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INDEPENDENCE, DECLARATION OF
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See also:INDEPENDENCE, See also:DECLARATION OF , in See also:United States See also:history, the See also:act (or document) by which the thirteen See also:original states of the See also:Union See also:broke their colonial See also:allegiance to See also:Great See also:Britain in 1776. The controversy preceding the See also:war (see See also:AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, WAR OF) gradually shifted from one primarily upon economic policy to one upon issues of pure politics and See also:sovereignty, and the acts of See also:Congress, as viewed to-See also:day, seem to have been carrying it, from the beginning, inevitably into revolution; but there was apparently no See also:general and conscious See also:drift toward independence until near the See also:close of 1775• The first See also:colony to give See also:official countenance to separation as a See also:solution of colonial grievances was See also:North Carolina, which, on the See also:lath of See also:April 1776, authorized its delegates in Congress to join with others in a declaration to that end. The first colony to instruct its delegates to take the actual initiative was See also:Virginia, in accordance with whose instructions—voted on the 15th of May—See also:Richard See also: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of See also:America," New York's See also:adhesion was in fact not voted until the 9th, nor announced to Congress until the 15th—the Declaration being unanimous, however, when it was ordered, on the 19th, to be engrossed and signed under the above See also:title 2 Contrary to the inference naturally to be See also:drawn from the form of the document, no signatures were attached on the 4th. As adopted by Congress, the Declaration differs only in details from the draft prepared by Jefferson; censures of the See also:British people and a See also:noble denunciation of See also:slavery were omitted, appeals to See also:Providence were inserted, and verbal improvements made in the See also:interest of terseness and measured statement. The document is full of Jefferson's fervent spirit and See also:personality, and its ideals were those to which his See also:life was consecrated. It is the best known and the noblest of American See also:state papers. Though open to ' " Independence Day " is a See also:holiday in all the states and territories of the United States. 2 As read before the See also:army meanwhile, it was headed " In Congress, July 4, 1776. A Declaration by the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled."controversy on some issues of See also:historical fact, not flawless in See also:logic, necessarily See also:partisan in See also:tone and purpose, it is a justificatory preamble, a party manifesto and See also:appeal, reasoned enough to carry conviction, fervent enough to inspire See also:enthusiasm. It mingles—as in all the controversy of the See also:time, but with a See also:literary skill and See also:political address elsewhere unrivalled—stale disputation with See also:philosophy. The rights of See also:man lend dignity to the rights of Englishmen, and the broad outlook of a world-wide appeal, and the See also:elevation of noble principles, relieve See also:minute criticisms of an administrative See also:system. Jefferson's political theory was that of See also:Locke, whose words the Declaration echoes. Uncritical critics have repeated John Adams's assertion that its arguments were hackneyed: so they undoubtedly were—in Congress, and probably little less so without, —but that is certainly pre-eminent among its great merits. As See also:Madison said, " The See also:object was to assert, not to discover truths." Others have echoed See also:Rufus See also:Choate's phrase, that the Declaration is made up of " glittering and See also:sounding 'generalities of natural right." In truth, its See also:long array of " facts .. . submitted to a candid world " had its basis in the whole development of the relations between See also:England and the colonies; every See also:charge had point in a definite reference to historical events, and appealed primarily to men's reason; but the history is to-day forgotten, while the fanciful basis of the " compact " theory does not appeal to a later See also:age. It should be judged, however, by its purpose and success in its own time. The " compact " theory was always primarily a theory of political See also:ethics, a revolutionary theory, and from the See also:early See also:middle ages to the See also:French Revolution it worked with revolutionary See also:power. It held up an ideal. Its ideal of " equality " was not realized in America in 1776—nor in England in 1688—but no man knew this better than Jefferson. Locke disclaimed for him in 16903 the shallower misunderstandings still daily put upon his words. Both Locke and Jefferson wrote simply of political equality, political freedom. Even within this See also:limitation, the idealistic formulas of both were at variance with the actual conditions of their time. The variance would have been greater had their phrases been applied as humanitarian formulas to See also:industrial and social conditions. The Lockian theory fitted beautifully the question of colonial dependence, and was applied to that by America with inexorable logic; it fitted the question of individual political rights, and was applied to them in 1776, but not in 169o; it did not apply to non-political conditions of individual See also:liberty, a fact realized by many at the time—and it is true that such an application would have been more inconsistent in America in 1776 as regards the negroes than in England in 1690 as regarded freemen. Beyond this, there is no pertinence in the stricture that the Declaration is made up of glittering generalities of natural right. Its See also:influence upon American legal and constitutional development has been profound. Locke, says See also:Leslie See also:Stephen, popularized " a convenient See also:formula for enforcing the responsibility of See also:governors "—but his theories were those of an individual philosopher—while by the Declaration a state, for the first time in history, founded its life on democratic See also:idealism, pronouncing governments to exist for securing the happiness of the people, and to derive their just See also:powers from the consent of the governed. It was a democratic See also:instrument, and the revolution a democratic See also:movement; in See also:South Carolina and the Middle Colonies particularly, the cause of independence was See also:bound up with popular movements against aristocratic elements. Congress was fond of appealing to " the purest See also:maxims of See also:representation "; it sedulously measured public opinion; took no great step without an explanatory address to the See also:country; See also:cast its influence with the people in See also:local struggles as far as it could; appealed to them directly over the heads of conservative assemblies; and in general stirred up See also:democracy. The Declaration gave the people recognition See also:equivalent to promises, which, as fast as new governments were instituted, were converted by written constitutions into rights, which have since then steadily extended. 3 Two See also:Treatises of Government, No. ii. § 54, as to age, abilities, virtue, &c. Down to the end of the 18th See also:century the former title prevailed in England, though not in America; while since then " Congregationalist " has obtained generally in both. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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