Declaration of Independence

Table of Contents

Introduction
Preparations for the Declaration of Independence
Drafting the Declaration
Draft Revision
Passage of Independence
Debating and Editing the Declaration
Signing and Response
Aftermath


Introduction

The Declaration of Independence was a long time coming for its supporters in America. Historian Crane Brinton wrote: "In America hardly a colony escaped some form of rioting in the period between the Stamp Act [1765] and Lexington [1775], and all of them saw a steady growth of agitation through merchants' committees, correspondence committees, Sons of Liberty, and similar groups."¹ The impact of the Declaration would be a far longer lasting. Long after the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, its impact was felt around the world. Declaration author Thomas Jefferson wrote John Adams in 1821: "The flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them."²

In early 1776 the American forces impelling dissolution of the bonds with England accelerated - especially after publication of English immigrant Thomas Paine's Common Sense on January 6. More and more Americans realized that relations with the mother country had deteriorated to the point of separation and divorce. Paine wrote: "We have boasted the protection of Great Britain, without considering that her motive was interest not attachment; that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from her enemies on her own account, from those who had no quarrel with us on any other account, and who will always be our enemies on the same account."³ In February in a revised version of his phenomenally popular pamphlet published in February, Paine wrote: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birth-day of a new world is at hand."⁴ Paine's booklet had a dramatic impact on moving public opinion to support of independence. As Paine concluded, "however strange it may appear to some, or however unwilling they may be to think so, matters not, but many strong and striking reasons may be given to show that nothing can settle our affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined DECLARATION FOR INDEPENDENCE." In addition to Paine's reasoning in Common Sense, historian Jack Rakove wrote that another "source of its remarkable success was Paine's vivid imagery. Though his train of thought sometimes meandered, Paine always knew how to regain readers' attention with arresting turns of phrase."⁵

Thomas Paine helped frame the question of independence for his fellow Americans. Paine maintained, according to John Ferling, that "if the American Revolution succeeded, generations yet unborn would owe a debt of gratitude to their forebearers who struggled to defend - and expand - freedom."⁶ Still, observed historian Pauline Maier: "Paine's influence was more modest than he claimed and than his more enthusiastic admirers assume. Common Sense helped provoke public debate on Independence, as did the news from England that arrived at the time of its publication. But thereafter the argument for separation from Britain among Americans turned, as it always had, on what the Mother Country did, who was responsible for its actions, and what implications those considerations carried for the American future."⁷

Words were important for the revolutionaries who founded America. They had been perfecting the language of independence for years. Historian Edmund S. Morgan noted that November 1772, a "Committee of Correspondence" in Boston was assigned "to prepare a statement of colonial rights, list violations (past, present, and future), communicate these to other towns, and invite similar statements from similar committees in return....The Boston Committee produced its first report (which Adams wrote) on November 20, 1772. It was a ringing denunciation of a dozen ways in which England had violated colonial liberties."⁸ Such documents themselves were based on the experience and reading of America's leaders. The leading Founders were an experienced and educated bunch - well read in classics and recent political philosophy. (The signers of the Declaration of Independence were an educated group. Historian Crane Brinton wrote: "Of its fifty-six signers thirty-three held college degrees in an age when few ever went to college; only about four had little or nor formal education."⁹) The Founders were governmental innovators as well as governmental thinkers. Historian Forrest McDonald noted that "Patriots were agreed that the proper ends of government were to protect people in the lives, liberty, and property and that these ends could best be obtained through a republican form. They had had abundant experience - probably more Americans had participated directly in government at one level or another than had any other people on earth - and if their experience turned out to be inadequate, enough of them were familiar with the theoretical works of Aristotle and Polybius, of Machiavellii and Harrington, of Locke and Hume and Montesquieu, to see them through."¹⁰

The Founders read and picked among classical and contemporary scholars to design their new governments at the state and national levels. Historian Walter A. McDougall wrote that "educated colonists from New England to the Carolinas read and wrote intensely and with utter self-consciousness, which is one reason their steps toward independence were gradual and in every case reactions to British actions. What they were trying to do was to understand history, apply its lessons to their own thorny problems, and arrive at conclusions that would not create worse problems in the future."¹¹ Historian Forrest McDonald noted that "the Framers were politically multilingual; they could speak in the language of Bolingbroke, Montesquieu, Locke, the classical republicans, Hume, and many others, whichever seemed rhetorically appropriate to the particular argument at hand."¹² Framers like Washington's neighbor George Mason read widely among European thinkers. Biographer Robert Allen Rutland wrote: "The influence of John Locke is discernible in Mason's writing in the years just prior to 1776. But Mason was able to apply those principles to local politics and to give them a new meaning in their American application. He believed in equality for freemen, free elections, annual rotation in office, and a free press. He saw the necessity for designating the people as the source of all political power."¹³ Historian Carl Becker wrote: "Locke, more perhaps than any one else, made it possible for the eighteenth century to believe what it wanted to believe: namely, that in the world of human relations as well as in the physical world, it was possible for men to 'correspond with the general harmony of Nature'; that since man, and the mind of man, were integral parts of the work of God, it was possible for man, by the use of his mind, to bring his thought and conduct, and hence the institutions by which he lived, into a perfect harmony with the Universal Natural Order. In the eighteenth century, therefore, these truths were widely accepted as self evident: that a valid morality would be a 'natural morality,' a valid religion would be a 'natural religion,' a valid law of politics would be a 'natural law.' This was only another way of saying that morality, religion, and politics ought to conform to God's will as revealed in the essential nature of man." Becker wrote: "Locke's natural law is the law of reason, its only compulsion is an intellectual compulsion, the relations which it prescribes such as would exist in men should follow reason alone."¹⁴

Americans had to be selective in their political philosophers because they viewed themselves as special and distinct from European influences. Historian Edmund S. Morgan wrote: "Adams was sure that America could resist the evil if men like himself stood out against the insidious process. England had carried freedom into the modern world was failing to cherish it. Now in this dark hour it was up to Americans to keep freedom alive in the world. Americans, Adams wrote in a piece intended for the newspapers, were predestined for this special role. 'They know,' he said, 'that Liberty has been skulking about in Corners from the Creation, and has been hunted and persecuted, in all Countries, by cruel Power. But they flatter themselves that America was designed by Providence for the Theatre, on which Man was to make his true figure, on which science, Virtue, Liberty, Happiness and Glory were to exist in Peace.'"¹⁵

Carl Becker wrote: "The truth is that the philosophy of Nature, in its broader aspects and in its particular applications, was thoroughly English. English literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is steeped in this philosophy. The Americans did not borrow it, they inherited it...In political theory and in political practice the American Revolution drew its inspiration from the parliamentary struggle of the seventeenth century. The philosophy of the Declaration was not taken from the French. It was not even new; but good old English Doctrine newly formulated to meet a present emergency."¹⁶ Historian Jeffry H. Morrison noted that the founders were great borrowers. "There was not a man among them - not Jefferson, not Franklin, not even the cerebral Madison, certainly not Washington - who was a truly original political thinker or profound philosopher in his own right."¹⁷ Political scientist Garret Ward Sheldon concluded: "The political theory contained in the Declaration...reflects the three dominant ideologies present during the American Revolution and the founding of the American republic. Those political philosophies were British liberalism (after The Second Treatise of Government by John Locke), Classical Republicanism (drawn from ancient Greek and Roman political thinkers, such as Aristotle and Cicero), and Christianity (especially the Reformed theology of John Calvin, prevalent in most of the colonial churches)."¹⁸ The documents produced by the Founders show both continuity with the English tradition and a deliberate break with it. Historian Pauline Maier wrote: "The milestones of English history are marked not so much by stone monuments as by parchment documents, including an abundance of addresses, petitions, and declarations. Members of the Continental Congress were imitating their English ancestors, as they readily acknowledged, when they sent addresses or letter to the people of England, Ireland, and Quebec, submitted petitions to the King, issued a declaration on taking up arms, and commissioned another on Independence."¹⁹

Though Adams' work is less well known than the works of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Mason, or John Marshall, he was an influential synthesizer of political ideology and the natural rights philosophy on which the country was constructed. According to Benjamin Rush, Harvard-educated Adams had the most "learning probably, both ancient and modern, than any man who subscribed to the Declaration of Independence."²⁰ Adams wrote: "If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right of freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave."²¹ In his Thoughts on Government in 1776, Adams wrote "We ought to consider what is the end of government, before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow, that the form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best. All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue. Confucius, Zoroaster, Socrates, Mahomet, not to mention authorities really sacred, have agreed in this."²²

The civil process of producing documents was as fundamental to the American Founding as the process of winning battles (or avoiding annihilating defeat). Historian Walter A. McDougall wrote that the First Continental Congress in 1774 "turned to the issues of rights and resistance, for which the more militant members had plans in their pockets. The first was a Declaration of Rights inspired by Virginia's Fairfax Resolves and Massachusetts' Suffolk Resolves. It rejected Parliamentary authority over internal colonial affairs and asserted each colony's right to see to its own defense. (Redcoats Go Home!)"²³ Jefferson biographer Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., wrote: "A Summary View of the Rights of British America was indeed a bold statement. Although too extreme for 1774, it would not long be so regarded. Its circulation propelled Jefferson into the front ranks of the champions of American rights and established those credentials that two years later placed him on the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence."²⁴ Political scientist Harry V. Jaffa wrote that The Summary View of the Rights of British America was "almost certainly was a major reason that Jefferson was chosen as a draftsman (with John Dickinson) of the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms in July 1775 and a year later of the Declaration of Independence."²⁵

In the spring of 1775, Peyton Randolph asked Jefferson, then 31, to compose a resolution for the Virginia House of Burgesses - a "Declaration on the Necessity of Taking Up Arms." Jefferson wrote: "We conceive that we alone are the judges of the condition, circumstances and situation of our people, as Parliament are of theirs." Jefferson biographer Willard Sterne Randall wrote:"Only a few days after Jefferson had taken his seat at Virginia's green-blaize-covered table in the State House, he had been appointed vice chairman of a committee writing a Declaration on the Necessity of Taking Up Arms to be published by Washington as soon as he arrived at camp outside Boston. The document was much more important now after the lethal affair at Boston."²⁶ The necessity of taking up arms would over the next year become the necessity to declare independence.

Important documents came in the form of resolutions and speeches. By 1775, public opinion was maturing. In a speech on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, Massachusetts leader Joseph Warren said: "Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rests the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves."²⁷


Preparations for the Declaration of Independence

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's legislature met upstairs in the State House while the Continental Congress convened on the first floor in a large room in which the desks of delegates faced east and were arranged by state. It was not a love fest on the first floor. William M. Hogeland wrote: "People from different colonies disliked one another anyway. Getting to know the habits, smells, tropes, and pomposities of fellow delegates, under unpredictable circumstances, in an unsettling city, kept the delegates skittish and prickly."²⁸ There were personality clashes spurred by delicate egos - such as the oversized one possessed by Massachusetts businessman John Hancock. Moreover, the Founders moved at different speeds to the conclusion that only independence would solve the problems created by their association with Britain. Those who moved quickly became the country's leaders. "Within a decade Washington, Adams, and Jefferson had evolved from virtually disinterested bystanders to activists who pulsated with a revolutionary mentality," wrote historian John Ferling. "Each yearned for a world in which the individual enjoyed greater independence. Each had moved, and since his youth had been moving, toward a conception of freedom as an escape from dependence."²⁹ Some like Pennsylvania's Benjamin Franklin labored for rapprochement even after he realized that reconciliation was effectively dead. Historian Pauline Maier asked: "Was there any realistic prospect of such a settlement? By 1775 Jefferson and others in the vanguard of colonial resistance had moved beyond any desire to return to the situation of 1763."³⁰

Appointed to the Continental Congress in June 1775, Jefferson helped compose a response to the policies of Lord North. Almost immediately, Jefferson was appointed to a committee charged with preparing a "Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms." Pennsylvania's cautious John Dickinson had primary responsibility for the document but incorporated many ideas from Jefferson's proposed draft. Historian Lance Banning wrote: "Dickinson, an influential leader since the early days of the resistance, thought the language would foreclose the possibility of reconciliation with the mother country. Dickinson, as Jefferson recalled, 'was so honest a man, and so able a one, that he was greatly indulged even by those who could not feel his scruples.' The committee simply passed the job to him, and notwithstanding general 'disgust' with the 'humility' of Dickinson's own language, 'Congress gave a signal proof of their indulgence to Mr. Dickinson, and of their great desire not to go too fast for any respectable portion of our body,' by approving his revision and then permitting Dickinson himself to draft its second petition to the king. 'Mr. Dickinson's delight...was the only circumstance which reconciled them to it.'"³¹

Dickinson's draft concluded: "Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable." It was Dickinson who fine-tuned Jefferson's language, but Jefferson's ideas would be resurrected in his later Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms, "Our attachment to no nation upon earth should supplant our attachment to liberty." He added "Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us."³² In their draft of July 6, 1775, Jefferson and Dickinson wrote: "With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficient Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live as slaves."³³

Dickinson, a sickly but tough political operator with property and a political presence in both Pennsylvania and Delaware, had the advantage that attendance at Congress was not a personal sacrifice. That was not the case for Jefferson, for whom the distance from his young family was an considerable trial and mental burden. Jefferson was gone from Philadelphia from December 1775 to May 1776. Virginia had a tacit rotation system among its five-member delegation to insure coverage and allow its members to return home. When Jefferson returned to the Congress just two months after his mother died in March 1776, many state delegates had changed. By the time that Jefferson returned to Congress, the independence issue had been advanced by forceful advocates like Massachusetts cousins John and Samuel Adams, who at 54 he was 13 years older than John. John was the front man in congressional debates; Sam was the backroom deal maker and persuader. Sam pressed relentlessly forward for the first half of 1776. In his letters, noted biographer Mark Puls, Sam "set out a series of political goals for 1776: to win approval in Congress for a formal declaration of independence, to unite the colonies into a confederation, and to obtain a foreign alliance with France or another nation."³⁴ Sam would later question if independence might not have been proclaimed earlier, but concluded: "The Colonies were not then all ripe for so momentous a Change."³⁵

Moderates, who did not think the time was right for independence, were fighting a rear guard action - especially after Washington drove the British out of Boston in March 1776. Jack Rakove wrote: "Having consistently recognized how difficult securing independence would be, moderates now ceased to oppose adoption of those measures that their radical colleagues had insisted should be implemented prior to a final declaration. On March 19, Congress authorized privateering voyages against British chipping, an example of 'offensive' rather than 'defensive' resistance. April 6, it proclaimed American ports open to foreign vessels. Although moderates did not share the republican enthusiasm that led Jefferson to assert that the creation of new, reformed governments that become 'the whole object of the present controversy,' they agreed that, in most colonies, the improvisational rule of committees and conventions should be brought to and end."³⁶ Sam Adams wrote to James Warren on April 16: "It is folly for us to suffer ourselves any longer to be amused. Reconciliation upon reasonable terms is no part of their plan: the only alternative is independence or slavery. Their designs still are as they ever have been to subjugate us. Our unalterable resolution should be to be free. They have attempted to subdue us by force, but God be praised! in vain. Their arts may be more dangerous than their arms. Let us then renounce all treaty with them upon any score but that of total separation, and under God trust our cause to our swords."³⁷

The movement toward independence accelerated in May 1776. Samuel Adams was arguing that the conflict established that independence was already de facto reality.³⁸ On May 10, Congress passed a resolution pushing the establishment of permanent state governments to replace the old colonial ones and their improvised successors. Under the preamble authored by John Adams, Maryland and Pennsylvania were being pushed to replace their own proprietary governments. Historian Edmund Cody Burnett wrote: "The brunt of the opposition [to the Preamble] was borne by James Duane of New York and James Wilson of Pennsylvania." Adams later observed: "Mr. Duane called it to me a machine for the fabrication of Independence. I said, smiling, I thought it was independence itself, but we must have it with more formality yet."³⁹

Adams' preamble declared: "Whereas his Britannic Majesty, in conjunction with the lords and commons of Great Britain, has, by a late act of Parliament, excluded the inhabitants of these United Colonies from the protection of his crown; And whereas, no answer, whatever, to the humble petitions of the colonies for redress of grievances and reconciliation with Great Britain, has been or is likely to be given; but, the whole force of that kingdom, aided by foreign mercenaries, is to be exerted for the destruction of the good people of these colonies; And whereas, it appears absolutely irreconcilable to reason and good Conscience, for the people of these colonies now to take the oaths and affirmations necessary for the support of any government under the crown of Great Britain, and it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the said crown should be totally suppressed, and all the powers of government exerted, under the authority of the people of the colonies, for the preservation of internal peace, virtue, and good order, as well as for the defense of their lives, liberties, and properties, against the hostile invasions and cruel depredations of their enemies; therefore, resolved, &c." Historian Merrill Jensen that Adams' preamble "provided the theoretical foundation for revolution which Jefferson was to elaborate in the Declaration of Independence."⁴⁰ Adams recognized that the resolution moved the question of independence toward fruition - "total absolute independence, not only of her Parliament but of her Crown, for such is the amount of the resolve of the 15th."⁴¹ John Adams wrote James Warren on May 20:

Every post and every day rolls in upon us Independence like a torrent. The delegates from Georgia made their appearance this day in Congress with unlimited powers and these gentlemen themselves are very firm. South Carolina has erected her government and given her delegates ample powers, and they are firm enough. North Carolina have given theirs full powers, after repealing an instruction given last August against Confederation and Independence. This days post has brought a multitude of letters from Virginia, all of which breath the same spirit. They agree they shall institute a government - all are agreed in this they say.⁴²

Independence efforts also accelerated outside the Pennsylvania State House, but some were focused on pressuring the state legislature meeting on the second floor - so that independence could be moved toward approval on the first floor. Pennsylvania constituted a stumbling block to a declaration of American independence. Historian Francis Jennings noted that "Pennsylvanians resisted the movement for American independence. It is misleading to suggest that they were slow in making up their minds. Quite to the contrary, the minds of a great many were determined for liberty within the empire but against secession from it."⁴³ Historian Merrill Jensen noted "Most of the older leaders of the proprietary and Quaker parties had buried their enmities and joined forces to oppose independence which they feared would destroy what they repeatedly called 'our excellent constitution.' With John Dickinson as their leader, both in the assembly and in Congress, they refused to change the instruction of November 1775 forbidding the Pennsylvania delegates in Congress to vote for independence."⁴⁴

Countervailing forces were developing in Philadelphia with behind-the-scenes help from the dynamic Massachusetts cousins, Sam and John Adams. Samuel Adams biographer John K. Alexander wrote that years later, John Adams "depicted Samuel as a less than brilliant man who was, nevertheless, a brilliant politician. According to John, his cousin 'had the art of commanding the learning, the oratory, the talents' of the best among his colleagues. Moreover, Samuel practiced his art 'without anybody's knowing or suspecting he had it, but himself and a very few friends.'"⁴⁵

Pro-independence leaders seized control of a key Philadelphia political committee and pushed first for a state convention and then for new elections to give greater representation to western Pennsylvania.⁴⁶ John Adams himself predicted that the election on May 1 would "give a finishing blow to the Quaker interest in this city - at least its ascendancy. It will strip it of all that unjust and unequal power which it formerly had over the balance of the province."⁴⁷ An eclectic collection of pro-independence politicians in Philadelphia had been working hard with Samuel Adams to elect a pro-independence slate. Historian William Hogeland noted that "In April, Pennsylvania's assembly explicitly reaffirmed instructions to its delegates to oppose any tendency in the Congress toward independence." Hard as the pro-independence forces worked in Philadelphia, the anti-independence forces worked harder. Hogeland wrote that the Pennsylvania legislative election was a critical event in the lead-up to independence. He noted that Pennsylvania voters "returned to the Pennsylvania assembly a majority of establishment lawmakers whose purpose was to ensure that Pennsylvania's delegates in the Continental Congress blocked any move for American independence."⁴⁸ Enough pro-independence soldiers were absent in the Continental Army to shift the balance narrowly against independence in Philadelphia, noted Thomas Paine.⁴⁹

Independence advocates in Philadelphia had to find other ways to change Pennsylvania's votes. Britain helped. British forces were threatening to occupy Philadelphia. In early May, British ships entered the Delaware River. There was also word that Britain was recruiting mercenaries for the army. The British government demoralized and undermined anti-independence forces by rejecting Congress's petitions. No commissioners arrived to negotiate with the Americans. "Where the plague are these commissioners," asked Pennsylvania's Robert Morris, and "what is it that detains them."⁵⁰ Historian Pauline Maier wrote: "By June 1776, however, it had become clear that in announcing their separate nationhood, Americans had to do more than demonstrate that the British Crown had forced them to the measure. They needed to overcome fear and the sense of loss, to link their cause with a purpose beyond survival alone, to raise the vision of a better future so compelling that in its name men would sacrifice even life itself."⁵¹

While anti-independence forces were being undermined, pro-independence forces were on the offensive, impatiently so. Historian William M. Hogeland noted that pro-independence forces held a rally in Philadelphia on May 20. Several thousand supporters attended in the rain.⁵² The Adamses of Massachusetts used sentiment in Virginia to push the Pennsylvania legislature toward independence. They manipulated the Philadelphia Committee of Privates and the Board of Officers of Associators to put pressure on the Pennsylvania colonial legislature. The groups and a new state convention were struggling with the leadership of the Pennsylvania legislature, which was determined to prevent a positive vote on independence. Dickinson, Morris and their allies were losing control. "The timid and trimming politics of some men of large property here have almost done their business for them," wrote John Adams. "They have lost their influence and grown obnoxious."⁵³ Historian John Ferling wrote: "Thwarted at the ballot box, the leaders of the pro-independence faction in Pennsylvania turned for help to John Adams, leader of the pro-independence faction in Congress. He was more than willing to do something....First, Adams sought to have Congress pass a resolution discouraging all colonies from instructing their delegates. Congress rejected that ideas as the antithesis of representative government."⁵⁴ As historian Edward Cody Burnett later observed, Adams was impatient to move to the next stage of America's evolution. "Little things were designedly thrown in the way of great ones," Adams later complained, "so that we could only now and then snatch a transient glimpse of the promised land."⁵⁵

Historian Gordon S. Wood wrote:"Everyone in the eighteenth century knew that the English had justified their Glorious Revolution by a violation of the assumed contract by James II. And by 1776 Americans had in a like way come to describe their Revolution as resulting from a similar break in 'the original contract between king and people.'" Wood noted: "The movement of thought in the Revolutionary era was not linear and the emergence of new and original ideas was often uneven and disconnected, not so much the result of borrowed thoughts as the consequences of varied political and social realities pushing and pulling commonly held ideas into new shapes and forms. Hence radical and mature positions anticipated by some groups as early as 1776 were not reached by others until the 1780's."⁵⁶

The British were inadvertently continuing to support pressure for independence. Hogeland noted: "British maneuvers, as always, confirmed the independents' position. News came on June 9 that a fleet of 132 British ships had left Halifax. The fleet was sure to arrive in New York in about ten days. British strategy would be to occupy New York City and command the Hudson River, New York Bay, and Long Island Sound. That would cut New England off from the other colonies."⁵⁷ As Britain was continuing to escalate the conflict, it undermined the credibility of moderates like Morris and Dickinson who sought reconciliation and negotiation.

Throughout the colonies, a grassroots independence movement helped influence state legislatures and state delegations to the Continental Congress. According to historian Pauline Maier, "The timing of the effort to mobilize popular support was, in any case, more important than who promoted it. A similar attempt six months earlier would have failed since the 'ripening' of opinion on Independence was, in the spring of 1776, a recent occurrence." The will of the people needed to be communicated to congressional delegates by their state legislatures. The delegates in Philadelphia were not independent actors. They needed instructions from their states about how to handle independence. Much of the spring was spent trying to create the necessary sets of instructions and assure that Virginia took the lead. John and Sam Adams realized that the position of Virginia was critical to the independence movement.

When he arrived that spring in Philadelphia, 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson rented two second-floor rooms far enough from the city's center that a breeze would provide relief from the urban heat. The heat was also rising for independence. "Great Britain has at last driven America to the last step, a complete separation from her, a total absolute independence not only of her Parliament but of her crown, wrote John Adams wrote his wife.⁵⁸ Historian John Ferling wrote: "A great leader must know when to act. In mid-May 1776, Adams knew the time for action had arrived."⁵⁹ Jefferson was the pen but Adams was the engine of independence - relentlessly driving the debate forward in the spring of 1776. Patrick Henry declared himself inspired by Adams, writing: "I own myself a democrat on the plan of our admired friend, J. Adams, whose pamphlet I read with great pleasure."⁶⁰

"The American Revolution was not a common event," John Adams recalled in 1818. "The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. While the king, and all in authority under him, were believed to govern in justice and mercy, according to the laws and constitution derived to them from the God of nature and transmitted to them by their ancestors, they thought themselves bound to pray for the king and queen and all the royal family, and all in authority under them, as ministers ordained of God for their good; but when they saw those powers renouncing all the principles of authority, and bent upon the destruction of all the securities of their lives, liberties, and properties, they thought it their duty to pray for the continental congress and all the thirteen State congresses, &c."⁶¹ At the time, Adams admitted his impatience, writing James Warren on June 6, 1776, that "tomorrow a Motion will be made, and a Question I hope decided, the most important that was ever agitated in America. I have no doubt but it will be decided to your satisfaction. This being done, Things will go on in the right channel and our Country will be saved."⁶²

Historian Robert Middlekaupf noted that events moved even "'old man moderation,' as Edmund Pendleton was called (behind his back)," into action in Virginia.⁶³ Pendleton was president of both the Virginia Committee of Safety and the Virginia Convention, working on both a new state constitution and a resolution to the Continental Congress favoring separation from England. Colleagues Patrick Henry and Edmund Randolph needed no instructions and moved the Virginia Convention to pass its resolution on May 15 instructing its delegations "to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from allegiance to, or dependence upon the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain."⁶⁴ The Virginia delegation reported this resolution to the Continental Congress on May 27. According to Jefferson biographer Willard Sterne Randall, "While North Carolina had already instructed its delegates to vote for independence if the majority favored it, Virginia boldly became the first to instruct its delegates to lead the way and propose a break with England."⁶⁵ On June 3, John Adams wrote Virginia's Patrick Henry with uncharacteristic optimism: "The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the sachems, the nabobs, call them by what names you please, sigh and groan and fret, and sometimes stamp and foam and curse, but all in vain. The decree is gone forth, and it cannot be recalled, that a more equal liberty than has prevailed in other parts of the earth must be established in America."⁶⁶

Pro-independence advocates in the Congress were proceeding cautiously, noted Robert Middlekaupf.⁶⁷ Samuel Adams was maneuvering to have Virgini take the lead through his friend Richard Henry Lee.⁶⁸ The 45-year-old Lee penned a resolution that Virginia's delegation in Philadelphia should "exert their ability in procuring an immediate and full declaration of independence."⁶⁹ The elitist and somewhat contrarian Lee, wrote Pauline Maier, was an unlikely revolutionary, but he pushed independence as heartily as his friend Sam Adams.⁷⁰ On June 7, Lee introduced the Virginia resolution in Philadelphia - launching the Continental Congress on the road to independence: "Resolved: That these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved of 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. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective colonies for their consideration and approbation."⁷¹ John Adams seconded the resolution. The debate on proposals began the next day. Earlier, the Pennsylvania legislature, meeting upstairs from the Continental Congress, passed a resolution instructing the state's delegation "to concur with the other delegates in Congress" to adopt "measures as shall be judged necessary for promoting the liberty, safety and interests of America."⁷² That night, South Carolina's Edward Rutledge wrote New York's John Jay: "The Congress sat till 7' o'clock this evening in consequence of a motion of R. H. Lee's rendering ourselves free & independant State. The sensible part of the House opposed the Motion - they had no objection to forming a Scheme of a Treaty which they would send to France by proper Persons & uniting this Continent by a Confederacy; they saw no Wisdom in a Declaration of Independence, nor any other Purpose to be enforced by it, but placing ourselves in the Power of those with whom we mean to treat, giving our Enemy Notice of our Intentions before we had taken any steps to execute them." As Thomas Jefferson recorded the arguments of Rutledge and his allies that day:

That tho' they were friends to the measures themselves, and saw the impossibility that we should ever again be united with Gr. Britain, yet they were against adopting them at this time:

That the conduct we had formerly observed was wise & proper now, of deferring to take any capital step till the voice of the people drove us into it:

That they were our power, & without them our declarations could not be carried into effect;

That the people of the middle colonies (Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylva, the Jerseys & N. York) were not yet ripe for bidding adieu to British connection, but that they were fast ripening & in a short time would join in the general voice of America: That the resolution entered into by this house on the 15th of May for suppressing the exercise of all powers derived from the crown, had shown, by the ferment into which it had thrown these middle colonies, that they had not yet accommodated their minds to a separation from the mother country:

That some of them had expressly forbidden their delegates to consent to such a declaration, and others had given no instructions, & consequently no powers to give such consent:

That if the delegates of any particular colony had no power to declare such colony independant, certain they were the others could not declare it for them; the colonies being as yet perfectly independant of each other:

That the assembly of Pennsylvania was now sitting above stairs, their convention would sit within a few days, the convention of New York was now sitting, & those of the Jerseys & Delaware counties would meet on the Monday following, & it was probable these bodies would take up the question of Independance & would declare to their delegates the voice of their state:

That if such a declaration should now be agreed to, these delegates must retire & possibly their colonies might secede from the Union:

That such a secession would weaken us more than could be compensated by any foreign alliance:

That in the event of such a division, foreign powers would either refuse to join themselves to our fortunes, or, having us so much in their power as that desperate declaration would place us, they would insist on terms proportionably more hard and prejudicial:

That we had little reason to expect an alliance with those to whom alone as yet we had cast our eyes:

That France & Spain had reason to be jealous of that rising power which would one day certainly strip them of all their American possessions:

That it was more likely they should form a connection with the British court, who, if they should find themselves unable otherwise to extricate themselves from their difficulties, would agree to a partition of our territories, restoring Canada to France, & the Floridas to Spain, to accomplish for themselves a recovery of these colonies:

That it would not be long before we should receive certain information of the disposition of the French court, from the agent whom we had sent to Paris for that purpose:

That if this disposition should be favorable, by waiting the event of the present campaign, which we all hoped would be successful, we should have reason to expect an alliance on better terms:

That this would in fact work no delay of any effectual aid from such ally, as, from the advance of the season & distance of our situation, it was impossible we could receive any assistance during this campaign:

That it was prudent to fix among ourselves the terms on which we should form alliance, before we declared we would form one at all events:

And that if these were agreed on, & our Declaration of Independance ready by the time our Ambassador should be prepared to sail, it would be as well as to go into that Declaration at this day.⁷³

Jefferson proposed to me to make the draught I said, "l will not." "You should do it." "Oh! no." "Why will you not? You ought do it." "I will not." "Why?" "Reasons enough." "What can be your reasons?" "Reason first - You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second - I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are much otherwise. Reason third - You can write ten times better than I can." "Well," said Jefferson, "if you are decided, I will do as well as I can." "Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting."⁸⁶

"The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason, those passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest they should give them offence. The clause too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little tender under those censures; for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.¹⁵⁸

On Monday, the 1st of July the house resolved itself into a commee of the whole & resumed the consideration of the original motion made by the delegates of Virginia, which being again debated through the day, was carried in the affirmative by the votes of N. Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, N. Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina, & Georgia. S. Carolina and Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware having but two members present, they were divided. The delegates for New York declared they were for it themselves & were assured their constituents were for it, but that their instructions having been drawn near a twelvemonth before, when reconciliation was still the general object, they were enjoined by them to do nothing which should impede that object. They therefore thought themselves not justifiable in voting on either side, and asked leave to withdraw from the question, which was given them. The commee rose & reported their resolution to the house. Mr. Edward Rutledge of S. Carolina then requested the determination might be put off to the next day, as he believed his colleagues, tho' they disapproved of the resolution, would then join in it for the sake of unanimity. The ultimate question whether the house would agree to the resolution of the committee was accordingly postponed to the next day, when it was again moved and S. Carolina concurred in voting for it. In the meantime a third member had come post from the Delaware counties and turned the vote of that colony in favour of the resolution. Members of a different sentiment attending that morning from Pennsylvania also, their vote was changed, so that the whole 12 colonies who were authorized to vote at all, gave their voices for it; and within a few days, the convention of N. York approved of it and thus supplied the void occasioned by the withdrawing of her delegates from the vote."¹⁶¹

The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason those passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest they should give them offence. The clause too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also I believe felt a little tender under those censures; for tho' their people have very few slaves themselves yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.¹⁷⁵

"Jefferson maintained his text was 'mangled' and went into a funk that lasted all summer," historian Walter A. McDougall said.¹⁷⁶ Richard Henry Lee tried to comfort Jefferson by mail; Lee himself had not been around for the debate or the vote, having returned to Virginia where his wife was sick and a state constitution was being finalized. Lee wrote: "I wish sincerely, as well for the honor of Congress, as for that of the States, that the Manuscript had not been mangled as it is. It is wonderful, and passing pitiful, that the rage of change should be so unhappily applied. However, the Thing is in its nature so good, that no Cookery can spoil the Dish for the palate of Freemen."¹⁷⁷ Congress had generally tightened and strengthened Jefferson's language. Biographer Dumas Malone wrote: "Jefferson and some of his Virginia friends believed that Congress weakened the Declaration, but there can now be little doubt that the critics strengthened it. This they did primarily by deletion."¹⁷⁸ Pauline Maier wrote that "what generations of Americans came to revere was not Jefferson's but Congress's Declaration, the work not of a single man, or even a committee, but of a larger body of men with the good sense to recognize a 'pretty good' draft when they saw it, and who were able to identify and eliminate Jefferson's more outlandish assertions and unnecessary words. So successful an exercise of group editing probably demanded a text that required cutting, not extensive rewriting. Congress's achievement was remarkable nonetheless. By exercising their intelligence, political good sense, and a discerning sense of language, the delegates managed to make the Declaration at once more accurate and more consonant with the convictions of their constituents, and to enhance both its power and its eloquence."¹⁷⁹ Still, historian Robert Middlekauff argued: "Contrary to the long-standing judgments of historians, for many reasons the Jeffersonian draft is a much more powerful statement than the one finally approved by Congress. A rejection of one people by another once joined together by 'love' is a great and moving event. It is made more affecting by the recognition that soldiers of 'our common blood' had been dispatched across the ocean to kill Americans." He argued, however, that the congressional edit was a "safer document and a less imaginative one than Jefferson's."¹⁸⁰ And noted Joseph J. Ellis, "The delegates made very few changes in the early section of the Declaration that preceded the litany of grievances against the king."¹⁸¹ The structure and thrust of the declaration remained intact. As approved, the Declaration began: "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 & 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." One phrase was added by the Congress - "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence." Carl Becker noted: "Apart from the peculiar felicities of phrasing, what strikes one particularly in reading the Declaration as a whole is the absence of declamation. Everything considered, the Declaration is brief, free of verbiage, a model of clear, concise, and simple statement."¹⁸²

Contrary to Adams' contention that the document itself was "a theatrical side show," agreement on its contents was important. Historian Joseph Ellis argued: "The obvious interest the delegates demonstrated in the content and language of the Declaration seems to indicate that they regarded it as more than a mere afterthought."¹⁸³ By spending two days on their edit, the delegates clearly showed they took their literary responsibilities as seriously as they did their political ones. Jefferson biographer Claude G. Bowers wrote: "Toward evening on the fourth of July the discussion petered out. Jefferson was always to think that the invasion of the horseflies through the open windows contributed somewhat to the termination of the debate, for Carpenter's Hall had been converted into a chamber of torture."¹⁸⁴


Signing and Response

Garry Wills argued that the declaration's importance was critical to work on the Articles of Confederation and the draft treaty with France. Indeed, argues Wills, "the men who passed the Declaration had no idea it would become as important as it did."¹⁸⁵ The actual document was not signed until more than a month after it was agreed to. John Hancock may have signed the Declaration on July 4 but he probably waited with other delegates to sign on August 2. First, the document needed to be engrossed in a finished form and New York's delegates need to receive permission to allow their endorsement. Under the document, the delegates pledged "to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." When the document was finally signed on August 2, it was under a cloud of flies that launched a vicious attack on members of the Continental Congress. On signing the document, Congress President John Hancock said: "There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head!" Rhode Island delegate Stephen Hopkins added: "My hand trembles, but my heart does not."¹⁸⁶ Because of absences, the signing process continued until November. Because of turnover in state delegations, some signers like Pennsylvania's Benjamin Rush had never been present for the debate and some of those present for the debate were not around to sign. It was a risky proposition; the lives and property the signers were truly at risk - especially the 17 who served in the Continental Army or state militias and the 11 who lost property or households to the British, and the five who were captured by the English army. Historian Woodrow Wilson wrote of the signatories: "To not a few it already began to seem a piece of mere bravado, to be repented of."¹⁸⁷

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately," reportedly said Ben Franklin at the signing. Historian Fawn M. Brodie wrote: "The proclamation of the Declaration was a serious, hanging business. That seriousness was reflected in a statement made by the overweight delegate Benjamin Harrison of Virginia to the underweight Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: "I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body, you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.'"¹⁸⁸ The delegates understood the personal danger that they were placing themselves in. As New Jersey's Abraham Clark wrote on July 2: "Let us prepare for the worst, we can Die but once."¹⁸⁹

On July 6, the Pennsylvania Evening Post published news of the Declaration. At noon on July 8, 1776, Sheriff John Nixon read the Declaration of Independence to Philadelphians gathered near what became known as Independence Hall. "There were bonfires, ringing bells, and other great demonstrations of joy upon the unanimity of the Declaration," wrote Philadelphian Christopher Marshall in his diary.¹⁹⁰ "You will see by this post, that the River is past and the Bridge is cut away," wrote John Adams in a letter at the time. "The Declaration was yesterday published and proclaimed from that awful Stage, in the Statehouse yard, by whom do you think? By the Committee of Safety!, The Committee of Inspection, and a great Crowd of People....The Bells run all Day, and almost all night. Even the Chimers, chimed away."¹⁹¹

The Declaration itself was widely reprinted. "The American Revolution was not a common event," wrote John Adams near four decades later. "The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. While the king, and all in authority under him, were believed to govern in justice and mercy, according to the laws and constitution derived to them from the God of nature and transmitted to them by their ancestors, they thought themselves bound to pray for the king and queen and all the royal family, and all in authority under them, as ministers ordained of God for their good; but when they saw those powers renouncing all the principles of authority, and bent upon the destruction of all the securities of their lives, liberties, and properties, they thought it their duty to pray for the continental congress and all the thirteen State congresses, &c." ¹⁹²

In Boston on July 18, Abigail Adams attended a reading of the Declaration: "Last Thursday after hearing a very Good Sermon I went with the multitude into King's Street to hear the proclamation for independence read and proclaimed. Some Field pieces with the Train were brought there, the troops appeared under Arms and all the inhabitants assembled there (the small pox prevented many thousands from the country). When Col. Crafts read from the Belcona [balcony] of the State House the Proclamation, great attention was paid to every word."

As soon as he ended, the cry from the Belcona, was God Save our American States and then 3 cheers which rended the air, the Bells rang, the privateers fired, the forts and Batteries, the cannon were discharged, the platoons followed and every face appeard joyful. Mr Bowdoin then gave a Sentiment, Stability and perpetuity to American independence. After dinner the kings arms were taken down from the State House and every vestige of him from every place in which it appeard and burnt in King Street. Thus ends royall Authority in this State, and all the people shall say Amen.¹⁹³

"With respect to our rights, and the acts of the British government contravening those rights, there was but one opinion on this side of the water. All American whigs thought alike on these subjects. When forced, therefore, to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification. This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. 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. All its authority rests then on the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters, printed essays, or in the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, &c." ²¹²

1. Crane Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution, p. 69.
2. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, September 12, 1821).
3. Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 1776.
4. Thomas Paine, Common Sense, revised, February 1776.
5. Jack Rakove, Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America, p. 95.
6. John Ferling, Setting the World: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution, p. 130.
7. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 91.
8. Edmund S. Morgan, The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89, pp. 56-57.
9. Crane Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution, p. 102.
10. Forrest McDonald, Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution, p. 1.
11. Walter A. McDougall, Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History,, 1585-1828, p. 222.
12. Forrest McDonald, Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution, p. 235.
13. Robert Allen Rutland, The Birth of the Bill of Rights, 1776-1791, p. 35.
14. Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, pp. 57,66.
15. Edmund S. Morgan, The Meaning of Independence: John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, p. 14.
16. Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, p. 79.
17. Jeffry H. Morrison, John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, p. 65.
18. Scott Douglas Gerber, editor, The Declaration of Independence: Origins and Impact, p. 16 (Garrett Ward Sheldon, "The Political Theory of the Declaration of Independence").
19. Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, p. 50.
20. Michael Novak, On Two Wings: Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding, p. 165.
21. John Adams, "Rights of the Colonists," 1772.
22. John Adams, Thoughts on Government in 1776, 1776.
23. Walter A. McDougall, Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History,, 1585-1828, p. 229.
24. Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson, p. 27.
25. Harry V. Jaffa, A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War, p. 6.
26. Willard Sterne Randall, Thomas Jefferson: A Life, p. 243.
27. (Joseph Warren, Boston Massacre Oration, March 6, 1775).
28. William M. Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776, p. 43.
29. John Ferling, Setting the World Afire: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution, p. 90.
30. Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, p. 21.
31. Lance Banning, Jefferson & Madison: Three Conversations from the Founding, p. 82.
32. Matthew Spalding, editor, The Founders' Almanac, p. 171 (Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms, July 6, 1775).
33. Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, "Declaration of the Cause and Necessity of Taking up Arms," July 6, 1775.
34. Mark Puls, Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution, p. 180.
35. Pauline Maier, The Old Revolutionaries, p. 26 (Letter from Samuel Adams to John Pitts, July 17, 1776).
36. Jack Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress, p. 100.
37. (Letter from Sam Adams to James Warren on April 16, 1776).
38. Mark Puls, Samuel Adams, p. 182.
39. Edmund Cody Burnett, The Continental Congress, pp. 158-159.
40. Merrill Jensen, The Final Break, p. 684.
41. (Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, May 17, 1776).
42. Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, editor, the Spirit of 'Seventy-six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, p. 295 (Letter from John Adams to James Warren, May 20, 1776).
43. Francis Jennings, Creation of America, p. 172.
44. Merrill Jensen, Founding of a Nation, p. 682.
45. John K. Alexander, Samuel Adams: The Life of an American Revolutionary, pp. 2-8
46. Merrill Jensen, Founding of a Nation, p. 682.
47. (Letter from John Adams to James Warren, March 21, 1776).
48. William M. Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776, p. 45, 10.
49. John Ferling, Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free, p. 276.
50. Jack Rakove, Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America, p. 98.
51. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, pp. 95-96.
52. William M. Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776, p. 126.
53. (Letter from John Adams to William Tudor, June 24, 1776).
54. John Ferling, Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free, p. 276.
55. Edward Cody Burnett, The Continental Congress, p. 162.
56. Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, p. 270, 273.
57. William M. Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776, p. 10, 163.
58. (Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, May 17, 1776).
59. John Ferling, Setting the World Afire: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution, p. 131
60. (Letter from Patrick Henry to Richard Henry Lee, May 20, 1776).
61. (Letter from John Adams to H. Niles, February 13 1818).
62. (Letter from John Adams to James Warren, June 6, 1776).
63. Robert Middlekaupf, The Glorious Cause, p. 323.
64. Willard Sterne Randall, Thomas Jefferson: A Life, p. 262
65. Willard Sterne Randall, Thomas Jefferson: A Life, p. 263
66. (Letter from John Adams to Patrick Henry, June 3, 1776).
67. Robert Middlekaupf, The Glorious Cause, p. 325.
68. Mark Puls, Samuel Adams, p. 183.
69. William M. Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776, p. 141.
70. Pauline Maier, The Old Revolutionaries, pp. 178-185.
71. (Richard Henry Lee, "Resolution in Congress," June 7, 1776).
72. Page Smith, A New Age Now Begins, Volume I, p. 692.
73. Thomas Jefferson, January 26, 1821.
74. Claude G. Bowers, The Younger Jefferson, p. 141
75. William M. Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776, pp. 152-153.
76. Robert Middlekaupf, The Glorious Cause, p. 325.
77. Edward Cody Burnett, The Continental Congress, p. 177.
78. Merrill Jensen, The Founding of a Nation: a History of the American Revolution, 1763-1776, p. 691.
79. (Letter from John Adams to Benjamin Kent, June 22, 1776).
80. Garry Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, pp. 325-326.
81. (Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, January 6, 1821).
82. Bob Gingrich, Founding Fathers Vs. History Revisionists: In Their Own Words, Founding Fathers Set the Record Straight, p. 159
83. Bernard Bailyn, To Begin the World Anew, p. 43.
84. Edmund S. Morgan,. The Meaning of Independence: John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, p. 17.
85. John Ferling, Setting the World Afire: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution, p. 100.
86. (Letter from John Adams to Timothy Pickering, August 6, 1822).
87. (Letter from John Adams to Timothy Pickering, August 6, 1822).
88. Carl Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, p. 547 (Letter from Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, June 21, 1776).
89. (Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Lord Richard Howe, July 20, 1776).
90. John Ferling, A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic, p. 170.
91. Garry Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 350.
92. John Ferling, A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic, p. 171.
93. (Letter from John Adams to Timothy Pickering, August 6, 1822).
94. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 99.
95. Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, p. 55.
96. Daniel J. Boorstin, Cleopatra's Nose: Essays on the Unexpected, p. 174.
97. James Grant, John Adams: Party of One, p. 331.
98. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825).
99. Alf J. Mapp, Jr., Thomas Jefferson: Passionate Pilgrim, p. 364.
100. Walter A. McDougall, Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History,, 1585-1828, p. 244.
101. Willard Sterne Randall, Thomas Jefferson: A Life, pp. 272-273.
102. James Truslow Adams, The Living Jefferson, p. 94.
103. Scott Douglas Gerber, editor, The Declaration of Independence: Origins and Impact, p. 13 (Gerard W. Gawalt, "Drafting the Declaration").
104. Mark Puls, Samuel Adams, p. 185.
105. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 135.
106. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 104.
107. Dumas Malone, Jefferson the Virginian, p. 221.
108. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, August 30, 1823).
109. Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: the American Revolution, 1763-1789, p. 329.
110. Walter A. McDougall, Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History,, 1585-1828, p. 245.
111. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 269.
112. Edmund S. Morgan, The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89, p. 76.
113. Roger G. Kennedy, Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase, p. 87.
114. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, pp. 110-111.
115. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 115.
116. Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, p. 205.
117. Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, p. 206
118. Robert Allen Rutland, The Birth of the Bill of Rights, 1776-1791, p. 27.
119. Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, p. 5, 18, 7
120. Matthew Spalding, editor, The Founders' Almanac, p. 217.
121. Matthew Spalding, editor, The Founders' Almanac, p. 231.
122. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 143.
123. Carl L. Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, p. 195-197.
124. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, August 30, 1823).
125. Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, p. 16.
126. David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, p. 60.
127. Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, p. 269.
128. Edmund S. Morgan, The Meaning of Independence: John Adams, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, p. 65.
129. Christopher Hitchens, Thomas Jefferson: Author of America, p. 26
130. Catherine Drinker Bowen, John Adams and the American Revolution, p. 602.
131. Julian Boyd, editor, The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of its Text, p. 13.
132. Dumas Malone, Jefferson the Virginian, pp. 223-224.
133. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825)
134. Pauline Maier, American Scripture, p. 134.
135. (Letter from John Adams to Timothy Pickering, August 6, 1822).
136. (Letter to James Madison 30 Aug 1823)
137. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Delaplaine, April 12, 1817).
138. Carl L. Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, p. 136
139. Carl L. Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, p.151
140. Garry Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 331.
141. Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, p. 43.
142. Carl L. Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, p. 5.
143. William M. Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776, p. 10, 165.
144. Thomas Fleming, The Intimate Minds of the Founding Fathers, p. 280.
145. (Letter from John Adams to John Winthrop, Jun 23, 1776).
146. Jack Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress, p. 100.
147. Mark Puls, Samuel Adams, p. 186.
148. John Adams, Autobiography, July 1, 1776.
149. Thomas Fleming, Liberty! The American Revolution, p. 173.
150. John Ferling, A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic, p. 183.
151. James Grant, John Adams: Party of One, p. 174.
152. (Speech by Daniel Webster, August 2, 1826).
153. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to William P. Gardner, February 19, 1813).
154. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, August 30, 1823).
155. Stephen Hess, America's Political Dynasties, p. 22.
156. Garry Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 94.
157. John Adams, "Autobiography," July 1, 1776.
158. Notes for an Autobiography Jan 6, 1821
159. (Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography)
160. Esmond Wright, Franklin of Philadelphia, p. 245.
161. (Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography)
162. John Ferling, Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free, p. 330.
163. Robert G. Ferris and Richard E. Morris, The Signers of the Declaration, p. 182.
164. John Ferling, Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free, p. 332.
165. Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, editor, the Spirit of 'Seventy-six: the Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, p. 310 (Letter from Caesar Rodney to Thomas Rodney, July 4, 1776).
166. William M. Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776, p. 183.
167. John Patrick Diggins, The Portable John Adams, pp. 156-157 (Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776).
168. (Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776).
169. Edmund S. Morgan, The Meaning of Independence, p. 18.
170. (Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776).
171. John Ferling, Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free, p. 337.
172. William M. Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776, p. 175.
173. Christopher Hitchens, Thomas Jefferson: Author of America, p. 23
174. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, August 30, 1823).
175. (Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography)
176. Walter A. McDougall, Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History,, 1585-1828, p. 245.
177. (Letter from Richard Henry Lee to Thomas Jefferson, July 21, 1776).
178. Dumas Malone, Jefferson the Virginian, p. 222.
179. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 150.
180. Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: the American Revolution, 1763-1789, pp. 329-330.
181. Joseph J. Ellis, American Creation, p. 55.
182. Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence: a Study in the History of Political Ideas, P. 201.
183. Joseph J. Ellis, American Creation, p. 55.
184. Claude G. Bowers, The Younger Jefferson, p. 154.
185. Garry Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, p. 344.
186. Matthew Spalding, editor, The Founders' Almanac: A Practical Guide to the Notable Events, Greatest Leaders & Most Eloquent Words of the American Founding, p. 147.
187. Woodrow Wilson, A History of the American People, Volume II, p. 258.
188. Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, p. 124.
189. John Ferling, A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic, p. 174.
190. David G. McCullough, John Adams, p. 137.
191. (Letter from John Adams to Samuel Chase, July 9, 1776).
192. (Letter from John Adams to H. Niles, February 13,1818).
193. (Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, July 21, 1776).
194. Matthew Spalding, editor, The Founders' Almanac: A Practical Guide to the Notable Events, Greatest Leaders & Most Eloquent Words of the American Founding, p. 145 (George Washington, General Orders, July 2, 1776).
195. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 156
196. Douglas Southall Freeman, Washington (abridgment by Richard Harwell), p. 279.
197. (George Washington, General Orders, July 9, 1776).
198. David Hackett Fischer, Washington's Crossing, p. 28.
199. Ron Chernow, George Washington: A Life, p. 237.
200. Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, pp. 132-133.
201. Matthew Spalding, editor, The Founders' Almanac, p.177 (George Washington, General Orders, August 23, 1776).
202. (Letter from John Adams to Samuel Chase, July 1, 1776).
203. John C. Miller, Triumph of Freedom, p. 129.
204. (Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776).
205. Forrest McDonald, E Pluribus Unum: The Formation of the American Republic, 1776-1790, p. 370.
206. David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, p. 70.
207. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 131.
208. David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, p. 63.
209. David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, p. 64-66.
210. John Ferling, Setting the World Afire: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution, p. 282.
211. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, pp. 154-155
212. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825).
213. Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, p. 307.
214. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826).
215. (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826).
216. Pauline Maier, American Scripturve: Making the Declaration of Independence, p. xix.
217. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, p. 191.
218. Edmund S. Morgan, The Birth of the Republic, p. 76.
219. Matthew Spalding, "Independence Forever: The 225th Anniversary of the Fourth of July," June 19, 2001 Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, p. 2.
220. (Abraham Lincoln, speech on the Dred Scott Decision, June 26, 1857)
221. (Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858).
222. (Abraham Lincoln, Response to a Serenade, July 7, 1863).
223. Martin P. Johnson., "Lincoln Greets the Turning Point of the Civil War," July 7, 1863, Lincoln Herald Fall 2004, p. 106.
224. John Ferling, John Adams: A Life, p. 444.
225. (Frederick Douglas, Speech, July 5, 1852)