United States Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress, which met at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. The building was later renamed Independence Hall. The delegates who took part became known as the nation's Founding Fathers. The Declaration explained why the Thirteen Colonies saw themselves as independent sovereign states that were no longer under British colonial rule. It has become one of the most circulated, reprinted, and influential documents in history.

The American Revolutionary War began in April 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. As tensions grew, delegates from the colonies met again in the Continental Congress on May 10 in Philadelphia. On August 23, 1775, the British king, George III, declared them to be in rebellion.

On June 11, 1776, Congress chose the Committee of Five, made up of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, to write and present the Declaration. Adams, a leading supporter of independence, convinced the committee to ask Jefferson to write the first draft, which Congress then edited. Jefferson wrote most of it between June 11 and 28, 1776. The Declaration gave political, moral, and legal reasons for breaking away from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Two days before the Declaration was adopted, Congress passed the Lee Resolution, which stated that the British no longer had the authority to govern the Thirteen Colonies. The Declaration listed 27 colonial grievances against the king and stated certain natural and legal rights, including a right of revolution.

The delegates knew that signing the Declaration was an act of high treason against the Crown, a crime that was punishable by torture and death. On July 6, two days after it was adopted, it was published in The Pennsylvania Evening Post. The first public readings took place at the same time on July 8, 1776, at noon, in three planned locations: Trenton, New Jersey, Easton, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia. The Declaration was shared in several forms. The printed Dunlap broadside was widely spread after the signing, and two original copies are kept at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The signed copy, which is generally considered the official document, is on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. It was engrossed (handwritten) by Timothy Matlack, ordered by Congress on July 19, and signed mostly on August 2, 1776.

The Declaration has had a powerful influence as a statement on human rights around the world. Abraham Lincoln saw it as the moral standard the United States should work toward, and he believed it set out the principles by which the Constitution should be understood. In 1863, Lincoln made the Declaration the centerpiece of his Gettysburg Address, which is widely considered one of the most famous speeches in American history. The Declaration's second sentence, "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," is considered one of the most important and famous lines in world history. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis wrote that these words are "the most potent and consequential words in American history."

Background

Further information: First Continental Congress and Second Continental Congress

Main article: Lee Resolution

By July 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was adopted, the Thirteen Colonies and the Kingdom of Great Britain had been at war for over a year. Tensions had grown since 1763. In 1767, Parliament passed laws such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts to raise money from the colonies, which it saw as a fair way for them to help pay for remaining part of the British Empire. The colonists had no direct voice in Parliament, so they argued that it had no right to levy taxes on them. This argument was part of a larger disagreement about the British Constitution and how much power Parliament had. Since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the British view had been that Parliament was the supreme authority, but many colonists believed certain fundamental rights could not be taken away by any government. By 1774, American writers such as Samuel Adams, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson argued that the colonies, with their own lawmaking bodies, were connected to the rest of the empire only through loyalty to the Crown. Colonists protested these taxes in events like the Pine Tree Riot in 1772 and the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Some people also looked ahead to a future like the British Commonwealth.

In 1774, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, which colonists called the Intolerable Acts. They were meant to punish the colonists for the Gaspee Affair and the Boston Tea Party. Many colonists saw these acts as a threat to the liberty of all of British America. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. It organized a boycott of British goods and petitioned the king to cancel the acts, but King George and Lord North refused. Fighting began in the American Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, yet most colonists still hoped for peace. The Second Continental Congress met at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in May 1775. The king rejected Congress's second petition and issued a Proclamation of Rebellion. In early 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, which made a strong case for independence. Paine's ideas spread quickly, and after Washington had his Continental Army read it, the army won a victory in the Battle of Trenton against Hessian soldiers. Paine later wrote The American Crisis. In February 1776, colonists learned of the Prohibitory Act, which Parliament passed. John Adams saw it as a declaration of independence and believed Parliament had effectively ended the ties first. Support for independence grew further when it was confirmed that the king had hired German soldiers to use against the colonists.

Many Americans then expressed support for separation from Britain, and historian Pauline Maier identifies more than ninety such local declarations. North Carolina became the first colony to explicitly allow its delegates to vote for independence, and William Henry Drayton also spoke out in South Carolina. The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is now thought to be most likely not authentic. Some colonies, especially the middle colonies, resisted. Advocates of independence saw Pennsylvania as the key. Congress passed a resolution on May 10 that urged colonies without suitable governments to form new ones. Richard Henry Lee and John Dickinson also supported this resolution. On May 15, Congress passed a preamble written by John Adams, which said that the rule of the king had to be ended. The Maryland delegation walked out in protest, and the governments still under proprietary rule were targeted. The Virginia Convention then told its delegates to propose independence. On June 7, Richard Henry Lee presented a three-part resolution to Congress. Congress postponed the vote for three weeks, but a committee began preparing a document explaining independence. In late June, the Connecticut Assembly, New Hampshire, and Delaware authorized independence. Thomas McKean led a new Conference of Committees in Pennsylvania, and the Provincial Congress of New Jersey removed Royal Governor William Franklin. The Annapolis Convention changed its mind after Samuel Chase visited Maryland. Only New York remained without authorization, and its delegates could not vote until after Congress had made its decision.

Draft and adoption

Main article: Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence

On June 11, 1776, Congress chose the Committee of Five to write a declaration. Its members were John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. Jefferson wrote most of the first draft alone, in a rented house at 700 Market Street in Philadelphia, within walking distance of Independence Hall. His writing was influenced by the ideas of John Locke and Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense. The committee presented the draft to Congress on June 28, 1776. Congress then spent two days editing it, shortening it by a fourth. It also removed Jefferson's claim that King George III had forced slavery onto the colonies, in order to moderate the document and appease South Carolina and Georgia, both of which had significant involvement in the slave trade. Jefferson felt Congress had "mangled" his draft, but his biographer John Ferling described the final Declaration as "the majestic document that inspired both contemporaries and posterity."

Congress turned the draft into a debate over independence, meeting as a committee of the whole with Benjamin Harrison of Virginia presiding. John Dickinson tried one last time to delay the decision, but John Adams argued for an immediate declaration. On July 2, 1776, the vote was taken, with each colony casting one vote. Pennsylvania and South Carolina first voted against independence, while New York abstained because it had not been given permission to vote for it. Delaware's delegation was split between Thomas McKean and George Read, so it cast no vote. After South Carolina changed its position, Robert Morris and Dickinson abstained, and the arrival of Caesar Rodney broke the tie in Delaware. The resolution passed with twelve votes in favor and one abstention, and the colonies formally cut their political ties with Great Britain. Adams predicted that July 2 would be celebrated, but Americans came to celebrate Independence Day on July 4, the day the final wording was approved and sent to be printed. The Articles of Confederation and the New York Provincial Congress also played a part in these events, and Edward Rutledge had asked for the vote to be postponed to reach unanimity. On July 19, 1776, Congress ordered that the word "unanimous" be added to the title of the engrossed copy, which was then to be signed by every member.

Annotated text of the engrossed declaration

The declaration does not have formal sections, but it is often discussed as having five parts: introduction, preamble, indictment of King George III, denunciation of the British people, and conclusion.

The printed copies of the signed document, known as the Goddard Broadsides, include the printed names of the people who signed the Declaration. The publisher, Mary Katherine Goddard, also had her name printed at the bottom. Goddard was the postmaster of Baltimore and was asked by the Continental Congress in 1777 to print copies of the signed Declaration. She normally signed her work as owner of the Maryland Journal as "M.K. Goddard," but her full name appears on the Declaration of Independence.

Reverse

Along the edge on the back of the document is written "Original Declaration of Independence, dated 4th July 1776." This writing helped people identify the document when it was rolled up and stored.

Influences and legal status

Historians have often tried to find the sources that shaped the words and political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson himself said the Declaration had no new ideas. Instead, it stated feelings widely shared by supporters of the American Revolution. His closest sources were his draft preamble to the Constitution of Virginia and George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, both written in June 1776. Mason was influenced by the 1689 English Declaration of Rights, which ended the rule of King James II. Some have suggested the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath (1320) and the Dutch Act of Abjuration (1581) as models, but few scholars accept this today. English thinker John Locke is usually named as a main influence. Jefferson called him one of "the three greatest men that have ever lived." In 1922, historian Carl L. Becker wrote that the Declaration closely follows some sentences in Locke's second treatise on government. Later scholars questioned how large Locke's influence was. In 1937, Ray Forrest Harvey argued for the Swiss thinker Jean Jacques Burlamaqui instead, and others stressed republicanism over Locke's classical liberalism. Historian Garry Wills argued that Jefferson was shaped more by the Scottish Enlightenment, especially Francis Hutcheson.

Legal historian John Phillip Reid argued that the Declaration is less a philosophy essay and more a legal document. It is an indictment of King George for violating the colonists' constitutional rights. It follows the steps of the 1550 Magdeburg Confession, which justified resisting Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in a legal idea known as the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. Historian David Armitage argued that the Declaration was strongly influenced by de Vattel's The Law of Nations, the main international law book of the time. Armitage wrote that the Declaration's main purpose was to show the international legal independence of the United States. The Declaration does not have the force of law within the country, but it can help explain the Constitution and other laws. Historian Andrew Roberts wrote that two of the Declaration's reasons, about taxes and about Parliament's power, went to the heart of the issue and justified the whole rebellion.

Signing

Main article: Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence

The Declaration became official when Congress voted to adopt it on July 4. That day, John Hancock, the President of Congress, signed it. Fifty-six delegates signed it too, but no one is sure exactly when each person signed. Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams all wrote that Congress signed on July 4. In 1796, signer Thomas McKean disagreed, because some signers were not there that day. Historians have mostly agreed with McKean that most delegates signed on August 2, 1776, and those who were absent added their names later.

In an 1811 letter, Benjamin Rush described the August 2 signing as a time of "pensive and awful silence." He said that Benjamin Harrison of Virginia joked to the small Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts that Gerry would dance in the air for an hour or two after the others were hung, while Harrison's heavier body would end quickly. Hancock's large signature became famous, and his name came to mean "signature" in the United States. The Syng inkstand used at the signing was also used at the signing of the United States Constitution in 1787.

Publication and reaction

After the Second Continental Congress approved the final wording on July 4, a handwritten copy was taken to the printing shop of John Dunlap, who printed about 200 broadsides overnight. The first public readings took place on July 8. In Philadelphia, John Nixon read it in the yard of present-day Independence Hall, and it was also read in Trenton, New Jersey and Easton, Pennsylvania. The first newspaper to print it was The Pennsylvania Evening Post, on July 6. It was soon widely read and printed throughout the Thirteen Colonies. President of Congress John Hancock sent a copy to General George Washington, who had it read to his troops in New York City on July 9, hoping it would inspire them. After hearing it, crowds in many cities tore down signs and statues that stood for royal authority, including a statue of King George in New York City, whose lead was used to make musket balls. One of the first British readings is believed to have taken place at the Rose and Crown Tavern on Staten Island, New York, in the presence of General Howe. News reached Russia through a dispatch from the Russian chargé d'affaires in London, Nikita Panin. Some people who opposed the Declaration wrote replies. The North Ministry secretly asked pamphleteer John Lind to write a response, and Thomas Hutchinson, the former royal governor of Massachusetts, also published a rebuttal. Lind's pamphlet included an attack on the idea of natural rights written by Jeremy Bentham. Both pamphlets questioned how slaveholders in Congress could say that "all men are created equal" without freeing their own slaves. Some slaveholders did free people after the war. William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration who had fought in the war, freed his slave Prince Whipple because of his revolutionary ideals. From 1790 to 1810, the share of free blacks in the Upper South rose to 8.3 percent of the black population, up from less than one percent.

In late November 1776, a group of 547 Loyalists, mostly from New York, signed a Declaration of Dependence at Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan, pledging their loyalty to the Crown.

History of the documents

Main article: Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence

The official copy was printed on July 4, 1776, under Jefferson's supervision. It was sent to the states and to the Army, and it was widely reprinted in newspapers. A slightly different "engrossed copy" (shown at the top of this article) was made later so that members could sign it. The engrossed version is the one most widely shared in the 21st century. The opening lines differ between the two versions.

The signed copy is called the engrossed or parchment copy. It was probably handwritten by clerk Timothy Matlack. Because the engrossed copy was poorly cared for during the 19th century, a facsimile made in 1823 became the basis for most modern reproductions. In 1921, the engrossed copy was moved from the State Department to the Library of Congress, along with the United States Constitution. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the documents were moved for safekeeping to the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox in Kentucky, where they stayed until 1944. In 1952, the engrossed Declaration was transferred to the National Archives, where it is now on permanent display in the "Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom".

Historian Julian P. Boyd argued that the Declaration, like Magna Carta, is not a single document, and he considered the printed broadsides ordered by Congress to be official texts too. The first printed version was a broadside printed on the night of July 4 by John Dunlap of Philadelphia. Dunlap printed about 200 copies, and 26 are known to survive. The 26th copy was found in The National Archives in England in 2009. In 1777, Congress asked Mary Katherine Goddard to print a new broadside that listed the signers. Several early handwritten copies and drafts have also been kept. Jefferson kept a four-page draft that he later called the "original Rough draught," and historians now see it as one of a series of drafts used by the Committee of Five before the text went to Congress. Changes were made during writing, such as Franklin possibly changing "sacred and undeniable" to "self-evident." The copy submitted to Congress on June 28 has been lost. On April 21, 2017, a second engrossed copy was announced as discovered in the archives of West Sussex County Council in Chichester, England. Its signatures are not grouped by state, which the finders believe points to signatory James Wilson. In March 2025, at the request of President Donald Trump, a copy of the Declaration was hung in the Oval Office.

Legacy

Main article: Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)

Further information: Slavery in the colonial United States

After the American Revolution, the Declaration received little attention. Early Independence Day celebrations mostly ignored it, and it was rarely mentioned during debates about the United States Constitution. Later, the Declaration became important in the fight against slavery in the United States. Abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and John Brown drew on its ideas, and Abraham Lincoln argued that the statement that "all men are created equal" guided the nation's founding principles. Lincoln's view of the Declaration later became very influential.

The Declaration also inspired people around the world. Leaders of the French Revolution admired it, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen grew largely from the ideals of the American Revolution. Other countries copied sections of it or were inspired by it when they declared independence. Inside the United States, groups seeking equal rights used its words, including the Seneca Falls Convention for women's rights in 1848, Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, and Harvey Milk in 1978. Today the Declaration appears in paintings, films, music, and memorials, such as the Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence.