American Revolution

Declaring Independence

n June 7, 1776--14 months after the battles of Lexington and Concord--Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution to the Second Continental Congress "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States...." After several days of debate, Congress appointed a committee to draft a declaration of independence. The committee asked Thomas Jefferson to write the first draft, which he completed in just two days.

On July 2, Congress unanimously approved Lee's resolution. The delegates then went over Jefferson's draft line-by-line, refining the wording and eliminating a clause that blamed King George III for encouraging the slave trade. On July 4, Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, explaining "to a candid world" why the United States had declared their freedom from Britain.

As the delegates signed the Declaration, they feared for their lives. "I shall have a great advantage over you when we are all hung for what we are doing," said Benjamin Harrison of Virginia to Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. "From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air for an hour or two before you are dead."

Why is the Declaration significant?

etween April and early July 1776, there were 90 declarations of independence by provincial congresses in nine colonies, as well as by Maryland counties, Massachusetts town meetings, New York and Philadelphia artisans and militia members, South Carolina grand jurors, and Virginia county leaders.

It might seem, then, that the Declaration of Independence was unnecessary. But in fact, the Declaration is of crucial importance. It is the defining statement of the fundamental principles of American democracy. One tenet is that governments exist to protect the rights of the people and that they have a right to overthrow an unjust or tyrannical government. A second tenet is that all people are equal in their right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Discussion Question: What did the signers mean when they said that "all men are created equal"?

he signers of the Declaration were not blind to the inequalities in their society. But they did believe that all people shared certain essential rights, including the right to change or overthrow an unjust government, to speak and worship freely, and to own property.

The theory of natural rights embodied in the Declaration—the idea that "all men are created equal" and are endowed with certain natural, essential, and inalienable rights--has served as a powerful stimulus to reform. The principles of liberty and equality set forth in the Declaration led abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to challenge the institution of slavery and encouraged suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton to press for equal rights for women.

Pre-Civil War reformers pictured their efforts to abolish slavery and to improve the nation's educational system as attempts to realize the republican ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Proponents of women's rights, world peace, temperance, and abolition all drafted Declarations of Sentiments modeled on the wording of the Declaration of Independence. Like the Declaration, they listed "a history of repeated injuries and usurpations" that justified their reforms. For American reformers, the Declaration remained a standard for measuring present imperfections against a higher ideal. Their goal was to extend the meaning of the "inalienable rights" with which all Americans are endowed and adopt a more inclusive definition of who were "created equal."