Download Drafting the Declaration

Lomonosov Moscow State University
Final project
World of Britain
Declaration of Independence 1776
Prepared by Daria Kurokhtina
Moscow, 2017
Table of contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................3
Historical background...................................................................................................................................3
Drafting the Declaration ...............................................................................................................................5
Adoption and signing....................................................................................................................................7
International influence of the Declaration ................................................................................................. 10
Internal impact ........................................................................................................................................... 11
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 13
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 14
Introduction
The Declaration of Independence is one of the most famous documents in the world history. It certainly
can be considered an important national symbol of the USA.
The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at
the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. On that day it was
announced that the thirteen American colonies, which were at that time at war with the Kingdom of
Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer under
British rule. Instead, the colonies formed a new nation—the United States of America. As we know,
July, 4 is a very important holiday for the USA. On this day the Americans celebrate the birth of their
nation.
It was especially interesting to investigate this topic after having studied in detail the history of Great
Britain. The gained knowledge of the British history and culture instigated me to consider the described
events as an important part not only of the American history but of the British history too. These events
undoubtedly produced an enormous effect on the further development of British Empire. For me it was
interesting to consider this symbolic moment in the American history from the British point of view.
Like many groundbreaking historical documents, the Declaration is firmly planted in a highly specific
historical context. The rhetoric of universal human rights occupies only 20 per cent of the 1,340-word
document. Over 60 per cent of it is a detailed list of grievances, which the American colonists felt
against the British king George III and the British government.
Historical background
In 1700 there had been only 200 thousand British colonists in America, but by 1770 there were already
2.5 million. Such large numbers needed to be dealt with carefully but the British government and the
King didn’t fully appreciate this fact.
By the time that the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies and
Great Britain had been at war for more than a year. In fact, the relations between the colonies and the
mother country had been deteriorating since 1763. Nevertheless, the British government continued to
think of the colonists as the British subjects. The thirteen colonies were (roughly north to
south): Province of New Hampshire, Province of Massachusetts Bay, Colony of Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations, Connecticut Colony, Province of New York, Province of New Jersey, Province
of Pennsylvania, Delaware Colony, Province of Maryland, Colony of Virginia, Province of North
Carolina, Province of South Carolina, and Province of Georgia.
The British Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase revenue from the colonies, such as the
Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767. The Parliament believed that these acts were a
legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs to keep them in the British
Empire.
Many colonists, however, had developed a different conception of the empire. They decided that it was
not lawful for the British to tax them without their agreement. The colonies were not directly
represented in Parliament, and colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them.
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.
The orthodox British view, dating from the Glorious Revolution of 1688, was that Parliament was
the supreme authority throughout the empire, and so, by definition, anything that Parliament did was
constitutional. In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that the British Constitution recognized
certain fundamental rights that no government could violate, not even Parliament. After the Townshend
Acts, some essayists even began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the
colonies at all. Anticipating the arrangement of the British Commonwealth, 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.
Political opinion in Britain was divided at that time. Some politicians felt that the taxation was fair
because the money would be used to pay for the defense of the American colonies against possible
French attacks. However, several important politicians agreed with the colonists that there should be
“no taxation without representation”.
In 1773 a group of colonists at the port of Boston threw a shipload of tea into the sea rather than pay
tax on it. The event became known as “the Boston Teaparty”. The British government answered by
closing the port. But the colonists then decided to prevent British goods from entering America until
the port was opened again. This was rebellion, and the government decided to defeat it by force. The
American War of Independence had begun. Many British politicians openly supported the colonists.
They were called “radicals”. For the first time British politicians supported the rights of the king’s
subjects abroad to govern themselves and to fight for their rights against the king. The war in America
gave strength to the new ideas of democracy and of independence in Britain.
On April 19, 1775, when armed conflict began between Britain and the 13 colonies (the nucleus of the
future United States), the Americans claimed that they sought only their rights within the British
Empire. At that time few of the colonists consciously desired to separate from Britain. As the American
Revolution proceeded during 1775–76 Britain undertook to assert its sovereignty by means of large
armed forces. As a result, the majority of Americans increasingly came to believe that they must secure
their rights outside the empire. The losses and restrictions that came from the war greatly widened
the breach between the colonies and the mother country. Moreover, it was necessary to assert
independence in order to secure as much French aid as possible.
Even after the initial battles in the Revolutionary War broke out, few colonists desired complete
independence from Great Britain, and those who did –- like John Adams– were considered radical.
Things changed over the course of the next year, however, as Britain attempted to crush the rebels with
all the force of its great army. In his message to Parliament in October 1775, King George III railed
against the rebellious colonies and ordered the enlargement of the royal army and navy. News of his
words reached America in January 1776, strengthening the radicals’ cause and leading many
conservatives to abandon their hopes of reconciliation. That same month, the recent British
immigrant Thomas Paine published “Common Sense,” in which he argued that independence was a
“natural right” and the only possible course for the colonies. The pamphlet sold more than 150,000
copies in its first few weeks in publication.
By the summer of 1776 the Revolutionary War was in full swing and the movement for independence
from Britain had grown. As a result, the delegates of the Continental Congress were faced with a vote
on the issue. In mid-June 1776, a so-called five-man committee was tasked with drafting a formal
statement of the colonies’ intentions.
Drafting the Declaration
While political maneuvering was setting the stage for an official declaration of independence, a
document was being written to explain the decision. As it was already mentioned, on June 11, 1776,
Congress appointed a "Committee of Five" to draft a declaration. The Committee consisted of John
Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R.
Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut.
The committee left no minutes, so there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded.
Contradictory accounts were written many years later by Jefferson and Adams, and they are not
entirely reliable—although frequently cited. What is certain is that the committee discussed the general
outline that the document should follow, and decided that Jefferson would write the first draft.
Jefferson had earned a reputation as an eloquent voice for the patriotic cause after his 1774 publication
of “A Summary View of the Rights of British America”. The committee in general, and Jefferson in
particular, thought that Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded the committee to
choose Jefferson and promised to consult with him personally.
Considering Congress's busy schedule, Jefferson probably had limited time for writing over the next
seventeen days, and likely wrote the draft quickly. He then consulted the others and 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."
An idealized depiction of (left to right) Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson working
on the Declaration (Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1900)
As Jefferson drafted it, the Declaration of Independence was
divided into five sections, including an introduction, a preamble, a
body (divided into two sections – indictment and denunciation)
and a conclusion. In general terms, the introduction effectively
stated that seeking independence from Britain had become
“necessary” for the colonies. While the body of the document
outlined a list of grievances against the British crown, the
preamble includes its most famous passage: “We hold these truths
to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration
Benjamin Franklin and John Adams reviewed Jefferson’s draft. They
preserved its original form, but struck passages likely to meet with
controversy or skepticism, most notably passages blaming King George
III for the transatlantic slave trade and those blaming the British people
rather than their government. The committee presented the final draft
before Congress on June 28, 1776.
Adoption and signing
The Continental Congress reconvened on July 1, and the following day 12 of the 13 colonies adopted
Lee’s resolution for independence. The process of consideration and revision of Jefferson’s declaration
(including Adams’ and Franklin’s corrections) continued on July 3 and into the late morning of July 4,
during which Congress deleted and revised some one-fifth of its text. The delegates made no changes
to that key preamble, however, and the basic document remained Jefferson’s words. Congress officially
adopted the Declaration of Independence later on July 4 (though most historians now accept that the
document was not signed until August 2).
The opening of the original printing of the Declaration, printed on July 4,
1776 under Jefferson's supervision. The engrossed copy was made later
(shown on the right). Note that the opening lines differ between the two
versions.
The Declaration became official when Congress voted for it on July 4. Signatures of the delegates were
not needed to make it official. 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,
the exact date when each person signed it has long been the subject of debate. Jefferson, Franklin, and
Adams all wrote that the Declaration had been signed by Congress on July 4. 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.
The Declaration was transposed on paper, adopted by the Continental Congress, and signed by John
Hancock, President of the Congress, on July 4, 1776, according to the 1911 record of events by
the U.S. State Department under Secretary Philander C. Knox. On August 2, 1776, a parchment paper
copy of the Declaration was signed by 56 persons. Many of these signers were not present when the
original Declaration was adopted on July 4. Signer Matthew Thornton from New Hampshire was
seated in the Continental Congress in November; he asked for and received the privilege of adding his
signature at that time, and signed on November 4, 1776.
On July 4, 1776, Continental Congress President John Hancock's signature authenticated the United States Declaration of
Independence.
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, 1776. In
1986, legal historian Wilfred Ritz argued that historians had misunderstood the primary documents and
given too much credence to McKean, who had not been present in Congress on July 4. According to
Ritz, about thirty-four delegates signed the Declaration on July 4, and the others signed on or after
August 2. Historians who reject a July 4 signing maintain that most delegates signed on August 2, and
that those eventual signers who were not present added their names later.
Two future U.S. presidents were among the signatories: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. The most
famous signature on the engrossed copy is that of John Hancock, who presumably signed first
as President of Congress. Hancock's large, flamboyant signature became iconic, and the term John
Hancock emerged in the United States as an informal synonym for "signature". A commonly circulated
but apocryphal account claims that, after Hancock signed, the delegate from Massachusetts
commented, "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!"
Various legends emerged years later about the signing of the Declaration, when the document had
become an important national symbol. In one famous story, John Hancock supposedly said that
Congress, having signed the Declaration, 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.
Table 1. Chronology of events
June 11, 1776
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston appointed to a committee to
draft a declaration of independence.
June 12-27, 1776
Jefferson, at the request of the committee, drafts a declaration, of which only a fragment exists. Jefferson's clean, or "fair"
copy, the "original Rough draught," is reviewed by the committee. Both documents are in the manuscript collections of the
Library of Congress.
June 28, 1776
A fair copy of the committee draft of the Declaration of Independence is read in Congress.
July 1-4, 1776
Congress debates and revises the Declaration of Independence.
July 2, 1776
Congress declares independence as the British fleet and army arrive at New York.
July 4, 1776
Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in the morning of a bright, sunny, but cool Philadelphia day. John Dunlap
prints the Declaration of Independence. These prints are now called "Dunlap Broadsides." Twenty-four copies are known to
exist, two of which are in the Library of Congress. One of these was Washington's personal copy.
July 5, 1776
John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, dispatches the first of Dunlap's broadsides of the Declaration of
Independence to the legislatures of New Jersey and Delaware.
July 6, 1776
Pennsylvania Evening Post of July 6 prints the first newspaper rendition of the Declaration of Independence.
July 8, 1776
The first public reading of the Declaration is in Philadelphia.
July 9, 1776
Washington orders that the Declaration of Independence be read before the American army in New York
July 19, 1776
Congress orders the Declaration of Independence engrossed (officially inscribed) and signed by members.
August 2, 1776
Delegates begin to sign engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence. A large British reinforcement arrives at New
York after being repelled at Charleston, S.C.
January 18, 1777
Congress, now sitting in Baltimore, Maryland, orders that signed copies of the Declaration of Independence printed by
Mary Katherine Goddard of Baltimore be sent to the states.
International influence of the Declaration
The British Government did its best to dismiss the Declaration as a trivial document issued by
disgruntled colonists. British officials commissioned propagandists to highlight the declaration’s flaws
and to rebut the colonists’ complaints. The Declaration divided British domestic opposition, as some
American sympathizers thought the Declaration had gone too far, but in British-ruled Ireland it had
many supporters.
The rapid transmission and translation of the Declaration around the Atlantic World and across Europe
indicated the systems of communication and the common arguments that bound together the late
eighteenth-century international community. It appeared in London newspapers in mid-August 1776,
had reached Florence and Warsaw by mid-September, and a German translation appeared in
Switzerland by October. The Spanish-American authorities actively banned its distribution, but other
obstacles - not least the fact that it was written in English - stood in the way of its circulation.
The first copy of the Declaration sent to France - the most likely and sought-after ally for the new
United States - went astray. A second copy arrived only in November 1776, when American
independence was already old news throughout Europe. By that time, too, the British government of
Lord North had commissioned an anonymous rebuttal of the Declaration by a young conservative
pamphleteer and lawyer, John Lind, and his friend, the even younger philosopher, Jeremy Bentham.
Bentham's blistering attack on the "contemptible and extravagant" "opinions of the Americans on
Government" in his Short Review of the Declaration foreshadowed his later criticisms of the "nonsense
upon stilts" he found in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. The Declaration
thereby became a primary document in a larger international debate over the origins, the scope and the
limits of rights, both collective and individual.
The Franco-American Treaty was signed only in February 1778 but it helped to ensure ultimate
American victory over British forces. If, however, the United States had been soundly defeated at the
battle of Saratoga or Yorktown, the American rebellion might be only as famous today as the other
failed independence movements of the late eighteenth century, in Corsica, Montenegro, Greece, or the
Crimea, for example. The Declaration of Independence might then be just another historical curiosity,
known only to scholars and to a dwindling band of hard-core nationalists keeping the flame of
independence alive.
The recognition by Britain of the colonies' independence by the Peace of Paris in 1783 indisputably
confirmed what the Declaration had contentiously affirmed: that the colonies were free and
independent states not just de facto but de jure, too.
The Declaration’s most important diplomatic effect was to allow for recognition of the United States by
friendly foreign governments. The Sultan of Morocco mentioned American ships in a consular
document in 1777, but Congress had to wait until the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France for a formal
recognition of U.S. independence. The Netherlands acknowledged U.S. independence in 1782.
Although Spain joined the war against Great Britain in 1779, it did not recognize U.S. independence
until the 1783 Treaty of Paris. Under the terms of the treaty, which ended the War of the American
Revolution, Great Britain officially acknowledged the United States as a sovereign and independent
nation.
The loss of such a large portion of British America, at the time Britain's most populous overseas
possession, is seen by some historians as the event defining the transition between the "first" and
"second" empires, in which Britain shifted its attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific
and later Africa. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, had argued that colonies were
redundant, and that free trade should replace the old mercantilist policies that had characterised the first
period of colonial expansion, dating back to the protectionism of Spain and Portugal. The growth of
trade between the newly independent United States and Britain after 1783 seemed to confirm Smith's
view that political control was not necessary for economic success.
The Declaration of Independence became a source of inspiration outside the United States. It
encouraged Antonio de Nariño and Francisco de Miranda to strive toward overthrowing the Spanish
empire in South America, and it was quoted with enthusiasm by the Marquis de Mirabeau during
the French Revolution. It remains a great historical landmark in that it contained the first formal
assertion by a whole people of their right to a government of their own choice.
Internal impact
It cannot be denied that the Declaration was somehow neglected in the years immediately following the
American Revolution, having served its original purpose in announcing the independence of the United
States. Early celebrations of Independence Day largely ignored the Declaration, as did early histories of
the
Revolution.
The act of
declaring
independence
was
considered
important,
whereas
the text announcing that act attracted little attention. The Declaration was rarely mentioned during the
debates about the United States Constitution, and its language was not incorporated into that document.
George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights was more influential, and its language was
echoed in state constitutions and state bills of rights more often than Jefferson's words. "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”.
Interest in the Declaration was revived in the 1790s with the emergence of the United States's first
political parties. Throughout the 1780s, few Americans knew or cared who wrote the Declaration. But
in the next decade, Jeffersonian Republicans sought political advantage over their rival Federalists by
promoting both the importance of the Declaration and Jefferson as its author. 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.
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 it. But this view faded away,
like the Federalist Party itself, and, before long, the act of declaring independence became synonymous
with the document.
John Trumbull's famous painting is often identified as a depiction of the signing
of the Declaration, but it actually shows the drafting committee presenting its
work to the Congress.
In
1817,
Congress
commissioned John
Trumbull's famous
painting of the signers, which was exhibited to large crowds before being installed in the Capitol. The
earliest commemorative printings of the Declaration also appeared at this time, offering many
Americans their first view of the signed document Collective biographies of the signers were first
published in the 1820s giving birth to what Garry Wills called the "cult of the signers". In the years that
followed, many stories about the writing and signing of the document were published for the first time.
When interest in the Declaration was revived, the sections that were most important in 1776 were no
longer relevant: the announcement of the independence of the United States and the grievances against
King George. But the second paragraph was applicable long after the war had ended, with its talk of
self-evident truths and unalienable rights. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights lacked sweeping
statements about rights and equality, and advocates of groups with grievances turned to the Declaration
for support. Starting in the 1820s, variations of the Declaration were issued to proclaim the rights of
workers, farmers, women, and others. In 1848, for example, the Seneca Falls Convention of women's
rights advocates declared that "all men and women are created equal"
Since 1952 the original parchment document of the Declaration of Independence has resided in the
National Archives exhibition hall in Washington, D.C.
Conclusion
As the first formal statement by a nation’s people asserting their right to choose their own government,
the Declaration of Independence became a significant landmark in the history of democracy. In
addition to its importance in the fate of the fledgling American nation, it also exerted a tremendous
influence outside the United States, most memorably in France during the French Revolution. Together
with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence can be regarded as one of
the three essential founding documents of the United States government.
Some of the phrases of the declaration have steadily exerted profound influence in the United States,
especially the proclamation that, “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.” Although the meanings of these phrases, together with
conclusions drawn from them, have been endlessly debated, the declaration has served to justify the
extension of American political and social democracy.
The British Empire acknowledge the independence of its American colonies only in 1883, several years
after the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed by the Congress. Therefore, the
Declaration didn’t have immediate juridical effect on the integrity of the British Empire. It cannot be
denied however that the document was an important step on the way of achieving not only de facto but
also de jure independence of the newly formed American states from the British Empire.
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