DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

I

INTRODUCTION

Declaration of Independence, document in American history used by the 13 British North American colonies to proclaim their independence from Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence was adopted in final form on July 4, 1776. It can be divided into three parts: a statement of principle concerning the rights of man and the legitimacy of revolution, a list of specific grievances against England’s King George III, and a formal claim of independence.

The document transformed the colonists’ struggle with Great Britain from a defense of their rights as Englishmen to a revolution aimed at overthrowing the existing form of government. It did not establish a structure of government and should not be confused with either the Articles of Confederation or the Constitution of the United States. For the American colonists, the declaration was an announcement to the rest of the world that the colonies were independent from Great Britain; it also provided a rationale for this action. The goal was to solidify internal support for their struggle and to encourage external assistance from European powers such as France.

II

BRITISH COLONIAL CONTROL

A number of events led to the Declaration of Independence. The British-American triumph in the French and Indian War (1754-1763) was particularly significant because it not only caused France to lose its North American empire, but also led to changes in Britain’s relationship with its own colonies.

After the war, the British government decided to reorganize its overseas empire. The country was heavily in debt because of war expenses; it needed money and felt that the colonies should pay a share of the defense of the colonies. In addition, the British found it difficult to maintain control over the American colonies without a more centralized administrative system in North America. During the French and Indian War, several colonies had refused to cooperate fully in the war effort when their own borders were not immediately at risk. Smuggling was also so rampant that the American customs service cost the British more money to run than it earned in revenue.

The British government decided to maintain a 10,000-man army to protect the colonies from Native Americans and from any new French threat. The army could also help to maintain British authority in the distant colonies. Parliament ordered the customs office to collect the taxes levied on imports, usually called duties, more efficiently and passed the Sugar Act in 1764 ) and the Stamp Act in 1765 to raise revenue in the colonies to pay for one-half of this army. The rest of the money was to come from the British treasury. These laws made economic sense to the British, who did not see them as direct threats to American liberty.

III

EARLY COLONIAL RESISTANCE

Colonial Americans viewed the measures quite differently. Some colonists objected to the unaccustomed British enforcement of customs collections, and others spoke publicly against the Sugar Act, even though this new measure actually lowered the duty imposed by the Molasses Act. (Despite lowering the duty, increased revenue was expected because collection would be strictly enforced.) But the Stamp Act led to the most serious resistance. This law, passed by Parliament in 1765, required the purchase of revenue stamps for legal documents and many other paper products. American protestors objected to the fact that Parliament, which contained no colonial representation, had passed a tax on the colonists to raise revenue.

Angry colonists formed patriotic organizations called the Sons of Liberty and encouraged Americans to resist the tax by whatever means necessary. Mobs appeared throughout the colonies, forcing stamp distributors to resign and discouraging merchants from importing British goods. A Stamp Act Congress met in New York City to discuss colonial grievances and petition the king and Parliament to withdraw the tax. After the congress, the colonists organized a boycott of British products, and the Stamp Act became virtually unenforceable. Parliament repealed the measure in 1766, responding to pressure by British business interests and a change of administration in Great Britain.

During the Stamp Act controversy, colonial Americans struggled to explain their resistance. They admitted the right of Parliament to regulate commerce through external or indirect taxation, but denied its right to raise revenue through internal or direct taxation such as the Stamp Act. The Americans also disagreed with the British over the concept of representation. British officials claimed that Americans had 'virtual representation,' arguing that Parliament protected America’s best interests even though colonists did not vote for members of the House of Commons. They compared Parliament to the local colonial assemblies that theoretically represented all colonists even though property qualifications prevented many people from voting for delegates. To emphasize their point, the British immediately followed the repeal of the Stamp Act with the passage of a Declaratory Act in 1766. This act asserted Parliament’s right to legislate for the colonies in all cases whatsoever. Many colonists refused to accept the idea that they were represented in Parliament, and ignored the Declaratory Act just as they had the Stamp Act. See also American Revolution: The Ideological Sources of Resistance.

IV

TAXES ON TEA

The Stamp Act controversy set the pattern for future conflict over imperial policy. In 1767 Great Britain passed the Townshend Acts, which placed duties on a variety of items imported by the colonies. These acts also suspended the New York colonial assembly for violations of the Quartering Act of 1765, a measure that required the colonies to provide housing and supplies for British troops. Once again the colonists formed committees, arranged a boycott, and pressured Parliament to repeal the acts. Rising tensions also led to the Boston Massacre, a violent confrontation in March 1770 between a mob of Boston residents and British troops guarding the Customs House. Angry colonists used this incident to whip up even greater anti-British sentiment, even though they soon received news that the British government had canceled all of the Townshend duties except the tax on tea.

Three years later Parliament passed another Tea Act in an effort to aid the British East India Company, a large commercial trading firm that had experienced financial difficulties. This measure granted the East India Company a monopoly of the tea trade, but actually lowered the price of tea in the colonies because it did not require the company to pay customs duties to the British treasury. However, the new Tea Act faced great opposition because it required collection of the import duties on tea, forcing colonists to accept English taxation and hurting the business of merchants who were competitors of the East India Company.

On December 16, 1773, an organized mob in Boston dumped East India Company tea into the harbor in what has become known as the Boston Tea Party. More 'tea parties' followed in other ports. To punish the colonists for this destruction of property, Parliament in 1774 passed a series of laws that the colonists called the Intolerable Acts. These measures curtailed the powers of the Massachusetts assembly and local town meetings, closed the port of Boston, required colonists to provide housing and supplies to British soldiers, and allowed the governor to move the trial of British officials from Massachusetts in capital cases for acts committed in the line of duty.

V

FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

Protests grew stronger as other colonies also felt threatened and came to the defense of Massachusetts. Groups called Committees of Correspondence organized communication networks to publicize British actions and encourage demonstrations of defiance. Soon these committees and some colonial legislatures issued a call for an all-colony congress to discuss other appropriate responses to Britain’s actions. The Continental Congress first met in Philadelphia from September to the end of October 1774. This body did not plan for war; instead, it debated the extent to which the colonies should carry their resistance to Great Britain. The First Continental Congress passed a resolution on October 14 called the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which denied the power of Parliament to tax the colonies and presented the king of England with a list of grievances. On October 20 the congress also set up a Continental Association, composed of committees from each colony, to enforce the boycott of British imports and institute a ban on exports if Parliament did not repeal the Intolerable Acts.

Representatives to the Continental Congress declared that they had written both measures as loyal Englishmen. In the first document, they expressed the hope that 'their fellow subjects in Great Britain' would restore the relationship they had previously held with the colonies. The resolution for the Continental Association opened with the phrase 'We, his majesty's most loyal subjects….' Between 1765 and the beginning of 1775 the story of the resistance movement remains focused on colonial protest and actions taken as British subjects. The movement of events did not follow a single line of progression. Instead, there was give-and-take, with both sides never quite understanding one another. After the First Continental Congress, however, events took a dramatic turn that transformed these professions of loyalty into charges that the king and Parliament had no right to interfere in colonial affairs.

VI

HOSTILITIES BEGIN

The Intolerable Acts had outraged the people of Boston, but they also provoked colonists outside of the city because of provisions limiting local government and placing the colony more directly under British authority. Farmers throughout Massachusetts armed themselves, practiced drills, and otherwise prepared for a confrontation with the British army occupying Boston. The stage was set for the outbreak of hostilities, which began on April 19, 1775. General Thomas Gage, the royal governor of colonial Massachusetts, ordered British troops to march on the small towns of Lexington and Concord, not far from Boston. The soldiers were told to capture resistance leaders and destroy arms and supplies. A battle began when the British troops exchanged fire in Lexington with a small company of minutemen, the colonial volunteers who were prepared to fight at a moment’s notice. The Americans were defeated at Lexington, but won a victory at North Bridge in Concord. More importantly, the colonial troops inflicted heavy casualties on the British as they returned to Boston. See also Lexington, Battle of; Concord, Battle of.

The First Continental Congress had made provisions to meet again in May 1775 if the king did not address colonial grievances. When the Second Continental Congress convened as scheduled, American militia had surrounded Boston, and a full-scale war loomed. The delegates assumed the responsibilities of a provisional government, including the tasks of printing money and creating the Continental Army, but they still hesitated to make the final move toward independence. In July, they sent one last plea to the king, often called the Olive Branch Petition, asking him to repeal the hated laws. Soon thereafter they also issued a “Declaration of the causes and necessity for taking up arms,” explaining the reasons for their actions and promising to stop fighting as soon as the British government met their demands. But King George III ignored their appeals; in August 1775 he issued a proclamation declaring the colonies to be in a state of rebellion and ordering all of his officers and loyal subjects to suppress the revolt 'and bring the traitors to justice.' During the following year, the Continental Congress edged toward the Declaration of Independence.

VII

COMMON SENSE

The publication of Common Sense by Thomas Paine in January 1776 helped convince many Americans of the need for independence. In this pamphlet, Paine, a magazine editor and writer newly arrived from England, attacked the king, the idea of royalty, and even the notion that there should be an aristocracy. In eloquent yet biting language, Paine also made a direct appeal for a manifesto or proclamation establishing American independence. The pamphlet had an electrifying effect on hundreds of thousands of colonists. By the spring of 1776 local Committees of Correspondence and some state legislatures began to call openly for independence.

VIII

INDEPENDENCE RESOLUTION

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, a representative from Virginia, proposed a resolution in the Continental Congress 'that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States.' This measure sought to end America’s allegiance to the Crown and dissolve all political connection with Great Britain. Although the Continental Congress did not pass the resolution until July 2, it immediately appointed a committee to draft a formal statement of independence. This committee included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston.

IX

JEFFERSON’S DECLARATION

The task of drafting the declaration fell to Jefferson, who was known for his powerful writing style. Jefferson divided the document into three major parts. The first section contained a statement of principle that discussed the rights of man and the legitimacy of revolution. The second presented a long list of grievances that provided the rationale for rebellion. Jefferson did not direct these grievances at Parliament, but at King George III, who made an easily identifiable villain. The third and last portion of the declaration included the formal announcement of independence. Jefferson intended the document “to be an expression of the American mind,” but the eloquence of the phrasing was his own.

Benjamin Franklin and John Adams made some adjustments to Jefferson’s draft before the committee submitted it to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776. Opposition to the document continued among a few representatives, including John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, who favored appeasing the British rather than risking the instability of a revolution. Other delegations were split in their views. Delaware representative Caesar Rodney, who had not been in attendance, rode 80 miles by horseback to reach Philadelphia and break a tie between the two other Delaware delegates, ensuring that Delaware would support independence.

Representatives officially voted for independence on July 2, 1776. The New York delegation abstained from the voting because they had not yet received orders from the New York convention to support the measure. After the vote on July 2, representatives then began to debate the actual text of the declaration. They made only a few changes; most significant was the deletion of Jefferson's accusation that the British Crown had promoted the slave trade in America. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to accept the final version of the Declaration of Independence. New York again abstained, although its delegation was authorized to ratify the independence resolution on July 9, 1776. Most of the delegates signed an official copy on August 2, with three absent members adding their signatures later. A few delegates such as John Dickinson continued to have doubts about the wisdom of independence and never actually signed the document.

Thomas Jefferson claimed that he used 'neither book nor pamphlet' when writing the declaration, but his work reflected a broad understanding of 18th-century political thought. Perhaps the greatest influence on Jefferson came from Enlightenment thinkers. These philosophers believed that the natural world was organized in a logical and reasonable pattern. While acknowledging that this pattern derived from the ultimate wisdom of God, they also held that the world was understandable through the powers of human reason. The writings of French, English, and Scottish Enlightenment philosophers frequently presented the concept that all men are created equal and possess certain inalienable rights. Jefferson’s belief in the social contract came from British political philosopher John Locke, who argued that government existed by consent of the governed and that people should rebel if their natural rights were violated. Even the long list of grievances against King George III reflected 18th-century philosophy. According to prevalent thinking during the Age of Enlightenment, any deviation from the natural and reasonable course of events, including the perceived abuse of the American colonies, resulted from the actions of evil men rather than a whim of nature.

X

IMPACT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Over time, the Declaration of Independence has profoundly affected American history. Phrases from the document such as 'all men are created equal' quickly took on a life of their own or were applied to groups that the authors never anticipated. Blacks quickly used this language to challenge slavery in the United States. The ideal of equality led Northern states to free slaves within their borders in the 1780s, 1790s and early 1800s. Black and white abolitionists used the ideal that all men were created equal to attack slavery in the South before the Civil War. And civil rights supporters rallied behind Jefferson’s words in their fight against racism in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1848 the delegates to the Seneca Falls women's rights convention proclaimed that 'all men and women are created equal,' and their 20th-century feminist counterparts did the same.

Other groups have focused on the document’s defense of the right to rebel against an unjust government. The Declaration of Independence had a profound impact on the French Revolution; its influence was strong in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted by the National Assembly of France in 1789. In the 19th century the principles of the declaration were adopted by various Latin American movements fighting for independence from European colonial powers. The declaration also established a precedent for the Southern states to secede prior to the American Civil War (1861-1865) because they felt that the national government was unjust. The declaration influenced more recent struggles for national identity: Vietnamese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh, for example, cited the American document as one of the rationales behind his fight to establish an independent and unified Vietnam.

The document itself continues to be an important symbol for the American people. The original copy of the Declaration of Independence probably accompanied the Continental Congress wherever it met during the American Revolution (1775-1783) and the early years of the new republic. When the Constitution of the United States was adopted in 1789, Congress assigned the document to the Department of State for safekeeping. Over the next century the declaration was moved to several different locations and placed on public display in the Patent Office Building and the State Department library. In 1894 State Department officials withdrew the document from exhibition because of rapidly fading text and serious deterioration of the parchment. The Library of Congress took responsibility for the declaration in the 1920s and after conservation work displayed it in a specially constructed shrine. During World War II the document was moved temporarily to the government’s gold depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and then in 1952 permanently transferred to the care of the National Archives.

Today, the original signed parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence is protected in a glass and aluminum case filled with inert argon gas and monitored with sophisticated computer technology for any signs of deterioration. The document was meticulously examined and given minor repairs when it was moved to a new protective encasement in 2003. More than 1 million Americans view the document each year in the rotunda of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., where it is displayed in the Charters of Freedom exhibit along with the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.