United States Declaration of Independence

United States Declaration of Independence
1823 facsimile of the engrossed copy
Created	June–July 1776
Ratified	July 4, 1776
Location	Engrossed copy: National Archives Original: lost Rough draft: Library of Congress
Author(s)	Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, et al.
Signatories	56 delegates to the Continental Congress
Purpose	Announce and explain separation from Britain

The United States Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, announcing that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration was a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The birthday of the United States of America—Independence Day—is celebrated on July 4, the day the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress.

Contrary to a once-common misconception, Congress did not sign the Declaration of Independence on July 4 1776. The Declaration was first published as a typeset broadside; the famous handwritten version was created after July 19, and was signed by most Congressional delegates on August 2. This copy, usually regarded as the Declaration of Independence, is now on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Although celebrated upon publication, the Declaration was initially neglected following the American Revolution. Its symbolic stature grew over the years, most notably through the influence of Abraham Lincoln, who viewed the Declaration as an ideal for which the nation should strive, especially as expressed in Jefferson's famous preamble:

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.

Background

Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration, believed that Parliament was a "foreign legislature" that was unconstitutionally trying to extend its sovereignty into the colonies.

Parliamentary sovereignty

By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year. Relations between the colonies and the mother country had been deteriorating since the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763. The war had plunged the British government deep into debt, and so Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies. Parliament believed that these acts, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, were a legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs of the empire.

Many colonists, however, had developed a different conception of the British Empire. Because the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, they argued, Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them, a view expressed by the slogan "No taxation without representation". After the Townshend Acts, some essayists began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all. 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.

Congress convenes

The issue of parliamentary sovereignty became a crisis after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774 to punish the Province of Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. Many colonists saw the Coercive Acts as a violation of the British Constitution and a threat to the liberties of all of British America, not just Massachusetts. Colonists convened the First Continental Congress in September 1774, which organized a boycott of British goods and petitioned the king for repeal of the acts. These measures were unsuccessful.

In 1775, most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with Great Britain, even after fighting began in Massachusetts at Lexington and Concord in April. When the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in May 1775, some delegates hoped for eventual independence, but no one yet advocated declaring it. Although many colonists no longer believed that Parliament had any sovereignty over them, they still professed loyalty to King George, whom they hoped would intercede on their behalf. In late 1775, the king rejected Congress' second petition, issued a Proclamation of Rebellion, and announced before Parliament on 26 October that he was even considering "friendly offers of foreign assistance" to suppress the rebellion. When it became clear that the king was not inclined to act as a conciliator, colonial attachment to the Empire was weakened, and a movement towards declaring independence became a reality, especially after the publication of Thomas Paine's enormously popular pamphlet Common Sense on January 10 1776. Paine not only argued in favor of independence; he introduced many to an alternative to monarchy: republicanism.

Towards independence

On May 15, the Virginia Convention, then meeting in Williamsburg, passed a motion instructing Virginia's congressional delegation "to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or dependence upon, the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain". In accordance with those instructions, on June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented a resolution of independence to Congress. The resolution, seconded by John Adams, read in part:

Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

The resolution met with resistance in the ensuing debate. Moderate delegates, while conceding that reconciliation with Great Britain was no longer possible, argued that a resolution of independence was premature. Delegates from most of the middle colonies—Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York—had not yet been authorized by their governments to vote for independence. Therefore, further discussion of Lee's resolution was postponed for three weeks. Until then, while support for independence was consolidated in the colonies, Congress decided that a committee should prepare a document announcing and explaining independence in the event that the resolution of independence was approved.

Draft and adoption

On June 11, 1776, Congress appointed a "Committee of Five", consisting of John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut, to draft a declaration. Because the committee left no minutes, there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded—accounts written many years later by Jefferson and Adams, although frequently cited, are contradictory and not entirely reliable. What is certain is that the committee, after discussing the general outline that the document should follow, decided that Jefferson would write the first draft. Considering Congress' busy schedule, Jefferson probably had limited time for writing over the next 17 days, and likely wrote the draft quickly. He then consulted the others, 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."

John Trumbull's famous painting is usually incorrectly identified as a depiction of the signing of the Declaration, but it actually shows the drafting committee presenting its work to the Congress.

The committee's draft was set aside while Congress resumed debate on Lee's resolution of independence. John Dickinson made one last effort to delay the decision, but following a speech by John Adams, Congress approved the resolution on July 2. Twelve of the thirteen delegations voted in favor; the New York delegation abstained, since they had not yet been authorized to vote for independence, although they would be allowed to do so by the New York Provincial Congress a week later. With the passage of the resolution of independence, the colonies had officially severed political ties with Great Britain. In a now-famous letter written to his wife on the following day, John Adams predicted that July 2 would become a great American holiday.

After voting in favor of the resolution of independence, Congress turned its attention to the committee's draft of the declaration. Over several days of debate, Congress made a few changes in wording and deleted nearly a fourth of the text, most notably a passage critical of the slave trade, changes that Jefferson resented. On July 4, 1776, the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved and sent to the printer for publication.

Text

The first sentence of the Declaration asserts as a matter of Natural Law the ability of a people to assume political independence, and acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The next section, the famous preamble, includes the ideas and ideals that were principles of the Declaration. It is also an assertion of what is known as the "right of revolution": that is, people have certain rights, and when a government violates these rights, the people have the right to "alter or abolish" that government.

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.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The next section is a list of charges against King George which aim to demonstrate that he has violated the colonists' rights and is therefore unfit to be their ruler:

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Many Americans still felt a kinship with the people of England, and had appealed in vain to the prominent among them, as well as to Parliament, to convince the King to relax his more objectionable policies toward the colonies. The next section represents disappointment that these attempts had been unsuccessful.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish [sic] brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

In the final section, the signers assert that there exist conditions under which people must change their government, that the British have produced such conditions, and by necessity the colonies must throw off political ties with the British Crown and become independent states. The conclusion incorporates language from the resolution of independence that had been passed on July 2.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Influences

Historians have often sought to identify the sources that most influenced the words of the Declaration of Independence. By Jefferson's own admission, the Declaration contained no original ideas, but was instead a statement of sentiments widely shared by supporters of the American Revolution. As he explained in 1825:

Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.

Jefferson's most immediate sources were two documents written in June 1776: his own draft of the preamble of the Constitution of Virginia, and George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Ideas and phrases from both of these documents appear in the Declaration of Independence. They were in turn directly influenced by the 1689 English Bill of Rights.

English political theorist John Locke has often been cited as a primary influence on the Declaration. As historian Carl L. Becker wrote in 1922, "Most Americans had absorbed Locke's works as a kind of political gospel; and the Declaration, in its form, in its phraseology, follows closely certain sentences in Locke's second treatise on government." The extent of Locke's influence on the American Revolution was questioned by subsequent scholars, however, who emphasized the influence of republicanism rather than Locke's classical liberalism.

Historian Garry Wills has argued that Jefferson was influenced by Scottish Enlightenment philosophers such as Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid. Stephen Lucas suggested in 1998 that Jefferson was also inspired by the Dutch Act of Abjuration when he wrote the Declaration. Both Lucas's and Wills's arguments have been disputed.

Signing the document

The engrossed copy of the signed Declaration, now badly faded, is on display at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

One of the most enduring myths about the Declaration of Independence is that it was signed by Congress on July 4 1776, immediately after it was adopted. This myth took root in part because, when the Journals of the Continental Congress were first published, the signers of the Declaration were listed in the entry for July 4, although the signed version was actually created at a later date. Decades later, even the elderly Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were misled by the published journal, and told correspondents that the Declaration had been signed on the fourth. One of the signers, Thomas McKean, was the first to correct the misconception, pointing out that some of the signers had not yet even been elected to Congress on July 4. McKean's version of the story was shown to be correct when the complete records of Congress, including the previously unprinted "Secret Journals", were published in 1821.

If a document was actually signed on July 4, it would have had just two signatures—John Hancock, president of Congress, and secretary Charles Thomson—because the first published version of the Declaration, the widely distributed Dunlap broadside, was issued over their typeset names. Hancock and Thomson may have signed the handwritten version that was sent to the printer, although historian Julian P. Boyd considered this to be unlikely and unnecessary, because the printer may have simply been told to print Hancock's and Thomson's names on the broadside.

On July 19 1776, after the New York delegation had been given permission to approve the resolution of independence, making the decision unanimous, Congress ordered a copy of the Declaration to be written on parchment for the delegates to sign. The handwritten, engrossed copy, which was probably produced by Thomson's clerk Timothy Matlack, was given the new title of "The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America". Most of the delegates who signed did so on August 2, 1776, although some signers were not present and had to sign later. The signed, engrossed copy is now on display at the National Archives.

The most famous signature on the engrossed copy is that of John Hancock, who as President of Congress signed above the other signatories. Hancock's large, flamboyant signature became iconic, and "John Hancock" emerged in the United States an informal synonym for "signature". Two future presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, were among the signatories. Edward Rutledge (age 26) was the youngest signer, and Benjamin Franklin (age 70) was the oldest signer. Late signers were Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, and Matthew Thornton (who, because of a lack of space, was unable to place his signature on the top right of the signing area with the other New Hampshire delegates, and had to place his signature on the lower right). As new delegates joined the Congress, they were also allowed to sign. A total of 56 delegates eventually signed.

Three delegates who were present during the debate never signed. Robert R. Livingston, a member of the original drafting committee, was present for the vote on July 2 but returned to New York before the August 2 signing. John Dickinson refused to sign, believing the Declaration premature. Thomas Lynch voted for the Declaration but could not sign it because of illness.

The fifty-six signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows (from north to south):

• New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
• Massachusetts: Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
• Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
• Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
• New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
• New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
• Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
• Delaware: George Read, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean
• Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
• Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
• North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
• South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
• Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Publication and effect

The Dunlap broadside was the first published version of the Declaration.

After its adoption by Congress on July 4, a handwritten draft was then sent a few blocks away to the printing shop of John Dunlap. Through the night between 150 and 200 copies were made, now known as "Dunlap broadsides". The first public reading of the document was by John Nixon in the yard of Independence Hall on July 8. One was sent to George Washington on July 6, who had it read to his troops in New York on July 9. A copy reached London on August 10. The first German translation of the Declaration was published as a broadside around July 6 1776 by the printing press of Steiner & Cist of Philadelphia.

On January 18, 1777, the Continental Congress ordered that the declaration be more widely distributed. The second printing was made by Mary Katharine Goddard. The first printing had included only the names John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Goddard's printing was the first to list all signatories.

History of the documents

Although the document signed by Congress and enshrined in the National Archives is usually regarded as the Declaration of Independence, historian Julian P. Boyd, editor of Jefferson's papers, argued that the Declaration of Independence, like Magna Carta, is not a single document. The version signed by Congress is, according to Boyd, "only the most notable of several copies legitimately entitled to be designated as official texts". By Boyd's count there were five "official" versions of the Declaration, in addition to unofficial drafts and copies.

Jefferson preserved a four-page draft that late in life he called the "original Rough draught". Known to historians as the Rough Draft, early students of the Declaration believed that this was a draft written alone by Jefferson and then presented to the Committee of Five. Scholars now believe that the Rough Draft was not actually an "original Rough draught", but was instead a revised version completed by Jefferson after consultation with the Committee. How many drafts Jefferson wrote prior to this one, and how much of the text was contributed by other committee members, is unknown. In 1947, Boyd discovered a fragment of an earlier draft in Jefferson's handwriting, the only known draft predating the Rough Draft.

Jefferson showed the Rough Draft to Adams and Franklin, and perhaps other committee members, who made a few more changes. Franklin, for example, may have been responsible for changing Jefferson's original phrase "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "We hold these truths to be self-evident". Jefferson incorporated these changes into a copy that was submitted to Congress in the name of the Committee. Jefferson kept the Rough Draft and made additional notes on it as Congress revised the text. He also made several copies of the Rough Draft without the changes made by Congress, which he sent to friends, including Richard Henry Lee and George Wythe, after July 4. At some point in the process, Adams also wrote out a copy.

The copy that was submitted to Congress by the Committee on June 28 is known as the Fair Copy. Presumably, the Fair Copy was marked up by secretary Charles Thomson while Congress debated and revised the text. This document was the one that Congress approved on July 4, making it the first "official" copy of the Declaration. The Fair Copy was sent to be printed under the title "A Declaration by the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress assembled". The Fair Copy has been lost, and was perhaps destroyed in the printing process.

The first published version of the Declaration were the Dunlap broadsides, which were issued over the printed names of John Hancock, president of Congress, and secretary Charles Thomson. The broadsides were printed on the night of July 4, 1776, by John Dunlap of Philadelphia. It is unknown exactly how many broadsides were originally printed, but the number is estimated at about 200, of which 25 are known to survive. One broadside was pasted into Congress' journal, making it what Boyd called the "second official version" of the Declaration. Boyd considered the engrossed copy to be the third official version, and the Goddard Broadside to be the fourth.

What Boyd called the "fifth offical version" was created in 1823, when printer William J. Stone was commissioned by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to create an engraving essentially identical to the engrossed copy. Stone's copy was made using a wet-ink transfer process, where the surface of the document was moistened, and some of the original ink transferred to the surface of a copper plate which was then etched so that copies could be run off the plate on a press. Because of poor conservation of the 1776 engrossed version through the 19th century, Stone's engraving, rather than the original, has become the basis of most modern reproductions.

National Bureau of Standards preserving the engrossed version of the Declaration of Independence in 1951.

Gustafson (2004) traces the paths taken by the original manuscript copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights prior to being placed permanently in the National Archives. From 1776 to 1921 the Declaration moved from one city to another and to different public buildings until placed in the Department of State library. The Constitution was never exhibited, and the Bill of Rights' provenance up to 1938 is largely unknown. From 1921 to 1952 the Declaration and the Constitution were at the Library of Congress, and the National Archives held the Bill of Rights.

In 1952, the librarian of Congress and the US archivist agreed on moving the Declaration and the Constitution to the National Archives. Since 1953 the three documents have been called the Charters of Freedom. Encased in 1951, the documents were nonetheless threatened by further deterioration by the early 1980s. In 2001, using the latest in preservation technology, conservators treated the documents and re-encased them in encasements made of titanium and aluminum, filled with inert Argon gas. They were put on display again with the opening of the remodeled National Archives Rotunda in 2003.

Legacy

Although celebrated upon publication, the Declaration was initially neglected following the American Revolution. Its symbolic stature grew over the years, most notably through the influence of Abraham Lincoln, who viewed the Declaration as an ideal for which the nation should strive. In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln noted: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." His speech was given in 1863, "four score and seven years" equals 87 years, the number of years between Lincoln's speech and 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

The Declaration has also been influential outside of the United States.

In fiction, the adoption of the Declaration of Independence was dramatized in the 1969 Tony Award-winning musical play 1776, and the 1972 movie of the same name, as well as in the 2008 television miniseries John Adams. The engossed copy of the Declaration is central to the 2004 Hollywood film National Treasure, in which the main character steals the document because he believes it has secret clues to a treasure hidden by some of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

See also

• Declaration of Independence
• History of the United States
• Articles of Confederation
• United States Constitution
• United States Bill of Rights

References

• Becker, Carl. The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas. 1922. Available online from The Online Library of Liberty and Google Book Search. Revised edition New York: Vintage Books, 1970. ISBN 0394700600.
• Boyd, Julian P. The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text. Originally published 1945. Revised edition edited by Gerard W. Gawalt. University Press of New England, 1999. ISBN 0844409804.
• Boyd, Julian P. "The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original". Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 100, number 4 (October 1976) , 438–467.
• Burnett, Edward Cody. The Continental Congress. New York: Norton, 1941.
• Christie, Ian R. and Benjamin W. Labaree. Empire or Independence, 1760-1776: A British-American Dialogue on the Coming of the American Revolution. New York: Norton, 1976.
• Dumbauld, Edward. The Declaration of Independence And What It Means Today. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950.
• Friedenwald, Herbert. The Declaration of Independence: An Interpretation and an Analysis. New York: Macmillan, 1904. Accessed via the Internet Archive.
• Hazelton, John H. The Declaration of Independence: Its History. Originally published 1906. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970. ISBN 0306719878. 1906 version available on Google Book Search
• Jensen, Merrill. The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.
• Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Knopf, 1997. ISBN 0679454926.
• Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789. Revised and expanded edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
• Pencak, William. “The Declaration of Independence: Changing Interpretations and a New Hypothesis.” Pennsylvania History 57, no. 3 (1990): 225-235.
• Rakove, Jack N. The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress. New York: Knopf, 1979. ISBN 0801828643
• Ritz, Wilfred J. "From the Here of Jefferson's Handwritten Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence to the There of the Printed Dunlap Broadside". Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 116, number 4 (October 1992), 499–512.
• Wills, Garry. Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1978. ISBN 0385089767.

External links

National Archives

• Declaration of Independence at the National Archives
• The Complete Text of the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives
• "The Declaration of Independence: A History"
• "The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence" by Stephen E. Lucas

Audio and video

• Mike Malloy reads The Declaration of Independence
• Short film released in 2002 with Hollywood actors reading the Declaration; produced by Norman Lear with an introduction by Morgan Freeman

Additional information

• The Declaration of Independence at Project Gutenberg
• US History - Declaration of Independence
• Duke University - The Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence
• Library of Congress: Declaration of Independence and Related Resources
• Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: Principles of Freedom: The Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution
• University of Virginia: Albert H. Small Declaration of Independence Collection
• PBS/NOVA: The Preservation and History of the Declaration
• National Geographic News: "U.S. Independence Celebrated on the Wrong Day?" (July 2, 2004)
• Colonial Hall: A Line by Line Historical Analysis of the Grievances

Lesson plan

• Object of History: Jefferson Desk
• "An Expression of the American Mind" - Understanding the Declaration of Independence

The signers

• Signers of the Declaration of Independence