The First of Its Kind
In less than a week from when this blog is posted, the United States will celebrate the signing and reading of the Declaration of Independence. It is the first document of its kind that the world has ever seen. This was the first time a group of individuals put them together in a single document.
With the American Revolution well underway, Richard Henry Lee, a member from Virginia, submitted a motion to lay out the reasons the colonies were fighting for independence. The motion was passed on Friday, June 11th, 1776, and its intent was to codify, if you will, the reasons we were fighting the richest and most powerful country in the world to shape our own destiny.
On August 23rd, 1775, and shortly after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, King George III issued a proclamation that every colonist who supported the rebellion was a traitor and could be hanged. Thus, the idea of putting pen to paper and listing the reasons why we are fighting for independence.
Like most political bodies, a committee was formed that included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson. Since Jefferson had the best “hand” and was a more “polished writer, he was given the task of writing the document that was edited by Thomas Paine and John Adams.
Jefferson secluded himself in the flat he was renting and went to work. He borrowed liberally from John Locke’s writings, particularly his Two Treatises on Government and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract. As he wrote, Jefferson consulted the other members of the committee, and what was submitted to the Second Continental Congress on June 28th was ready for debate.
The Declaration of Independence has 27 separate grievances and is a blunt document. On July 4th, 1776, after a week of debate, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence with a few changes and read it aloud to the members of Congress. By July 8th, the document had been printed and was being distributed throughout the 13 Colonies.
Ultimately, 56 men signed the document. George Washington was not one of the signers because he was with the Continental Army in New York. When he received a copy on July 7th, Washington had it read aloud to the Continental Army.
Our Declaration of Independence has inspired others. In France, the National Assembly approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789. The French Revolution followed three years later.
In the same year, the Belgians and Dutch declared their independence from Austria-Hungary with their Manifesto of the Brabant People. Then, after the turn of the century, independence movements in Central and South America used our Declaration of Independence as their template for wanting to get out from under the yoke of Spanish rule.
It would behoove all of us, including the 535 members of Congress, to take a moment to read and reflect on the words in this document. Doing so might give us all perspective on the courage and fortitude of our Founding Fathers, who were willing to risk everything – life, property, family, and freedom – to create this wonderful country of ours.
Behold, a brilliant document has been bequeathed to us, forsake it not!!!
John Trumbull’s painting of the debate over the Declaration of Independence.