy to the Congress on June 28, 1776. The title of the document was "A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled."[65] SONY VAIO VGN-SR290 laptop keyboard
Congress ordered that the draft "lie on the table".[66] For two days Congress methodically edited Jefferson's primary document, shortening it by a fourth, removing unnecessary wording, and improving sentence structure.[67] SONY VAIO VGN-N11S laptop keyboard
Congress removed Jefferson's assertion that Britain had forced slavery on the colonies, in order to moderate the document and appease persons in Britain who supported the Revolution. Although Jefferson wrote that Congress had "mangled"DELL Vostro PP38L laptop keyboard
his draft version, the Declaration that was finally produced, according to his biographer John Ferling, was "the majestic document that inspired both contemporaries and posterity."[67]
On Monday, July 1, having tabled the draft of the declaration, DELL Vostro 3450 laptop keyboard
Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole, withBenjamin Harrison of Virginia presiding, and resumed debate on Lee's resolution of independence.[68] SONY VAIO VGN-SZ680 laptop keyboard
John Dickinson made one last effort to delay the decision, arguing that Congress should not declare independence without first securing a foreign alliance and finalizing the Articles of Confederation.[69] John Adams gave a speech in reply to Dickinson, restating the case for an immediate declaration. Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E520 laptop keyboard
After a long day of speeches, a vote was taken. As always, each colony cast a single vote; the delegation for each colony—numbering two to seven members—voted amongst themselves to determine the colony's vote. HP Pavilion DV7-3065dx Laptop Keyboard
Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against declaring independence. The New York delegation, lacking permission to vote for independence, abstained. Delaware cast no vote because the delegation was split between Thomas McKean (who voted yes) HP G62-b30SQ Laptop Keyboard
and George Read (who voted no). The remaining nine delegations voted in favor of independence, which meant that the resolution had been approved by the committee of the whole. The next step was for the resolution to be voted upon by the Congress itself. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, who was opposed to Lee's resolution but desirous of unanimity, moved that the vote be postponed until the following day.[70] ACER Aspire 5535 Laptop Keyboard
Lenovo Thinkpad T520 Laptop Keyboard
On July 2, South Carolina reversed its position and voted for independence. In the Pennsylvania delegation, Dickinson and Robert Morris abstained, allowing the delegation to vote three-to-two in favor of independence. The tie in the Delaware delegation was broken by the timely arrival of Caesar Rodney, who voted for independence. Lenovo ThinkPad T410-2516 Laptop Keyboard
The New York delegation abstained once again, since they were still not authorized to vote for independence, although they would be allowed to do so by the New York Provincial Congress a week later.[71] HP G62t-250 CTO Laptop Keyboard
The resolution of independence had been adopted with twelve affirmative votes and one abstention. With this, the colonies had officially severed political ties with Great Britain.[72] In a now-famous letter written to his wife on the following day, John Adams predicted that July 2 ACER Aspire 5930 Laptop Keyboard
would become a great American holiday.[73] Adams thought that the vote for independence would be commemorated; he did not foresee that Americans—including himself—would instead celebrate Independence Day on the date that the announcement of that act was finalized.[74] SONY VGN-FE21M Laptop Keyboard
After voting in favor of the resolution of independence, Congress turned its attention to the committee's draft of the declaration. Over several days of debate, Congress made a few changes in wording and deleted nearly a fourth of the text, most notably a passage critical of the slave trade, changes that Jefferson resented.[75] DELL Vostro 1014 Laptop Keyboard
On July 4, 1776, the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved and sent to the printer for publication.
Jefferson's most immediate sources were two documents written in June 1776: his own draft of the preamble of theConstitution of Virginia, DELL Inspiron 1750 Laptop Keyboard
and George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Ideas and phrases from both of these documents appear in the Declaration of Independence.[79] They were, in turn, directly influenced by the 1689 English Declaration of Rights, which formally ended the reign of King James II.[80] During the American Revolution, HP Mini 210-2090nr Laptop Keyboard
Jefferson and other Americans looked to the English Declaration of Rights as a model of how to end the reign of an unjust king.[81] The Scottish Declaration of Arbroath (1320) and the Dutch Act of Abjuration (1581) have also been offered as models for Jefferson's Declaration, but these models are now accepted by few scholars.[82] SAMSUNG N140 Laptop Keyboard
Jefferson wrote that a number of authors exerted a general influence on the words of the Declaration.[83] The English political theorist John Locke, whom Jefferson called one of "the three greatest men that have ever lived",[84] DELL Inspiron 6400 Laptop Keyboard
is usually cited as one of the primary influences. In 1922, historian Carl L. Becker wrote that "Most Americans had absorbed Locke's works as a kind of political gospel; and the Declaration, in its form, in its phraseology, HP 640892-001 Laptop Keyboard
follows closely certain sentences in Locke's second treatise on government."[85] The extent of Locke's influence on the American Revolution has been questioned by some subsequent scholars, however. Historian Ray Forrest Harvey declared in 1937, as he argued for the dominant influence of the Swiss jurist Jean Jacques Burlamaqui, HP Pavilion G6-1223TX Laptop Keyboard
that Jefferson and Locke were at "two opposite poles" in their political philosophy, as evidenced by Jefferson's use in the Declaration of Independence of the phrase "pursuit of happiness" instead of "property".[86] DELL Latitude D830 Laptop Keyboard
Other scholars emphasized the influence of republicanism rather than Locke's classical liberalism.[87] Historian Garry Wills argued that Jefferson was influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, particularly Francis Hutcheson, rather than Locke,[88] an interpretation that has been strongly criticized.[89] TOSHIBA P205-S6267 Laptop Keyboard
Legal historian John Phillip Reid has written that the emphasis on the political philosophy of the Declaration has been misplaced. The Declaration is not a philosophical tract about natural rights, argues Reid, HP 519265-001 Laptop Keyboard
but is instead a legal document—an indictment against King George for violating the constitutional rights of the colonists.[90] In contrast, historian Dennis J. Mahoney argues that the Declaration is not a legal document at all, but a philosophical document influenced by Emerich de Vattel, Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, and Samuel Pufendorf.[91] SONY VAIO VGN-FS550 Laptop Keyboard
Historian David Armitage has argued that the Declaration is a document ofinternational law. According to Armitage, the Declaration was strongly influenced by de Vattel's The Law of Nations, a book that Benjamin Franklin said was "continually in the hands of the members of our Congress".[92] Armitage writes that because "VattelTOSHIBA NSK-TK001 Laptop Keyboard
made independence fundamental to his definition of statehood", the primary purpose of the Declaration was "to express the international legal sovereignty of the United States".HP Pavilion dv5-1050tx Laptop Keyboard
If the United States were to have any hope of being recognized by the European powers, the American revolutionaries had first to make it clear that they were no longer dependent on Great Britain.[93] HP G61-440SG Laptop Keyboard
The handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence that was signed by Congress is dated July 4, 1776. The signatures of fifty-six delegates are affixed; however, whether or not Congress actually signed the document on this date has long been the subject of debate. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, HP AEAT5U00010 Laptop Keyboard
and John Adams all wrote that the Declaration had been signed by Congress on July 4.[94] But in 1796, signer Thomas McKean disputed that the Declaration had been signed on July 4, pointing out that some signers were not then present, including several who were not even elected to Congress until after that date.[95] Lenovo 45N2106 Laptop Keyboard
According to the 1911 record of events by the U.S. State Department, under Sec. Philander C. Knox, the Declaration was transposed on paper, adopted by the Continental Congress, and signed by John Hancock, President of the Congress, on July 4, 1776.[96] SONY VAIO VGN-CR23G laptop keyboard
On August 2, 1776, a parchment paper copy of the Declaration was signed by 56 persons.[96] Many of these signers were not present when the original Declaration was adopted on July 4.[96] One signer, Matthew Thornton, from New Hampshire, who agreed to the Declaration and having joined the Continental Congress, signed on November 4, 1776.[96] Packard Bell Easynote TK85 laptop keyboard
Historians have generally accepted McKean's version of events, arguing that the famous signed version of the Declaration was created after July 19 and was not signed by Congress until August 2.[97] In 1986, legal historian Wilfred Ritz argued that historians had misunderstood the primary documents and given too much credence to McKean, HP Pavilion dv3-2175ee laptop keyboard
who had not been present in Congress on July 4.[98] According to Ritz, about thirty-four delegates signed the Declaration on July 4, and the others signed on or after August 2.[99] Historians who reject a July 4 signing maintain that most delegates signed on August 2HP Pavilion G6-1B87CL laptop keyboard
and that those eventual signers who were not present added their names later.[100] Two future U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, were among the signatories.
The most famous signature on the engrossed copy is that of John Hancock, who, as President of Congress, presumably signed first.[101] HP Pavilion G6-1227TU laptop keyboard
Hancock's large, flamboyant signature became iconic, and John Hancock emerged in the United States as an informal synonym for "signature".[102] A commonly circulated but apocryphal account claims that after Hancock signed, the delegate from Massachusetts commented, HP 633183-001 laptop keyboard
"The British ministry can read that name without spectacles." Another apocryphal report indicates that Hancock proudly declared, "There! I guess King George will be able to read that!" [103] HP Mini 1151NR laptop keyboard
Various legends about the signing of the Declaration emerged years later, when the document had become an important national symbol. In one famous story, John Hancock supposedly said that Congress, having signed the Declaration, LENOVO IdeaPad S10 4231 laptop keyboard
must now "all hang together", and Benjamin Franklin replied: "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." The quotation did not appear in print until more than fifty years after Franklin's death.[104] ACER Aspire 4736Z laptop keyboard
After Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration on July 4, a handwritten copy was sent a few blocks away to the printing shop of John Dunlap. Through the night Dunlap printed about 200 broadsides for distribution. Before long, SONY VAIO VGN-CS17G/R laptop keyboard
the Declaration was read to audiences and reprinted in newspapers across the thirteen states. The first official public reading of the document was by John Nixon in the yard of Independence Hall on July 8; DELL Inspiron N4050 laptop keyboard
public readings also took place on that day inTrenton, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania.[105] A German translation of the Declaration was published in Philadelphia by July 9.[106]
President of Congress John Hancock sent a broadside to General George Washington, instructing him to have it proclaimed "a FUJITSU Lifebook S7111 laptop keyboard
t the Head of the Army in the way you shall think it most proper".[107] Washington had the Declaration read to his troops inNew York City on July 9, with thousands of British troops on ships in the harbor. Washington and Congress hoped the Declaration would inspire the soldiers, SONY VAIO VGN-CR23G laptop keyboard
and encourage others to join the army.[105] After hearing the Declaration, crowds in many cities tore down and destroyed signs or statues representing royal authority. An equestrian statue of King George in New York City was pulled down and the lead used to make musket balls.[108] SONY VAIO PCG-FR55E/B laptop keyboard
British officials in North America sent copies of the Declaration to Great Britain.[109] It was published in British newspapers beginning in mid-August, it had reached Florence and Warsaw by mid-September, and a German translation appeared in Switzerland by October. The first copy of the Declaration sent to France got lost, DELL NSK-D5A01 laptop keyboard
and the second copy arrived only in November 1776.[110] It reached Portuguese America by Brazilian medical student ‘Vendek’ José Joaquim Maia e Barbalho, who had met with Thomas Jefferson in Nîmes in 1786. HP Pavilion DV7-3165dx laptop keyboard
[contradiction] Though the Spanish-American authorities banned the circulation of the Declaration, it was widely transmitted and translated, by the Venezuelan Manuel García de Sena, by the Colombian Miguel de Pombo, by the Ecuadorian Vicente Rocafuerte and by the New DELL NSK-DD101 laptop keyboard
Englanders Richard Cleveland and William Shaler, who distributed the Declaration and the United States Constitution among creoles in Chile and Indians in Mexico in 1821.[111] The North Ministry did not give an official answer to the Declaration, HP Pavilion dv6-2120sp laptop keyboard
but instead secretly commissioned pamphleteer John Lind to publish a response, which was entitled Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress.[112] British Tories denounced the signers of the Declaration for not applying the same principles of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to African Americans.[113] HP Pavilion DV7-3173nr laptop keyboard
Thomas Hutchinson, the former royal governor of Massachusetts, also published a rebuttal.[114][115] These pamphlets challenged various aspects of the Declaration. Hutchinson argued that the American Revolution was the work of a few conspirators who wanted independence from the outset, and who had finally achieved it by inducing otherwise loyal colonists to rebel.[116] SONY VAIO PCG-FR415S laptop keyboard
Lind's pamphlet had an anonymous attack on the concept of natural rights, written by Jeremy Bentham, an argument which he would repeat during the French Revolution.[117] Both pamphlets asked how the American slaveholders in Congress could proclaim that "all men are created equal" without freeing their own slaves.[118] HP Pavilion dv5-1110em laptop keyboard
Enslaved African Americans also heard the call to liberty and freedom. Tens of thousands of slaves left plantations in the South and farms in the North to join the British lines, or to escape during the disruption of war. SONY VGN-FE31B laptop keyboard
The British kept their promise and evacuated thousands of Black Loyalists with their troops in the closing days of the war, for resettlement as freedmen in Nova Scotia, Jamaica or England. Four to five thousand African Americans served in the Continental Army fighting for American Independence. HP Pavilion dv6-2125el laptop keyboard
The revolutionary government freed slaves who enlisted with the Continentals; 5% of George Washington's forces consisted of African-American troops.
William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who had fought in the war, freed his slave, Lenovo 3000 Y500 laptop keyboard
Prince Whipple, because of revolutionary ideals. In the postwar decades, so many other slaveholders also freed their slaves that from 1790 to 1810, the percentage of free blacks in the Upper South increased to 8.3 percent from less than one percent of the black population.[119] Most Northern states abolished slavery; although with gradual emancipation, slaves were still listed in some mid-Atlantic state censuses in 1840. HP Pavilion dv3-2320es laptop keyboard
Having fought for independence, after the war freedmen faced housing and job discrimination, were denied voting rights in several states, and needed passes to travel between the states.[120]
History of the documents Packard Bell Easynote TK87 laptop keyboard
Main article: Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence
The copy of the Declaration that was signed by Congress is known as the engrossed or parchment copy. It was probably engrossed (that is, carefully handwritten) by clerk Timothy Matlack. Lenovo Thinkpad W510 laptop keyboard
[121] In 1921, custody of the engrossed copy of the Declaration, along with the United States Constitution, was transferred from the State Department to the Library of Congress. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, HP Pavilion DV7-3173nr laptop keyboard
the documents were moved for safekeeping to the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox in Kentucky, where they were kept until 1944.[122] In 1952, the engrossed Declaration was transferred to theNational Archives, and is now on permanent display at the National Archives in the "Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom".[123] Packard Bell Easynote TM98 laptop keyboard
Although the document signed by Congress and enshrined in the National Archives is usually regarded as the Declaration of Independence, historian Julian P. Boyd argued that the Declaration, like Magna Carta, is not a single document. HP Mini 110-3109sl laptop keyboard
Boyd considered the printed broadsides ordered by Congress to be official texts as well. The Declaration was first published as a broadside that was printed the night of July 4 by John Dunlap of Philadelphia. Dunlap printed about 200 broadsides, of which 26 are known to survive. The 26th copy was discovered in The National Archives in England in 2009.[124] SONY 147977821 laptop keyboard
In 1777, Congress commissioned Mary Katherine Goddard to print a new broadside that, unlike the Dunlap broadside, listed the signers of the Declaration.[121][125] Nine copies of the Goddard broadside are known to still exist.[125] A variety of broadsides printed by the states are also extant.[125] DELL Inspiron N4050 laptop keyboard
Several early handwritten copies and drafts of the Declaration have also been preserved. Jefferson kept a four-page draft that late in life he called the "original Rough draught".[126] How many drafts Jefferson wrote prior to this one, FUJITSU Lifebook S7111 laptop keyboard
and how much of the text was contributed by other committee members, is unknown. In 1947, Boyd discovered a fragment of an earlier draft in Jefferson's handwriting.[127] Jefferson and Adams sent copies of the rough draft, with slight variations, to friends. TOSHIBA Satellite P105-S6217 laptop keyboard
During the writing process, Jefferson showed the rough draft to Adams and Franklin, and perhaps other members of the drafting committee,[126] who made a few more changes. Franklin, for example, may have been responsible for changing Jefferson's original phrase "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "We hold these truths to be self-evident".[128] SONY VAIO VGN-NW235D laptop keyboard
Jefferson incorporated these changes into a copy that was submitted to Congress in the name of the committee.[126] The copy that was submitted to Congress on June 28 has been lost, and was perhaps destroyed in the printing process,[129] or destroyed during the debates in accordance with Congress's secrecy rule.[130] SONY VAIO VGN-FS215E laptop keyboard
Legacy
Having served its original purpose in announcing the independence of the United States, the Declaration was initially neglected in the years immediately following the American Revolution.[131] SONY Vaio VGN-AW21VY/Q laptop keyboard
Early celebrations of Independence Day, like early histories of the Revolution, largely ignored the Declaration. Although the act of declaring independence was considered important, the text announcing that act attracted little attention.[132] Lenovo 3000 G430 4152 laptop keyboard
The Declaration was rarely mentioned during the debates about the United States Constitution, and its language was not incorporated into that document.[133] George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights was more influential, DELL Studio 1747 laptop keyboard
and its language was echoed in state constitutions and state bills of rights more often than Jefferson's words.[134]"In none of these documents", wrote Pauline Maier, "is there any evidence whatsoever that the Declaration of Independence lived in men's minds as a classic statement of American political principles."[135] ASUS F6S laptop keyboard
Influence in other countries
Many leaders of the French Revolution admired the Declaration of Independence[135] but were also interested in the new American state constitutions.[136] The inspiration and content of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) LENOVO IdeaPad S10e 4068 laptop keyboard
emerged largely from the ideals of the American Revolution.[137] Its key drafts were prepared by Lafayette, working closely in Paris with his friend Jefferson. It also borrowed language from George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights. [138][139] Packard Bell Easynote LM82 laptop keyboard
According to historian David Armitage, the Declaration of Independence did prove to be internationally influential, but not as a statement of human rights. Armitage argued that the Declaration was the first in a new genre of declarations of independence that announced the creation of new states. DELL Inspiron N4050 laptop keyboard
Other French leaders were directly influenced by the text of the Declaration of Independence itself. The Manifesto of the Province of Flanders (1790) was the first foreign derivation of the Declaration;[140] others include the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence (1811), the Liberian Declaration of Independence(1847), DELL V110546AS1 laptop keyboard
the declarations of secession by the Confederate States of America (1860–61), and the Vietnam Declaration of Independence (1945).[141] These declarations echoed the United States Declaration of Independence in announcing the independence of a new state, without necessarily endorsing the political philosophy of the original.[142] DELL NSK-DB301 laptop keyboard
Some other countries that used the Declaration as inspiration or directly copied sections from it is the Haitian declaration of 1 January 1804 from the Haitian Revolution, the United Provinces of New Granada in 1811, DELL V110546AS1 laptop keyboard
the Argentine Declaration of Independence in 1816, the Chilean Declaration of Independence in 1818,Costa Rica in 1821, El Salvador in 1821, Guatemala in 1821, Honduras in (1821), Mexico in 1821, Nicaragua in 1821, TOSHIBA Satellite L775D-S7226 Laptop Keyboard
Peru in 1821, Bolivian War of Independence in 1825, Uruguay in 1825, Ecuador in 1830, Colombia in 1831, Paraguay in 1842, Dominican Republic in 1844, Texas Declaration of Independence in March 1836,California Republic in November 1836, Hungarian Declaration of Independence in 1849, Compaq Presario CQ57 Series Laptop Keyboard
Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand in 1835, Czechoslovak declaration of independence from 1918 drafted in Washington D.C. with Gutzon Borglum among the drafters, Rhodesia in 11 November 1965.[111] HP Pavilion dv3-2106tu Laptop Keyboard
Revival of interest
In the United States, interest in the Declaration was revived in the 1790s with the emergence of America's first political parties.[143] Throughout the 1780s, few Americans knew, or cared, who wrote the Declaration.[144] DELL INSPIRON 1464 Laptop Keyboard
But in the next decade, Jeffersonian Republicans sought political advantage over their rivalFederalists by promoting both the importance of the Declaration and Jefferson as its author.[145] FUJITSU Lifebook S7111 laptop keyboard
Federalists responded by casting doubt on Jefferson's authorship or originality, and by emphasizing that independence was declared by the whole Congress, with Jefferson as just one member of the drafting committee. TOSHIBA Satellite P105-S6217 laptop keyboard
Federalists insisted that Congress's act of declaring independence, in which Federalist John Adams had played a major role, was more important than the document announcing that act.[146] But this view, like the Federalist Party, would fade away, and before long the act of declaring independence would become synonymous with the document. SONY VAIO VGN-NW235D laptop keyboard
A less partisan appreciation for the Declaration emerged in the years following the War of 1812, thanks to a growing American nationalism and a renewed interest in the history of the Revolution.[148] In 1817, Acer eMachines E732 laptop keyboard
Congress commissioned John Trumbull's famous painting of the signers, which was exhibited to large crowds before being installed in the Capitol.[149]The earliest commemorative printings of the Declaration also appeared at this time, offering many Americans their first view of the signed document.[150] SONY VAIO VGN-FS215E laptop keyboard
Collective biographies of the signers were first published in the 1820s,[151] giving birth to what Garry Wills called the "cult of the signers".[152] In the years that followed, many stories about the writing and signing of the document would be published for the first time. Lenovo 3000 G430 4152 laptop keyboard
When interest in the Declaration was revived, the sections that were most important in 1776—the announcement of the independence of the United States and the grievances against King George—were no longer relevant. But the second paragraph, with its talk of self-evident truths and unalienable rights, were applicable long after the war had ended.[153] DELL Studio 1747 laptop keyboard
Because the Constitution and the Bill of Rights lacked sweeping statements about rights and equality, advocates of marginalized groups turned to the Declaration for support.[154] Starting in the 1820s, variations of the Declaration were issued to proclaim the rights of workers, ASUS F6S laptop keyboard
farmers, women, and others.[155] In 1848, for example, the Seneca Falls Convention, a meeting of women's rights advocates, declared that "all men and women are created equal".[156]
Slavery and the Declaration LENOVO IdeaPad S10e 4068 laptop keyboard
Further information: Slavery in the colonial United States
The contradiction between the claim that "all men are created equal" and the existence of American slavery attracted comment when the Declaration was first published. Packard Bell Easynote LM82 laptop keyboard
As mentioned above, although Jefferson had included a paragraph in his initial draft that strongly indicted Britain's role in the slave trade, this was deleted from the final version.[75] Jefferson himself was a prominent Virginia slave holder having owned hundreds of slaves.[157] DELL 0NU956 Laptop Keyboard
Referring to this seeming contradiction, English abolitionist Thomas Day wrote in a 1776 letter, "If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves."[158] DELL V110546AS1 Laptop Keyboard
In the 19th century, the Declaration took on a special significance for the abolitionist movement. Historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown wrote that "abolitionists tended to interpret the Declaration of Independence as a theological as well as a political document".[159] DELL Vostro 1015 Laptop Keyboard
Abolitionist leaders Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison adopted the "twin rocks" of "the Bible and the Declaration of Independence" as the basis for their philosophies. "As long as there remains a single copy of the Declaration of Independence, or of the Bible, in our land," wrote Garrison, "we will not despair."[160] GATEWAY M-6849 Laptop Keyboard
For radical abolitionists like Garrison, the most important part of the Declaration was its assertion of the right of revolution: Garrison called for the destruction of the government under the Constitution, and the creation of a new state dedicated to the principles of the Declaration.[161] ACER 9J.N1H82.01D Laptop Keyboard
The controversial question of whether to add additional slave states to the United States coincided with the growing stature of the Declaration. The first major public debate about slavery and the Declaration took place during the Missouri controversy of 1819 to 1821.[162] TOSHIBA Qosmio F20 Series Laptop Keyboard
Antislavery Congressmen argued that the language of the Declaration indicated that the Founding Fathers of the United States had been opposed to slavery in principle, and so new slave states should not be added to the country.[163] DELL Vostro 1014 Laptop Keyboard
roslavery Congressmen, led by Senator Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, argued that since the Declaration was not a part of the Constitution, it had no relevance to the question.[164] TOSHIBA 9J.N7482.901 Laptop Keyboard
With the antislavery movement gaining momentum, defenders of slavery such as John Randolph and John C. Calhoun found it necessary to argue that the Declaration's assertion that "all men are created equal" was false, or at least that it did not apply to black people.[165] During the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1853, HP Pavilion dv4-1102tu Laptop Keyboard
for example, Senator John Pettit of Indiana argued that "all men are created equal", rather than a "self-evident truth", was a "self-evident lie".[166] Opponents of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, including Salmon P. Chase and Benjamin Wade, defended the Declaration and what they saw as its antislavery principles.[167] ASUS A3L Laptop Keyboard
The Declaration's relationship to slavery was taken up in 1854 by Abraham Lincoln, a little-known former Congressman who idolized the Founding Fathers.[168] Lincoln thought that the Declaration of Independence expressed the highest principles of the American Revolution, ACER Aspire 7745G Laptop Keyboard
and that the Founding Fathers had tolerated slavery with the expectation that it would ultimately wither away.[8] For the United States to legitimize the expansion of slavery in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, thought Lincoln, was to repudiate the principles of the Revolution. In his October 1854 Peoria speech, Lincoln said: HP G72-250US Laptop Keyboard
Nearly eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a "sacred right of self-government. ... HP G72-b10SG Laptop Keyboard
Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. ... Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. ... If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union: but we shall have saved it, as to make, and keep it, forever worthy of the saving.[169] FUJITSU Lifebook S7110 Laptop Keyboard
The meaning of the Declaration was a recurring topic in the famed debates between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858. Douglas argued that "all men are created equal" in the Declaration referred to white men only. SONY VAIO VGN-NW240F Laptop Keyboard
The purpose of the Declaration, he said, had simply been to justify the independence of the United States, and not to proclaim the equality of any "inferior or degraded race".[170] Lincoln, however, thought that the language of the Declaration was deliberately universal, Lenovo 3000 Y500 Laptop Keyboard
setting a high moral standard for which the American republic should aspire. "I had thought the Declaration contemplated the progressive improvement in the condition of all men everywhere", he said. DELL JVT97 Laptop Keyboard
I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development, TOSHIBA Mini NB 505-SP0160 Laptop Keyboard
or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal — equal in "certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." DELL Inspiron 510m Laptop Keyboard
This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, or yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. FUJITSU Amilo Mini Ui 3520 Laptop Keyboard
They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all, constantly looked to, TOSHIBA Satellite L750-ST4N02 Laptop Keyboard
constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere.[172] HP G42-415DX Laptop Keyboard
According to Pauline Maier, Douglas's interpretation was more historically accurate, but Lincoln's view ultimately prevailed. "In Lincoln's hands", wrote Maier, "the Declaration of Independence became first and foremost a living document" ASUS F6S Laptop Keyboard
with "a set of goals to be realized over time".[173]
Like Daniel Webster, James Wilson, and Joseph Story before him, Lincoln argued that the Declaration of Independence was a founding document of the United States, and that this had important implications for interpreting the Constitution, which had been ratified more than a decade after the Declaration.[175]Although the Constitution did not use the word "equality", HP Mini 1110TU Laptop Keyboard
Lincoln believed that "all men are created equal" remained a part of the nation's founding principles.[176] He famously expressed this belief in the opening sentence of his 1863 Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago [i.e. in 1776] Compaq Presario CQ57 Series Laptop Keyboard
our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Lincoln's view of the Declaration as a moral guide to interpreting the Constitution became influential. "For most people now," HP Mini 1109TU Laptop Keyboard
wrote Garry Wills in 1992, "the Declaration means what Lincoln told us it means, as a way of correcting the Constitution itself without overthrowing it."[177] Admirers of Lincoln, such as Harry V. Jaffa, praised this development. Critics of Lincoln, HP Envy 15-1100 Series Laptop Keyboard
notably Willmoore Kendall and Mel Bradford, argued that Lincoln dangerously expanded the scope of the national government, and violated states' rights, by reading the Declaration into the Constitution.[178] SONY VAIO VPCF12 Laptop Keyboard
The adoption of the Declaration of Independence was dramatized in the 1969 Tony Award-winning musical play 1776, and the 1972 movie of the same name, as well as in the 2008 television miniseries John Adams.
The engrossed copy of the Declaration is central to the 2004 Hollywood film National Treasure, in which the main character steals the document because he believes it has secret clues to a treasure hidden by some of the Founding Fathers. Lenovo 04W2236 laptop keyboard
The Declaration is featured in The Probability Broach (1980), an alternative history novel, when one word is added to the document, to read that governments "derive their just power from the unanimous consent of the governed". ACER TravelMate 2480 laptop keyboard
The Declaration document is at risk in Honour Among Thieves (1993), a novel by Jeffrey Archer in which Saddam Hussein tries to steal the Declaration to burn it publicly on July 4.
In July 1848, the first Woman's Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, Packard Bell Easynote LM85 laptop keyboard
New York. The convention was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann McClintock, Martha White, and Jane Hunt. In their "Declaration of Sentiments", patterned on the Declaration of Independence, HP Mini 110-3504tu laptop keyboard
the convention members demanded social and political equality for women. Their motto was that "All men and women are created equal" and the convention demanded suffrage for women. The suffrage movement was supported by William Lloyd Garrisonand Frederick Douglass.[179][180] TOSHIBA PK13CW10200 laptop keyboard
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