The Declaration of Independence serves as one of America's most treasured symbols because it identifies the moment at which the nation was born and, in stirring language, describes the reasons for its birth. It announced the separation of the thirteen colonies from England and recounted, for Americans and the international community, the grievances that had led to the call for independence.
Boston Massacre By the middle of the eighteenth century, differences in life, thought, and economic interests had formed between the colonists and England. The British government tried to regulate colonial commerce in the British interest. The Stamp Act passed by Parliament in 1765 roused a violent colonial outcry as an act of taxation without representation.The Townshend Acts (1767) led to such acts of violence as the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party(1773). In 1774 Britain responded with the coercive Intolerable Acts. The first Continental Congress met in September, 1774 and petitioned King George III for redress of their grievances. The king ignored the colonists' complaints and declared the colonies were in rebellion. By the time the Second Continental Congress met in May, 1775, armed conflict had begun in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts . In June, the Continental Congress created a committee of five members to draft a statement of independence.
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston comprised the committee charged with drafting the Declaration, but the task fell to Jefferson, as he was considered the most eloquent writer. After Jefferson drafted the document, the committee and Congress made a total of eighty-six changes. Jefferson was well-versed in the ideas of the French and English Enlightenments, and he drew inspiration from English philosopher John Locke. He also used many ideas from his own draft of the Virginia Constitution, as well as the Virginia Declaration of Rights by George Mason. The Declaration of Independence claimed that if a government was tyrannical, the people had a right to overthrow it. It included a long list of the ways the British king had oppressed the colonists.
And finally it concluded that because of the king's oppressive acts, the colonies had the right to declare themselves free and independent states.
The History Channel provides more information on interpreting the Document here.
Happy Independence Day my fellow Americans.
Xbone Stormsurgezz
