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| United States Declaration of Independence | |
|---|---|
 The 1823 facsimile of the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence | |
| Created | June–July 1776 |
| Ratified | July 4, 1776 |
| Location | Engrossed copy: National Archives Building Rough draft: Library of Congress |
| Author(s) | Thomas Jefferson, Committee of Five |
| Signatories | 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress |
| Purpose | To announce and explain separation from Great Britain[1]: 5 |
| Part of a series on the |
| American Revolution |
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The Declaration of Independence, formally titled The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America in both the engrossed version and the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, who convened at Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in the colonial era capital of Philadelphia. The 56 delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence came to be known as the nation's Founding Fathers.
The Declaration explains to the world why the Thirteen Colonies regarded themselves as independent sovereign states no longer subject to British colonial rule. The Declaration has since become one of the most circulated, reprinted, and influential documents in world history.
The Second Continental Congress charged the Committee of Five, including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, with authoring the Declaration. Adams, a leading proponent of independence, persuaded the Committee of Five to charge Jefferson with writing the document's original draft, which the Second Continental Congress then edited. Jefferson largely wrote the Declaration in isolation between June 11 and June 28, 1776, from the second floor of a three-story home he was renting at 700 Market Street in Philadelphia.
The Declaration was a formal explanation of why the Continental Congress voted to declare American independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, over a year after the American Revolutionary War commenced with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, in April 1775. Two days prior to the Declaration's unanimous adoption, the Second Continental Congress unanimously passed the Lee Resolution, which established the consensus of the Congress that the British had no governing authority over the Thirteen Colonies. 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.
After unanimously ratifying the text on July 4, 1776, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was published as the printed Dunlap broadside, which was widely distributed. The Declaration was first read to the public simultaneously at noon on July 8, 1776, in three exclusively designated locations: Easton, Pennsylvania; Philadelphia; and Trenton, New Jersey.[2]
What Jefferson called his "original Rough draft", one of several revisions,[3] is preserved at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., complete with changes made by Adams and Franklin, and Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress. The best-known version of the Declaration is the signed copy displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., which is popularly regarded as the official document; this copy, engrossed by Timothy Matlack, was ordered by Congress on July 19, and signed primarily on August 2, 1776.[4][5]
On November 19, 1863, following the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln made the Declaration the centerpiece of his Gettysburg Address, a brief but powerful and enduring 271-word statement dedicating what became Gettysburg National Cemetery.[6]
The Declaration of Independence has proven an influential and globally impactful 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." Stephen Lucas called the Declaration of Independence "one of the best-known sentences in the English language."[7] Historian Joseph Ellis has written that the document contains "the most potent and consequential words in American history".[8] The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive. This view was notably promoted by Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy and argued that it is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted.[9]: 126
The 56 delegates who signed the Declaration represented each of the Thirteen Colonies: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
The Declaration of Independence inspired many similar documents in other countries, the first being the 1789 Declaration of United Belgian States issued during the Brabant Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands. It also served as the primary model for numerous declarations of independence in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Oceania following its adoption.[10]: 113
- ^ Becker, Carl L. (1970) [1922]. The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas (Revised ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-394-70060-0.
- ^ "The Declaration of Independence in Easton", The Historical Database]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
journals.psu.eduwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Did You Know ... Independence Day Should Actually Be July 2?" (Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. June 1, 2005. Archived from the original on June 26, 2012. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
- ^ "The Declaration of Independence: A History". The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. January 17, 2010. Archived from the original on September 17, 2008. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
- ^ Hirsch, David; Van Haften, Dan (2017). The ultimate guide to the Declaration of Independence (First ed.). El Dorado Hills, California. ISBN 978-1-61121-374-4. OCLC 990127604.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Lucas, Stephen E. (1989). "Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document". In Benson, Thomas W. (ed.). American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. p. 85.
- ^ Ellis, Joseph (2007). American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic. New York: Knopf. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-0-307-26369-8.
- ^ McPherson, James (1991). Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505542-X.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Global Historywas invoked but never defined (see the help page).