United States Declaration of Independence

In June 1776 Congress appointed a committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman to prepare a statement explaining independence. Jefferson undertook the principal drafting; Adams and Franklin suggested changes before the text was considered by Congress. Surviving draft material preserves aspects of that collaborative revision.

The independence resolution adopted on 2 July made the political decision that the colonies should be free and independent states. The Declaration adopted on 4 July explained the case publicly. Congressional revisions and the committee’s supervision of printing turned a draft argument into an authorized document for circulation.

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The introduction explains why a political community separating from another should state its reasons to the world. The text then sets out claims about human equality, rights and the consent of the governed. It argues that people may alter or abolish a government that persistently destroys the purposes for which government is instituted.

The body applies this argument through grievances against George III concerning legislation, representative institutions, justice, military power and other matters. It also recounts unsuccessful appeals for redress. The conclusion ends allegiance to the British Crown and claims the powers of independent states to make war and peace, form alliances and conduct commerce.

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John Dunlap printed the approved Declaration, and copies were sent promptly to assemblies, committees and Continental Army commanders for publication and reading. The early broadside carried the names of congressional president John Hancock and secretary Charles Thomson. Printing helped distribute the authorized wording beyond the room in which it had been adopted.

On 19 July Congress ordered an engrossed parchment copy for delegates to sign. Signing began on 2 August, with additional signatures added later, eventually totaling fifty-six. Adoption, printing, engrossing and signing therefore form a documented sequence through which the Declaration acquired several surviving physical forms.

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The Declaration addressed colonists, soldiers, British authorities and audiences abroad. Explaining separation could consolidate support while supplying language for the search for foreign partners. Public readings and printed distribution carried a congressional decision into towns, military settings and the international environment of the Revolutionary War.

Drafts, printed versions and the engrossed parchment allow later readers to compare composition, revision and dissemination. The rights language continued to enter political arguments long after 1776. The document’s immediate work was to announce independence and give reasons for it, while subsequent documents, including the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, organized governmental institutions in greater detail.

References: [3] [4]