Since then, it has become a well-known statement on human rights, particularly its 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." Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his policies and his rhetoric, as in the Gettysburg Address of 1863. Its original purpose was to announce independence, and references to the text of the Declaration were few in the following years. The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing 27 colonial grievances against King George III and by asserting certain natural and legal rights, including a right of revolution. The sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. This engrossed copy (finalized, calligraphic copy) was ordered by Congress on July 19 and signed primarily on August 2. The best-known version of the Declaration is a signed copy that is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and which is popularly regarded as the official document. Jefferson's original draft is preserved at the Library of Congress, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, as well as Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress. The source copy used for this printing has been lost and may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand. It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, "The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America" although Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4, the date that the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved.Īfter ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. The Declaration was a formal explanation of why Congress had voted to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. John Adams, a leader in pushing for independence, had persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress edited to produce the final version. The Committee of Five had drafted the Declaration to be ready when Congress voted on independence. The Lee Resolution for independence was passed by the Second Continental Congress on July 2 with no opposing votes. The declaration was signed by 56 of America's Founding Fathers, congressional representatives from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step in forming the United States of America.
Enacted during the American Revolution, the Declaration explains why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, is the pronouncement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776.
0 kommentar(er)
