{{Short description|1776 American national founding document}}
{{Good article}}
{{Pp-semi-indef}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2015}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2026}}
{{Infobox document
| document_name=United States
Declaration of Independence
| image=United_States Declaration of Independence.jpg
| image_caption=The 1823 facsimile of [[Timothy Matlack]]'s engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence
| date_created=June–July 1776
| date_ratified={{start date and age|1776|07|04}}
| location_of_document= Engrossed copy: [[National Archives Building]]
Rough draft: [[Library of Congress]]
| writer=[[Thomas Jefferson]], [[Committee of Five]]
| signers=[[Founding Fathers of the United States|56 delegates]] to the [[Second Continental Congress]]
| purpose=To announce and explain separation from Great Britain{{Sfn|Becker|1922|p=5}}
| wikisource = United States Declaration of Independence
}}
{{American Revolution sidebar}}
The '''Declaration of Independence''', headed '''The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen {{not a typo|united}} States of America''' on the document directed to be engrossed by Congress on July 19, 1776, is the founding document of the [[United States]]. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the [[Second Continental Congress]], who were convened at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed [[Independence Hall]], in [[Philadelphia]]. These delegates became known as the nation's [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Fathers]]. The Declaration explains why the [[Thirteen Colonies]] regarded themselves as independent [[sovereign state]]s no longer subject to [[British colonization of the Americas|British colonial]] rule, and has become one of the most circulated, reprinted, and influential documents in history.
The [[American Revolutionary War]] commenced in April 1775 with the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]]. Amid the growing tensions, delegates of the several colonies reconvened the Continental Congress on May 10 at Philadelphia. The British monarch, King [[George III]], proclaimed them to [[Proclamation of Rebellion|be in rebellion]] on August 23, 1775.
On June 11, 1776, Congress appointed the [[Committee of Five]] ([[John Adams]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[Robert R. Livingston]], and [[Roger Sherman]]) to draft and present the Declaration. Adams, a leading proponent of independence, persuaded the committee to charge Jefferson with writing the document's original draft, which the Congress then edited. Jefferson largely wrote the Declaration between June 11 and 28, 1776. The Declaration presented the political, moral, and legal justifications for independence from the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]. Two days prior to the Declaration's adoption, Congress passed the [[Lee Resolution]], which resolved that the British no longer had governing authority over the Thirteen Colonies. The Declaration justified the independence of the colonies, citing [[Grievances of the United States Declaration of Independence|27 colonial grievances]] against the king and asserting certain natural and legal rights, including a right of revolution.
The Declaration was unanimously ratified on July 4 by the Second Continental Congress, whose delegates represented the Thirteen Colonies. In ratifying and signing it, the delegates knew they were committing an [[High treason in the United Kingdom|act of high treason]] against [[the Crown]], which was punishable by [[Hanged, drawn and quartered|torture and death]]. Two days following its ratification, on July 6, it was published by ''[[The Pennsylvania Evening Post]]''. The first public readings of the Declaration occurred simultaneously on July 8, 1776, at noon at three previously designated locations: [[Trenton, New Jersey]]; [[Easton, Pennsylvania]]; and Philadelphia.[[https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=86216 "The Declaration of Independence in Easton"], Historical Marker Database]
The Declaration was published in several forms. The printed [[Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence#Dunlap broadside|Dunlap broadside]] was widely distributed following the Declaration's signing, and two original copies are now preserved in the [[Library of Congress]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]{{Sfn|North|2023}} The signed copy of the Declaration is on display at the [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] in Washington, D.C., and is generally considered the official document; this copy, [[Western calligraphy|engrossed]] (hand written) by [[Timothy Matlack]], was ordered by Congress on July 19, and signed primarily on August 2, 1776.[{{cite press release|url=https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2005/nr05-83.html|title=Did You Know ... Independence Day Should Actually Be July 2?|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration|date=June 1, 2005|access-date=July 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626044314/http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2005/nr05-83.html|archive-date=June 26, 2012|url-status=live}}][{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_history.html |title=The Declaration of Independence: A History |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917142419/http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_history.html |archive-date=September 17, 2008 |date=January 17, 2010 |publisher=The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration |access-date=January 15, 2022}}]
The Declaration has proven an influential and globally impactful statement on human rights. It was viewed by [[Abraham Lincoln]] as the moral standard to which the United States should strive, and he considered it a statement of principles through which the [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]] should be interpreted.[{{cite book | last=McPherson | first=James | title=Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution | location=New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=1991 | isbn=0-19-505542-X}}]{{rp|page=126}} In 1863, Lincoln made the Declaration the centerpiece of his [[Gettysburg Address]], widely considered among the most famous speeches in American history.[{{Cite book |last1=Hirsch |first1=David |first2=Dan |last2=Van Haften |date=2017 |title=The Ultimate Guide to the Declaration of Independence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VM0nDwAAQBAJ |edition=First |location=El Dorado Hills, California |publisher=Savas Beatie |isbn=978-1-61121-374-4 |oclc=990127604 |access-date=November 25, 2025}}] The Declarations 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]]"—is considered one of the most significant and famed lines in world history.{{Sfn|Lucas|1989|p=85}} [[Pulitzer Prize for History|Pulitzer Prize]]-winning historian [[Joseph Ellis]] has written that these words are "the most potent and consequential words in American history".[{{cite book | author-link=Joseph Ellis | first=Joseph | last=Ellis | title=American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic | location=New York | publisher=Knopf | date=2007 | isbn=978-0-307-26369-8 | pages=55–56}}]
==Background==
[[File:Official Presidential portrait of Thomas Jefferson (by Rembrandt Peale, 1800)(cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Jefferson]], the principal author of the Declaration]]
{{Blockquote|text=Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America.|sign=[[Thomas Jefferson]], November 29, 1775{{Sfn|Hazelton|1970|p=19}}}}
By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the [[Thirteen Colonies]] and [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] had been at war for over a year. Relations had been deteriorating between the colonies and the mother country since 1763. In 1767, [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]] enacted a series of measures designed to increase revenue from the colonies, including the [[Stamp Act 1765|Stamp Act of 1765]] and the [[Townshend Acts]], which it believed were a legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs of remaining a part of the [[British Empire]].{{Sfn|Christie|Labaree|1976|p=31}}
In the Thirteen Colonies, however, perspectives varied on the British Empire. The colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, and colonists argued that Parliament had [[No taxation without representation|no right to levy taxes]] upon them. This tax dispute was part of a larger divergence between British and American interpretations of the [[Constitution of the United Kingdom|British Constitution]] and the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies.{{Sfn|Bailyn|1992|p=162}} The orthodox British view, dating from the [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688, was that Parliament was the [[Parliamentary sovereignty|supreme authority]] throughout the empire, and anything that Parliament did was constitutional.{{Sfn|Bailyn|1992|pp=200–202}} In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that the British Constitution recognized certain [[Natural rights and legal rights|fundamental rights]] that no government could violate, including Parliament.{{Sfn|Bailyn|1992|pp=180–182}} After the Townshend Acts, some essayists questioned whether Parliament had any [[Legitimacy (political)|legitimate]] jurisdiction in the colonies.{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=241}} As a result of this ideological shift in the colonies, many colonialists participated in tax protests against the Royal authority such as the [[Pine Tree Riot]] in 1772 and the [[Boston Tea Party]] in 1773.[{{Cite web |last=Murrow |first=Pamela |date=February 4, 2013 |title=The Pine Tree Riot |url=https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/02/the-pine-tree-riot/ |access-date=July 3, 2024 |website=Journal of the American Revolution |language=en-US |archive-date=January 30, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260130134744/https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/02/the-pine-tree-riot/ |url-status=live }}][{{Cite web |title=The Weare NH Historical Society |url=http://www.wearehistoricalsociety.org/pineriot.php |access-date=July 3, 2024 |website=www.wearehistoricalsociety.org |archive-date=February 3, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260203181759/http://www.wearehistoricalsociety.org/pineriot.php |url-status=live }}]
Anticipating the arrangement of the [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]], by 1774 American writers such as [[Samuel Adams]], [[James Wilson (Founding Father)|James Wilson]], and Thomas Jefferson argued that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and that the colonies, which had their own legislatures, were connected to the rest of the empire only through their allegiance to the Crown.{{Sfn|Bailyn|1992|pp=224–225}}{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|pp=241–42}}{{efn-lr|The writings in question include Wilson's ''Considerations on the Authority of Parliament'' and Jefferson's ''[[A Summary View of the Rights of British America]]'' (both 1774), as well as Samuel Adams's 1768 [[Massachusetts Circular Letter|Circular Letter]].}}
===Continental Congress convenes===
{{Further|First Continental Congress|Second Continental Congress}}
[[File:Usa-central-change-v4-17760704.png|thumb|The [[Thirteen Colonies]] as they existed on July 4, 1776, when the [[Second Continental Congress]] unanimously approved the text of the Declaration of Independence. (Most border disputes omitted; territory between the [[Proclamation Line of 1763]] and the Mississippi River was part of Quebec and land reserved for Native Americans until the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|1783 Treaty of Paris]]. Some colonies had already declared independence; see {{section link|Territorial evolution of the United States|1776–1784 (American Revolution)}}.)]]
In 1774, Parliament passed the [[Intolerable Acts|Coercive Acts]], known as the Intolerable Acts in the colonies. This was intended to punish the colonists for the [[Gaspee Affair]] of 1772 and the [[Boston Tea Party]] of 1773. Many colonists considered the Coercive Acts to be in violation of the British Constitution and a threat to the liberties of all of [[British America]]. In September 1774, the [[First Continental Congress]] convened in [[Philadelphia]] to coordinate a formal response. Congress organized a [[Continental Association|boycott of British goods]] and [[Petition to the King|petitioned the king]] for repeal of the acts. These measures were unsuccessful, however, since King George and His Majesty's prime minister, [[Frederick North, Lord North|Lord North]], were determined to enforce parliamentary supremacy over the Thirteen Colonies. In November 1774, King George, in a letter to North, wrote, "blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent".{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=168}}{{Sfn|Ferling|2003|pp=123–24}}
Most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with Great Britain, even after fighting began in the [[American Revolutionary War]] at [[Battles of Lexington and Concord|Lexington and Concord]] in April 1775.{{Sfn|Hazelton|1970|p=13}}{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=318}} The [[Second Continental Congress]] convened at Pennsylvania State House, later renamed [[Independence Hall]], in Philadelphia in May 1775. Some delegates supported eventual independence for the colonies, but none had yet declared it publicly, which was an act of treason punishable by death under the laws of the British monarchy at the time.{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=318}}
Many colonists believed that Parliament no longer had sovereignty over them, but they were still loyal to King George, thinking he would intercede on their behalf. They were disabused of that notion in late 1775, when the king rejected Congress's [[Olive Branch Petition|second petition]], issued a [[Proclamation of Rebellion]], and announced before Parliament on October 26 that he was considering "friendly offers of foreign assistance" to suppress the rebellion.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=25}}[The text of the 1775 [[Speech from the Throne|king's speech]] is [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/rbpe:@field(DOCID+@lit(rbpe1440150a)) online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200119060115/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem%2Frbpe%3A%40field%28DOCID+%40lit%28rbpe1440150a%29%29 |date=January 19, 2020 }}, published by the [[American Memory]] project] A pro-American minority in Parliament warned that the government was driving the colonists toward independence.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=25}}
===Growing support for independence===
[[File:Independence Hall Assembly Room.jpg|thumb|The Assembly Room in [[Independence Hall]] in [[Philadelphia]], where the [[Second Continental Congress]] unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence]]
Despite this growing popular support for independence, the [[Second Continental Congress]] initially lacked the clear authority to declare it. Delegates had been elected to Congress by 13 different governments, which included extralegal conventions, ad hoc committees, and elected assemblies, and they were bound by the instructions given to them. Regardless of their personal opinions, delegates could not vote to declare independence unless their instructions permitted such an action.{{Sfn|Friedenwald|1904|p=77}} Several colonies, in fact, expressly prohibited their delegates from taking any steps toward separation from Great Britain, while other delegations had instructions that were ambiguous on the issue;{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=30}} consequently, advocates of independence sought to have the Congressional instructions revised. For Congress to declare independence, a majority of delegations would need authorization to vote for it, and at least one colonial government would need to specifically instruct its delegation to propose a declaration of independence in Congress.
Between April and July 1776, a "complex political war"{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=59}} was waged to bring this about.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=671}}{{Sfn|Friedenwald|1904|p=78}}
In January 1776, [[Thomas Paine]]'s pamphlet ''[[Common Sense]]'', which described the uphill battle against the British for independence as a challenging but achievable and necessary objective, was published in [[Philadelphia]].{{Sfn|Rakove|1979|pp=88–90}} ''Common Sense'' made a persuasive, impassioned case for independence, which had not been given serious consideration in the colonies. Paine linked independence with Protestant beliefs, as a means to present a distinctly American political identity, and he initiated open debate on a topic few had dared to discuss.{{Sfn|Rakove|1979|p=89}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=33}}
As ''Common Sense'' was circulated throughout the [[Thirteen Colonies]], public support for independence from Great Britain steadily increased. After reading it, [[George Washington|Washington]] ordered that it be read by his [[Continental Army]] troops, who were demoralized following recent military defeats. A week later, [[George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River|Washington led the crossing of the Delaware]] in one of the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]]'s most complex and daring military campaigns, resulting in a much-needed military victory in the [[Battle of Trenton]] against a [[Hessian (soldier)|Hessian]] military garrison at [[Trenton, New Jersey|Trenton]].{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=33–34}} ''Common Sense'' was sold and distributed widely and read aloud at taverns and meeting places. In proportion to the population of the colonies at that time (2.5 million), it had the largest sale and circulation of any book published in American history.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} As of 2006, it remains the all-time best-selling American title and is still in print today.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}
In December 1776, Paine followed up with ''[[The American Crisis]],'' in which he wrote the famed phrase:[{{Cite book |last=Paine |first=Thomas |date=1776 |title=The American crisis (No. 1) |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.03902300/ |location=Boston |publisher=Sold opposite the court house Queen Street |via=Printed Ephemera Collection, Library of Congress |language=English}}]
{{Blockquote|These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it ''now'', deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.{{Sfn|Christie|Labaree|1976|p=270}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=31–32}} |author=Thomas Paine|title=''The American Crisis''}}
While some colonists still hoped for reconciliation, public support for independence strengthened considerably in early 1776. In February 1776, colonists learned of Parliament's passage of the [[Prohibitory Act]], which established a blockade of American ports and declared American ships to be enemy vessels. [[John Adams]], a strong supporter of independence, believed that Parliament had effectively declared American independence before Congress had been able to. Adams labeled the Prohibitory Act the "Act of Independency", calling it "a compleat Dismemberment of the British Empire".{{Sfn|Hazelton|1970|p=209}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=25–27}} Support for declaring independence grew even more when it was confirmed that King George had hired German mercenaries to use against his American subjects.{{Sfn|Friedenwald|1904|p=67}}
===Revising instructions===
In the campaign to revise Congressional instructions, many Americans formally expressed their support for separation from Great Britain in what were effectively state and local declarations of independence. Historian [[Pauline Maier]] identifies more than ninety such declarations that were issued throughout the Thirteen Colonies from April to July 1776.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=48, Appendix A}} These "declarations" took a variety of forms. Some were formal written instructions for Congressional delegations, such as the [[Halifax Resolves]] of April 12, with which North Carolina became the first colony to explicitly authorize its delegates to vote for independence.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|pp=678–679}} Others were legislative acts that officially ended British rule in individual colonies, such as the Rhode Island legislature renouncing its allegiance to Great Britain on May 4—the first colony to do so.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=679}}{{Sfn|Friedenwald|1904|pp=92–93}}[{{cite web |url=http://sos.ri.gov/divisions/Civics-And-Education/ri-history/archives-treasures/renunciation |title=Treasures from the Archives: The Act of Renunciation |website=Rhode Island Department of State |access-date=July 29, 2019 |quote=Rhode Island was the first colony to renounce allegiance to Great Britain's King George III by an official legislative act. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190729150525/http://sos.ri.gov/divisions/Civics-And-Education/ri-history/archives-treasures/renunciation |archive-date=July 29, 2019 |url-status=live }}] Many declarations were resolutions adopted at town or county meetings that offered support for independence. A few came in the form of jury instructions, such as the statement issued on April 23, 1776, by Chief Justice [[William Henry Drayton]] of South Carolina: "the law of the land authorizes me to declare ... that ''George'' the Third, King of ''Great Britain'' ... has no authority over us, and we owe no obedience to him."{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=69–72}} Most of these declarations are now obscure, having been overshadowed by the resolution for independence, approved by Congress on July 2, and the declaration of independence, approved and printed on July 4 and signed in August.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=48}} The modern scholarly consensus is that the best-known and earliest of the local declarations is most likely inauthentic, the [[Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence]], allegedly adopted in May 1775 (a full year before other local declarations).{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=174}}
Some colonies held back from endorsing independence. Resistance was centered in the [[Middle Colonies|middle colonies]] of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Advocates of independence saw Pennsylvania as the key; if that colony could be converted to the pro-independence cause, it was believed that the others would follow.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=682}} On May 1, however, opponents of independence retained control of the [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania Assembly]] in a special election that had focused on the question of independence.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=683}} In response, Congress passed a resolution on May 10 which had been promoted by John Adams and [[Richard Henry Lee]], calling on colonies without a "government sufficient to the [[wikt:exigency|exigencies]] of their affairs" to adopt new governments.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=684}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=37}}[{{cite web | url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc004109)): | title=Journals of the Continental Congress | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329080755/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r%3Fammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID%2B@lit(jc004109)): | archive-date=March 29, 2019 | date=March 29, 2019 }}] The resolution passed unanimously, and was even supported by Pennsylvania's [[John Dickinson]], the leader of the anti-independence faction in Congress, who believed that it did not apply to his colony.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=684}}
===May 15 preamble===
{{quote box|align=right|width=30em|quote=This Day the Congress has passed the most important Resolution, that ever was taken in America.|source=—John Adams, May 15, 1776{{Sfn|Burnett|1941|p=159}}[The text of Adams's letter is [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(dg003624)):: online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329081130/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r%3Fammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID%2B@lit(dg003624)):: |date=March 29, 2019 }}.]}}
As was the custom, Congress appointed a committee to draft a [[preamble]] to explain the purpose of the resolution. [[John Adams]] wrote the preamble, which stated that because King George had rejected reconciliation and was hiring foreign mercenaries to use against the colonies, "it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the said crown should be totally suppressed".{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=37}}{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=684}}[May 15 preamble [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc004113)) ''Journals of the Continental Congress''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329081130/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r%3Fammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID%2B@lit(jc004113)) |date=March 29, 2019 }}.] Adams' preamble was meant to encourage the overthrow of the governments of [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]] and [[Province of Maryland|Maryland]], which were still under [[proprietary colony|proprietary]] governance.{{Sfn|Rakove|1979|p=96}}{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=684}}{{Sfn|Friedenwald|1904|p=94}} Congress passed the preamble on May 15 after several days of debate, but four of the middle colonies voted against it, and the Maryland delegation walked out in protest.{{Sfn|Rakove|1979|p=97}}{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=685}} Adams regarded his May 15 preamble effectively as an American declaration of independence, although a formal declaration would still have to be made.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=38}}
===Lee Resolution===
{{main|Lee Resolution}}
On the same day that Congress passed Adams' preamble, the [[Fifth Virginia Convention|Virginia Convention]] set the stage for a formal Congressional declaration of independence. On May 15, the Convention instructed Virginia's congressional delegation "to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or dependence upon, the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain".{{Sfn|Boyd|1945|p=18}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=63}}[The text of the May 15 Virginia resolution is [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/const/const02.htm online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080620032827/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/const/const02.htm |date=June 20, 2008 }} at Yale Law School's Avalon Project.] In accordance with those instructions, [[Richard Henry Lee]] of Virginia presented a [[Lee Resolution|three-part resolution]] to Congress on June 7.[{{cite web|url={{wdl|109}} |last=Jefferson |first=Thomas |date=July 4, 1776 |title=Declaration of Independence. In Congress, July 4, 1776, a Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled |work=World Digital Library |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |access-date=July 1, 2013 }}] The motion was seconded by John Adams, calling on Congress to declare independence, form foreign alliances, and prepare a plan of colonial confederation. The part of the resolution relating to declaring independence read: "Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from 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."{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=41}}{{Sfn|Boyd|1945|p=19}}
Lee's resolution met with resistance in the ensuing debate. Opponents of the resolution conceded that reconciliation was unlikely with Great Britain, while arguing that declaring independence was premature, and that securing foreign aid should take priority.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|pp=689–690}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=42}} Advocates of the resolution countered that foreign governments would not intervene in an internal British struggle, and so a formal declaration of independence was needed before foreign aid was possible. All Congress needed to do, they insisted, was to "declare a fact which already exists".{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=689}}{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|pp=33–34}}{{Sfn|Boyd|1950b|p=311}} Delegates from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York were still not yet authorized to vote for independence, however, and some of them threatened to leave Congress if the resolution were adopted. Congress, therefore, voted on June 10 to postpone further discussion of Lee's resolution for three weeks.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=42–43}}{{Sfn|Friedenwald|1904|p=106}} Until then, Congress decided that a committee should prepare a document announcing and explaining independence in case Lee's resolution was approved when it was brought up again in July.
===Final push===
[[File:Writing the Declaration of Independence 1776 cph.3g09904.jpg|thumb|''Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776'', a 1900 portrait by [[Jean Leon Gerome Ferris]] depicting [[Benjamin Franklin|Franklin]], [[John Adams|Adams]], and [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] [[Committee of Five|working on the Declaration]]{{Sfn|Dupont|Onuf|2010|p=3}}]]
Support for a Congressional declaration of independence was consolidated in the final weeks of June 1776. On June 14, the Connecticut Assembly instructed its delegates to propose independence and, the following day, the legislatures of New Hampshire and Delaware authorized their delegates to declare independence.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|pp=691–692}} In Pennsylvania, political struggles ended with the dissolution of the colonial assembly, and a new Conference of Committees under [[Thomas McKean]] authorized Pennsylvania's delegates to declare independence on June 18.{{Sfn|Friedenwald|1904|pp=106–07}}{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=691}} The [[Provincial Congress of New Jersey]] had been governing the province since January 1776; they resolved on June 15 that [[Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies|Royal Governor]] [[William Franklin]] was "an enemy to the liberties of this country" and had him arrested.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=692}} On June 21, they chose new delegates to Congress and empowered them to join in a declaration of independence. {{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=693}}
As of the end of June, only two of the thirteen colonies had yet to authorize independence, Maryland and New York. Maryland's delegates previously walked out when the Continental Congress adopted Adams' May 15 preamble, and had sent to the [[Annapolis Convention (1774–1776)|Annapolis Convention]] for instructions.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=694}} On May 20, the Annapolis Convention rejected Adams' preamble, instructing its delegates to remain against independence. But [[Samuel Chase]] went to Maryland and, thanks to local resolutions in favor of independence, was able to get the Annapolis Convention to change its mind on June 28.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|pp=694–696}}{{Sfn|Friedenwald|1904|p=96}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=68}} Only the New York delegates were unable to get revised instructions. When Congress had been considering the resolution of independence on June 8, the [[New York Provincial Congress]] told the delegates to wait.{{Sfn|Friedenwald|1904|p=118}}{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=698}} But on June 30, the Provincial Congress evacuated New York as British forces approached, and would not convene again until July 10. This meant that New York's delegates would not be authorized to declare independence until after Congress had made its decision.{{Sfn|Friedenwald|1904|pp=119–20}}
==Draft and adoption==
{{main|Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence}}
[[File:Jefferson's+deskdetail.jpg|thumb|The portable writing desk on which [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] drafted the Declaration of Independence]]
[[File:Declaration House Graff House.jpg|thumb|Declaration House, the reconstructed boarding house at [[Market Street (Philadelphia)|Market]] and South 7th Streets in [[Philadelphia]], where Jefferson wrote the Declaration in June 1776]]
[[File:US-original-Declaration-1776.jpg|thumb|The opening of the Declaration's original printing on July 4, 1776, under [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]]'s supervision, engrossed and signed in August 1776 includes slightly edited phrasing to its opening lines, including the pointed addition of the word "unanimous", reflecting that each of the 56 delegates of the Second Continental Congress signed it.{{Sfn|Boyd|1976|p=456}}]]
Political maneuvering was setting the stage for an official declaration of independence even while a document was being written to explain the decision. On June 11, 1776, Congress appointed the [[Committee of Five]] to draft a declaration, including [[John Adams]] of Massachusetts, [[Benjamin Franklin]] of Pennsylvania, [[Thomas Jefferson]] of Virginia, [[Robert R. Livingston]] of New York, and [[Roger Sherman]] of Connecticut.
The committee took no minutes, so there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded; contradictory accounts were written many years later by Jefferson and Adams, too many years to be regarded as entirely reliable, although their accounts are frequently cited.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=97–105}}{{Sfn|Boyd|1945|p=21}} What is certain is that the committee discussed the general outline which the document should follow and decided that Jefferson would write the first draft.{{Sfn|Boyd|1945|p=22}} The committee in general, and Jefferson in particular, thought that Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded them to choose Jefferson and promised to consult with him personally.[{{cite web | url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/revolution/revolution_declaringindependence.cfm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504103803/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/revolution/revolution_declaringindependence.cfm | archive-date=May 4, 2015 | date=May 4, 2015 | work=Digital History | title=Explorations: The Revolution | publisher=University of Houston | access-date=January 15, 2022 | quote=From Adams's notes: "Why will you not? You ought to 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 very 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."}}]
Jefferson largely wrote the Declaration of Independence in isolation between June 11, 1776, and June 28, 1776, from the second floor of a three-story home he was renting at 700 [[Market Street (Philadelphia)|Market Street]] in [[Philadelphia]], now called the Declaration House and within walking distance of [[Independence Hall]].[[https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/declarationhouse.htm "Visit the Declaration House"], [[National Park Service]] official website] Considering Congress's busy schedule, Jefferson probably had limited time for writing over these 17 days, and he likely wrote his first draft quickly.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=104}}
Examination of the text of the early Declaration drafts reflects the influence that [[John Locke]], the Enlightenment philosopher, and [[Thomas Paine]], author of ''[[Common Sense]]'', had on Jefferson. He then consulted the other members of the Committee of Five who offered minor changes, and then produced another copy incorporating these alterations. The committee presented this copy to the Congress on June 28, 1776. The title of the document was "A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled."{{Sfn|Becker|1922|p=4}}
Congress ordered that the draft "lie on the table"{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=701}} and then methodically edited Jefferson's primary document for the next two days, shortening it by a fourth, removing unnecessary wording, and improving sentence structure.{{Sfn|Ferling|2000|p=136}} They removed Jefferson's assertion that King George III had forced [[Slavery in the colonial United States|slavery]] onto the colonies,[[[David K. Shipler|Shipler, David K.]], ''[https://shiplerreport.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-paragraph-missing-from-declaration.html The Paragraph Missing From The Declaration of Independence] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708172710/https://shiplerreport.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-paragraph-missing-from-declaration.html |date=July 8, 2020 }}'', The Shipler Report, July 4, 2020]{{Better source needed |date=July 2026}} in order to moderate the document and appease those in South Carolina and Georgia, both states which had significant involvement in the [[Atlantic slave trade|slave trade]].
Jefferson later wrote in his autobiography that Northern states were also supportive towards the clause's removal, "for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others."[{{cite web |title=A Closer Look at Jefferson's Declaration |url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/07/02/closer-look-jeffersons-declaration |website=[[New York Public Library]] |access-date=July 6, 2020 |archive-date=December 26, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251226192041/https://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/07/02/closer-look-jeffersons-declaration |url-status=live }}] Jefferson wrote that Congress had "mangled" his draft version, {{clarify|text=but the Declaration that was finally produced was "the majestic document that inspired both contemporaries and posterity", in the words of his biographer|reason=who said it - Jefferson or his biographer? |date=July 2026}} [[John E. Ferling|John Ferling]].{{Sfn|Ferling|2000|pp=131–137}}
Congress tabled the draft of the declaration on Monday, July 1, and resolved itself into a [[committee of the whole]], with [[Benjamin Harrison V|Benjamin Harrison]] of Virginia presiding, and they resumed debate on Lee's resolution of independence.{{Sfn|Burnett|1941|p=181}} [[John Dickinson]] made one last effort to delay the decision, arguing that Congress should not declare independence without first securing a foreign alliance and finalizing the [[Articles of Confederation]].{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=699}} John Adams gave a speech in reply to Dickinson, restating the case for an immediate declaration.
A vote was taken after a long day of speeches, each colony casting a single vote, as always. The delegation for each colony numbered from two to seven members, and each delegation voted among themselves to determine the colony's vote. Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against declaring independence. The New York delegation abstained, lacking permission to vote for independence. Delaware cast no vote because the delegation was split between [[Thomas McKean]], who voted yes, and [[George Read (American politician, born 1733)|George Read]], who voted no. The remaining nine delegations voted in favor of independence, which meant that the resolution had been approved by the committee of the whole. The next step was for the resolution to be voted upon by Congress itself. [[Edward Rutledge]] of South Carolina was opposed to Lee's resolution but desirous of unanimity, and he moved that the vote be postponed until the following day.{{Sfn|Burnett|1941|p=182}}{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|p=700}}
On July 2, South Carolina reversed its position and voted for independence. In the Pennsylvania delegation, Dickinson and [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]] abstained, allowing the delegation to vote three-to-two in favor of independence. The tie in the Delaware delegation was broken by the timely arrival of [[Caesar Rodney]], who voted for independence. The New York delegation abstained once again since they were still not authorized to vote for independence, although they were allowed to do so a week later by the [[New York Provincial Congress]].{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=45}} The resolution of independence was adopted with twelve affirmative votes and one abstention, and the colonies formally severed political ties with Great Britain.{{Sfn|Boyd|1945|p=19}} John Adams wrote to his wife on the following day and predicted that July 2 would become a great American holiday.{{Sfn|Jensen|1968|pp=703–704}} He thought that the vote for independence would be commemorated; he did not foresee that Americans would instead celebrate [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]] on the date when the announcement of that act was finalized.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=160–161}}
I am apt to believe that [Independence Day] will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.[As quoted in {{cite book|last=Adams|first=John|title=My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vTzX2ROPOCwC|year=2007|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-02606-3|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vTzX2ROPOCwC&dq=%22I+am+apt+to+believe%22&pg=PA125 125]}}
]
Congress next turned its attention to the committee's draft of the declaration. They made significant changes in wording during several days of debate including the removal of nearly a fourth of the text. The final wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, 1776, and sent to the printer for publication.
There is a distinct change in wording from this original broadside printing of the Declaration and the final official engrossed copy. The word "unanimous" was inserted as a result of a Congressional resolution passed on July 19, 1776: "Resolved, That the Declaration passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on parchment, with the title and stile of 'The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America,' and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress."[{{Cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc00538)):|title=Journals of the Continental Congress – Friday, July 19, 1776|website=memory.loc.gov|access-date=April 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200122150729/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem%2Fhlaw%3A%40field%28DOCID+%40lit%28jc00538%29%29%3A|archive-date=January 22, 2020|url-status=live}}]
==Annotated text of the engrossed declaration==
The declaration is not divided into formal sections; but it is often discussed as consisting of five parts: ''introduction'', ''preamble'', ''indictment'' of King George III, ''denunciation'' of the British people, and ''conclusion''.[{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_style.html |title=The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence |last=Lucas |first=Stephen E. |publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]] |access-date=July 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120630232450/http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_style.html |archive-date=June 30, 2012 |url-status=live }}]
{|class="wikitable"
|-
| valign=top | {{anchor|Introduction}}'''Introduction'''
Asserts as a matter of natural law the ability of a people to assume political independence; acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained.
| {{center|In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.}}
{{center|The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,}}
"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 [[Natural law|Laws of Nature]] and 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."[{{Cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript|title=Declaration of Independence: A Transcription|date=November 1, 2015|website=National Archives|access-date=July 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190706173513/https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript|archive-date=July 6, 2019|url-status=live}}]
|-
| valign=top | {{anchor|Preamble}}'''Preamble'''
Outlines a general philosophy of government that justifies revolution when government harms natural rights.
A [[Grievances of the United States Declaration of Independence|bill of grievances]] documenting the king's "repeated injuries and usurpations" of the Americans' rights and liberties.
Describes the colonists' attempts to inform and warn the British people of the king's injustice, and the British people's failure to act. Even so, it affirms the colonists' ties to the British as "brethren."
This section essentially finishes the case for independence. The conditions that justified revolution have been shown.
The signers assert that there exist conditions under which people must change their government, that
the British have produced such conditions and, by necessity, the colonies must throw off political ties with the British Crown and become independent states.
The conclusion contains, at its core, the [[Lee Resolution]] that had been passed on July 2.
|
"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in [[Second Continental Congress|General Congress]], Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and [[Lee Resolution|declare]], That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent [[Sovereign state|States]]; that they are Absolved from 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; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
|-
| valign=top | {{anchor|Signatures}}'''Signatures'''
The first and most famous signature on the engrossed copy was that of [[John Hancock]], President of the Continental Congress. Two future presidents ([[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[John Adams]]) and a father and great-grandfather of two other presidents ([[Benjamin Harrison V]]) were among the signatories. [[Edward Rutledge]] (age 26) was the youngest signer, and [[Benjamin Franklin]] (age 70) was the oldest signer. The fifty-six signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows (from north to south):[{{cite web|title=Index of Signers by State|publisher=ushistory.org – Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia|url=http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/signers/index.htm|access-date=October 12, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929123110/http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/index.htm|archive-date=September 29, 2006|url-status=live}}]
|
{{plainlist |
* ''[[Province of New Hampshire|New Hampshire]]'': [[Josiah Bartlett]], [[William Whipple]], [[Matthew Thornton]]
* ''[[Province of Massachusetts Bay|Massachusetts]]'': [[Samuel Adams]], [[John Adams]], [[John Hancock]], [[Robert Treat Paine]], [[Elbridge Gerry]]
* ''[[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]]'': [[Stephen Hopkins (politician)|Stephen Hopkins]], [[William Ellery]]
* ''[[Connecticut Colony|Connecticut]]'': [[Roger Sherman]], [[Samuel Huntington (statesman)|Samuel Huntington]], [[William Williams (signer)|William Williams]], [[Oliver Wolcott]]
* ''[[Province of New York|New York]]'': [[William Floyd]], [[Philip Livingston]], [[Francis Lewis]], [[Lewis Morris]]
* ''[[Province of New Jersey|New Jersey]]'': [[Richard Stockton (1730-1781)|Richard Stockton]], [[John Witherspoon]], [[Francis Hopkinson]], [[John Hart (New Jersey politician)|John Hart]], [[Abraham Clark]]
* ''[[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]]'': [[Robert Morris (merchant)|Robert Morris]], [[Benjamin Rush]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[John Morton (Pennsylvania)|John Morton]], [[George Clymer]], [[James Smith (political figure)|James Smith]], [[George Taylor (Pennsylvania politician)|George Taylor]], [[James Wilson (Founding Father)|James Wilson]], [[George Ross (delegate)|George Ross]]
* ''[[Delaware Colony|Delaware]]'': [[George Read (signer)|George Read]], [[Caesar Rodney]], [[Thomas McKean]]
* ''[[Province of Maryland|Maryland]]'': [[Samuel Chase]], [[William Paca]], [[Thomas Stone]], [[Charles Carroll of Carrollton]]
* ''[[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]]'': [[George Wythe]], [[Richard Henry Lee]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[Benjamin Harrison V|Benjamin Harrison]], [[Thomas Nelson Jr.]], [[Francis Lightfoot Lee]], [[Carter Braxton]]
* ''[[Province of North Carolina|North Carolina]]'': [[William Hooper]], [[Joseph Hewes]], [[John Penn (delegate)|John Penn]]
* ''[[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]]'': [[Edward Rutledge]], [[Thomas Heyward Jr.]], [[Thomas Lynch Jr.]], [[Arthur Middleton]]
* ''[[Province of Georgia|Georgia]]'': [[Button Gwinnett]], [[Lyman Hall]], [[George Walton]]
}}
|}
The printed versions of the signed document known as the Goddard Broadsides include the printed names of signers of the Declaration as well as publisher [[Mary Katherine Goddard]]'s name. Her name was printed at the bottom of the document. Goddard was the [[postmaster]] of [[Baltimore, Maryland|Baltimore]] and was tasked by the Continental Congress in 1777 with printing copies of the signed Declaration. Her normal signature, in her capacity as the owner of the ''[[Maryland Journal]]'', was "M.K. Goddard," but her full name appears on the Declaration of Independence.[{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mary-katharine-goddard-woman-whose-name-appears-declaration-independence-180970816/ |title=Mary Katharine Goddard, the Woman Who Signed the Declaration of Independence |last=Trickey |first=Erick |publisher=[[Smithsonian (magazine)]] |quote=Editor's note, April 9, 2024: The headline of this story has been updated to reflect that Mary Katherine Goddard did not sign the Declaration of Independence, but her name appears on it. |access-date=May 29, 2026 }}][{{Cite web |last=Boonshoft |first=Mark |title=Mary Katherine Goddard's Declaration of Independence |url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/06/29/mary-katherine-goddard-declaration |access-date=May 29, 2026 |publisher=[[New York Public Library]] |language=en |date=June 29, 2016}}]
==Reverse==
"Original Declaration of Independence, dated 4th July 1776" is written along the edge on the back, which served as identification of the document when it was rolled up and stored.{{efn-lr|This information can be found in the United States National Archives at the following: {{Cite web |title=The Declaration of Independence - The Declaration of Independence (back) |website=[[National Archives and Records Administration]] |url=https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration |archive-date=July 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250722175826/https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration }}}}[{{cite web |first=Cameron |last=Bonomolo | title=National Treasure: US National Archives Says Declaration of Independence Doesn't Have Hidden Treasure Map | date=July 8, 2019 |url=https://comicbook.com/movies/2019/07/08/us-national-archives-confirms-declaration-of-independence-no-secret-map-national-treasure-movie/ |website=[[ComicBook.com]]}}]
==Influences and legal status==
{{Liberalism US|history}}
[[File:JohnLocke.png|thumb|A 1697 portrait of English political philosopher [[John Locke]]]]
Historians have often sought to identify the sources that most influenced the words and [[political philosophy]] of the Declaration of Independence. By Jefferson's own admission, the Declaration contained no original ideas, but was instead a statement of sentiments widely shared by supporters of the [[American Revolution]]. As he explained in 1825:
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.[{{cite book | title=To Henry Lee – Thomas Jefferson The Works, vol. 12 (Correspondence and Papers 1816–1826; 1905) |date=May 8, 1825}}]
Jefferson's most immediate sources were two documents written in June 1776: his own draft of the preamble of the [[Constitution of Virginia]], and [[George Mason]]'s draft of the [[Virginia Declaration of Rights]]. Ideas and phrases from both of these documents appear in the Declaration of Independence.{{Sfn|Malone|1948|p=221}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=125–126}} Mason's opening was:
Section 1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.[see [http://cdn.constitutionreader.com/files/pdf/constitution/ch19.pdf "Virginia Declaration of Rights"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210704190228/http://cdn.constitutionreader.com/files/pdf/constitution/ch19.pdf |date=July 4, 2021 }}]
Mason was, in turn, directly influenced by the 1689 [[Bill of Rights 1689|English Declaration of Rights]], which formally ended the reign of [[James II of England|King James II]].{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=126–128}} During the American Revolution, Jefferson and other Americans looked to the English Declaration of Rights as a model of how to end the reign of an unjust king.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=53–57}} The Scottish [[Declaration of Arbroath]] (1320) and the Dutch [[Act of Abjuration]] (1581) have also been offered as models for Jefferson's Declaration, but these models are now accepted by few scholars. Maier found no evidence that the Dutch Act of Abjuration served as a model for the Declaration, and considers the argument "unpersuasive".{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=264}} Armitage discounts the influence of the Scottish and Dutch acts, and writes that neither was called "declarations of independence" until fairly recently.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|pp=42–44}} Stephen E. Lucas argued in favor of the influence of the Dutch act.[{{cite magazine | title=The 'Plakkaat van Verlatinge': A Neglected Model for the American Declaration of Independence | first=Stephen E. | last=Lucas | editor-first1=Rosemarijn | editor-last1=Hofte | editor-first2=Johanna C. | editor-last2=Kardux | volume=31 | date=1994 | oclc=808030037 | magazine=Connecting Cultures: The Netherlands in Five Centuries of Transatlantic Exchange | location=[[Amsterdam]] | pages=189–207}}][{{cite web |first=Barbara | last=Wolff |title=Was the Declaration of Independence Inspired by the Dutch? |work=University of Wisconsin Madison News |date=June 29, 1988 |url=http://www.news.wisc.edu/3049 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213022057/http://www.news.wisc.edu/3049 |archive-date=December 13, 2007 |access-date=July 3, 2013}}]
Jefferson wrote that a number of authors exerted a general influence on the words of the Declaration.{{Sfn|Boyd|1945|pp=16–17}} English political theorist [[John Locke]] is usually cited as one of the primary influences, a man whom Jefferson called one of "the three greatest men that have ever lived".[{{Cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm033.html |title=The Three Greatest Men |website=[[Library of Congress]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601213713/http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm033.html |archive-date=June 1, 2009 |access-date=June 13, 2009 |quote=Jefferson identified [[Francis Bacon|Bacon]], [[John Locke|Locke]], and [[Isaac Newton|Newton]] as "the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception". Their works in the physical and moral sciences were instrumental in Jefferson's education and world view.}}]
In 1922, historian [[Carl L. Becker]] wrote, "Most Americans had absorbed Locke's works as a kind of political gospel; and the Declaration, in its form, in its phraseology, follows closely certain sentences in Locke's [[Two Treatises of Government|second treatise on government]]."{{Sfn|Becker|1922|p=27}} The extent of Locke's influence on the American Revolution has been questioned by some subsequent scholars, however. Historian Ray Forrest Harvey argued in 1937 for the dominant influence of Swiss jurist [[Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui|Jean Jacques Burlamaqui]], declaring that Jefferson and Locke were at "two opposite poles" in their political philosophy, as evidenced by Jefferson's use in the Declaration of Independence of the phrase "pursuit of happiness" instead of "property".[Ray Forrest Harvey, ''Jean Jacques Burlamaqui: A Liberal Tradition in American Constitutionalism'' (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1937), 120.] Other scholars emphasized the influence of [[republicanism]] rather than Locke's [[classical liberalism]].{{efn-lr|A brief, online overview of the classical liberalism vs. republicanism debate is by Alec Ewald at {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517080053/http://www.flowofhistory.org/themes/american_republic/overview.php |date=May 2004 |archive-date=May 17, 2008 |title=The American Republic: 1760-1870}}. Historian Robert Middlekauff argues that the political ideas of the independence movement took their origins mainly from the "eighteenth-century [[commonwealthmen]], the radical [[Radical Whigs|Whig]] ideology", which in turn drew on the political thought of [[John Milton]], [[James Harrington (author)|James Harrington]], and [[John Locke]].}}{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|pp=3–6, 51–52, 136}}
Historian [[Garry Wills]] argued that Jefferson was influenced by the [[Scottish Enlightenment]], particularly [[Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)|Francis Hutcheson]], rather than Locke.{{Sfn|Wills|1978|p=315}}{{efn-lr|See ''Inventing America'', especially chapters 11–13. On Page 315 Wills states that "the air of enlightened America was full of Hutcheson's politics, not Locke's" an interpretation that has been strongly criticized by other historians}}{{Sfn|Hamowy|1979|pp=503–523}}{{efn-lr|Hamowy in "Jefferson and the Scottish Enlightenment" argues that Wills gets much wrong (p. 523), that the Declaration seems to be influenced by Hutcheson because Hutcheson was, like Jefferson, influenced by Locke (pp. 508–09), and that Jefferson often wrote of Locke's influence, but never mentioned Hutcheson in any of his writings (p. 514). See also Kenneth S. Lynn, "Falsifying Jefferson", ''Commentary'' 66 (Oct. 1978), 66–71. [[Ralph Luker]], in [http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1980/spring/luker-garry-wills/ "Garry Wills and the New Debate Over the Declaration of Independence"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325023204/http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1980/spring/luker-garry-wills/ |date=March 25, 2012 }} (''The Virginia Quarterly Review'', Spring 1980, 244–61) agreed that Wills overstated Hutcheson's influence to provide a [[communitarian]] reading of the Declaration, but he also argued that Wills's critics similarly read their own views into the document.}}
Legal historian John Phillip Reid has written that the emphasis on the political philosophy of the Declaration has been misplaced. The Declaration is not a philosophical tract about natural rights, argues Reid, but is instead a legal document—an [[indictment]] against King George for violating the constitutional rights of the colonists.[{{cite book |last=Reid |first=John Phillip |chapter=The Irrelevance of the Declaration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/lawinamericanrev0000unse/page/46/ |editor-last=Hartog |editor-first=Hendrik |title=Law in the American Revolution and the Revolution in the Law |publisher=New York University Press |date=1981 |pages=46–89 |isbn=978-0-8147-3413-1 }}] As such, it follows the process of the 1550 ''[[Magdeburg Confession]]'', which legitimized resistance against [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor Charles V]] in a multi-step legal formula now known as the doctrine of the [[lesser magistrate]].[Whitford, David, ''Tyranny and Resistance: The Magdeburg Confession and the Lutheran Tradition'', 2001, 144 pages and [https://canadafreepress.com/article/the-right-to-resist-evil-leaders-the-christian-history Kelly OConnell] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221090554/https://canadafreepress.com/article/the-right-to-resist-evil-leaders-the-christian-history |date=December 21, 2018 }} of Canada Free Press, August 4, 2014, parts II. Magdeburg Confession and III. Doctrine of Lesser Magistrates]
Historian [[David Armitage (historian)|David Armitage]] has argued that the Declaration was strongly influenced by de [[Emer de Vattel|Vattel's]] ''[[The Law of Nations]]'', the dominant [[international law]] treatise of the period, and a book that Benjamin Franklin said was "continually in the hands of the members of our Congress".[Benjamin Franklin to Charles F.W. Dumas, December 19, 1775, in ''The Writings of Benjamin Franklin'', ed. Albert Henry Smyth (New York: 1970), 6:432.] Armitage writes, "Vattel made independence fundamental to his definition of statehood"; therefore, the primary purpose of the Declaration was "to express the international legal sovereignty of the United States". If the United States were to have any hope of being recognized by the European powers, the American revolutionaries first had to make it clear that they were no longer dependent on Great Britain.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|pp=21,38–40}} The Declaration of Independence does not have the force of law domestically, but nevertheless it may help to provide historical and legal clarity about the Constitution and other laws.[Gulf, C. & SFR Co. v. Ellis, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=4471514776465320556 165 US 150] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523100431/https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=4471514776465320556 |date=May 23, 2020 }} (1897): "While such declaration of principles may not have the force of organic law, or be made the basis of judicial decision as to the limits of right and duty...it is always safe to read the letter of the Constitution in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence."][Wills, Gary. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=V-XP_riSQU8C&pg=PR25 Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926085714/https://books.google.com/books?id=V-XP_riSQU8C&pg=PR25 |date=September 26, 2015 }}'', p. 25 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002): "the Declaration is not a legal instrument, like the Constitution".][Cuomo, Mario. ''Why Lincoln Matters: Now More Than Ever'', p. 137 (Harcourt Press 2004) (it "is not a law and therefore is not subjected to rigorous interpretation and enforcement").][Strang, Lee [https://ssrn.com/abstract=2654408 "Originalism's Subject Matter: Why the Declaration of Independence Is Not Part of the Constitution"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905092933/https://ssrn.com/abstract=2654408 |date=September 5, 2015 }}, ''[[Southern California Law Review]]'', Vol. 89, 2015.]
==Signing==
{{Main|Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence}}
[[File:USA declaration independence.jpg|thumb|The signed Declaration of Independence, now badly faded because of poor preservation practices during the 19th century, is on display at the [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
[[File:JohnHancocksSignature.svg|thumb|On July 4, 1776, [[Second Continental Congress]] President [[John Hancock]]'s signature authenticated the Declaration of Independence.]]
[[File:Syng inkstand.jpg|thumb|The [[Syng inkstand]] used for the signing of the Declaration and the Constitution]]
The Declaration became official when Congress recorded its vote adopting the document on July 4; it was transposed on paper and signed by [[John Hancock]], President of the Congress, on that day. Signatures of the other delegates were not needed to further authenticate it.[The U.S. State Department (1911), ''The Declaration of Independence, 1776'', pp. 10, 11.] The signatures of fifty-six delegates are affixed to the Declaration, though the exact date when each person signed became debatable.[{{cite web| url=https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/resources-declaration-quotes.htm| title=Benjamin Rush to John Adams, July 20, 1811| publisher=National Park Service| access-date=November 22, 2019| archive-date=July 26, 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240726163008/https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/resources-declaration-quotes.htm| url-status=live}}] He related that the "gloom of the morning" was briefly interrupted when the rotund [[Benjamin Harrison V|Benjamin Harrison]] of Virginia said to a diminutive [[Elbridge Gerry]] of Massachusetts, at the signing table, "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 my body I shall die in a few minutes and be with the Angels, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead."[ According to Rush, Harrison's remark "procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the Solemnity with which the whole business was conducted."][
The signatories include then future presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, though the most legendary signature is John Hancock's.{{Sfn|Hazelton|1970|p=209}} His large, flamboyant signature became iconic, and the term ''John Hancock'' emerged in the United States as a metaphor of "signature".][{{cite web |title=John Hancock noun |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/John%20Hancock |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] |access-date=June 2, 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090424104245/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/john%20hancock |archive-date=April 24, 2009}}][{{cite web |title=John Hancock |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/john-hancock?q=John+Hancock |publisher=[[Dictionary.com]] |access-date=June 2, 2026}}] A commonly circulated but apocryphal account claims that, after Hancock signed, the delegate from Massachusetts commented, "The British ministry can read that name without spectacles." Another report indicates that Hancock proudly declared, "There! I guess King George will be able to read that!"[{{cite web|url=http://www.teachamericanhistory.org/File/John_Hancock.pdf|title=TeachAmericanHistory.org: John Hancock|access-date=October 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510132936/http://www.teachamericanhistory.org/File/John_Hancock.pdf|archive-date=May 10, 2013}}]
A legend emerged years later about the signing of the Declaration, after the document had become an important national symbol. John Hancock is supposed to have said that Congress, having signed the Declaration, must now "all hang together", and Benjamin Franklin replied: "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." That quotation first appeared in print in an 1837 London humor magazine.[{{cite journal |title=The Gurney Papers |journal=The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist |date=1837 |issue=Part 1 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vyA8AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA17 |access-date=July 4, 2021}}]
The [[Syng inkstand]] used at the signing was also used at the signing of the United States Constitution in 1787.
==Publication and reaction==
[[File:Johannes Adam Simon Oertel Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C. ca. 1859.jpg|thumb|[[Johannes Adam Simon Oertel]]'s portrait ''Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C.'', c. 1859, depicts citizens destroying a statue of [[George III of Great Britain|King George]] after the Declaration was read in [[New York City]] on July 9, 1776.]]
[[File:William Whipple by Walter Gilman Page, 1897.jpg|thumb|[[William Whipple]], signer of the Declaration of Independence, freed [[Prince Whipple|a person]] [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|he had enslaved]], believing that he could not both fight for liberty and own a slave.]]
After the Second Continental Congress unanimously approved the final wording of the Declaration on July 4, a handwritten copy was sent a few blocks away to the printing shop of [[John Dunlap]]. Throughout the night, Dunlap printed about 200 [[Broadside (printing)|broadsides]] for distribution. The source copy used for this printing has been lost and may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand.{{Sfn|Boyd|1976|p=438}} The first formal public readings of the document took place simultaneously on July 8, at noon in three locations: Philadelphia, where it was read by [[John Nixon (financier)|John Nixon]] in the yard of present-day Independence Hall, [[Trenton, New Jersey]], and [[Easton, Pennsylvania]].[{{cite book |last=Papas |first=Philip |title=That Ever Loyal Island. Staten Island in the American Revolution |publisher=New York University Press |year=2007 |pages=74–76 |isbn=978-0-8147-6724-5 }}] British officials in North America sent copies of the Declaration to Great Britain.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|p=73}} It was published in British newspapers beginning in mid-August, it had reached Florence and Warsaw by mid-September, and a German translation appeared in Switzerland by October. The first copy of the Declaration sent to France got lost, and the second copy arrived only in November 1776.[{{cite web|url=http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/34411.html|title=The Declaration of Independence in World Context|date=July 10, 2006|access-date=October 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006082017/http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/34411.html|archive-date=October 6, 2014|url-status=live}}] News of the Declaration managed to reach Russia on August 13 via a dispatch from the Russian ''[[chargé d'affaires]]'' in London, [[Nikita Panin]].[{{Cite journal |last=Bolkhovitinov |first=Nikolai N. |date=March 1999 |title=The Declaration of Independence: A View from Russia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2568261 |journal=The Journal of American History |volume=85 |issue=4 |pages=1389–1398 |doi=10.2307/2568261 |jstor=2568261 |access-date=January 13, 2023 |issn = 0021-8723 |url-access=subscription }}] It reached Portuguese America by Brazilian medical student "Vendek" José Joaquim Maia e Barbalho, who had met with Thomas Jefferson in Nîmes.
The Spanish-American authorities banned the circulation of the Declaration, but it was widely transmitted and translated: by Venezuelan [[Manuel García de Sena]], by Colombian Miguel de Pombo, by Ecuadorian Vicente Rocafuerte, and by New Englanders Richard Cleveland and William Shaler, who distributed the Declaration and the United States Constitution among Creoles in Chile and Indians in Mexico in 1821.[{{Cite web|url=http://scholar.harvard.edu/armitage/files/sahj.pdf|title=The Contagion of Sovereignty: Declarations of Independence since 1776|access-date=August 17, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916051325/http://scholar.harvard.edu/armitage/files/sahj.pdf|archive-date=September 16, 2012|url-status=live}}] The [[North ministry|North Ministry]] did not give an official answer to the Declaration, but instead secretly commissioned pamphleteer [[John Lind (barrister)|John Lind]] to publish a response entitled ''Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress''.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|p=75}} British Tories denounced the signers of the Declaration for not applying the same principles of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to African Americans.[{{cite magazine |last=Jessup |first=John J. |title=America and the Future |magazine=Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cVAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA105 |page=105 |date=September 20, 1943 |access-date=March 9, 2011}}] [[Thomas Hutchinson (governor)|Thomas Hutchinson]], the former royal governor of Massachusetts, also published a rebuttal.[
{{citation
|title=Strictures upon the Declaration of the Congress at Philadelphia in a Letter to a Noble Lord, &c.
|first=Thomas
|last=Hutchinson
|editor-first=Hans
|editor-last=Eicholz
|location=London
|year=1776
}}]{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|p=74}} These pamphlets challenged various aspects of the Declaration. Hutchinson argued that the American Revolution was the work of a few conspirators who wanted independence from the outset, and who had finally achieved it by inducing otherwise loyal colonists to rebel.{{Sfn|Bailyn|1992|pp=155–156}} Lind's pamphlet had an anonymous attack on the concept of [[Natural rights and legal rights|natural rights]] written by [[Jeremy Bentham]], an argument that he repeated during the [[French Revolution]].{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|pp=79–80}} Both pamphlets questioned how the American slaveholders in Congress could proclaim that "all men are created equal" without freeing their own slaves.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|pp=76–77}}
[[William Whipple]], a signer of the Declaration of Independence who had fought in the war, freed his slave [[Prince Whipple]] because of his revolutionary ideals. In the postwar decades, other slaveholders also freed their slaves; from 1790 to 1810, the percentage of [[free blacks]] in the [[Upper South]] increased to 8.3 percent from less than one percent of the black population.[{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Kolchin |title=American Slavery, 1619–1877 |year=1993 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |pages=77–79, 81 |isbn=0-8090-2568-X }}] Northern states began abolishing slavery shortly after the war for independence began, and all had abolished slavery by 1804.
Later in late November 1776, a group of 547 [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]], largely from [[New York (state)|New York]], signed a Declaration of Dependence in [[New York City]] at [[Fraunces Tavern]] in [[Manhattan]] pledging their loyalty to the Crown.[{{cite web |last=McNamara |first=Sandra |date=December 20, 2018 |title=The Loyalist Declaration of Dependence, 1776 |url=https://allthingsliberty.com/2018/12/the-loyalist-declaration-of-dependence-of-1776/ |website=Journal of the American Revolution}}]
[[File:Printed copy of the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776 issued to Captains of ships in the newly formed Navy of America.jpg|thumb|Copy of printed Declaration of Independence issued to American naval ships, captured at sea and sent to the Admiralty in London.]]
Printed copies of the Declaration of Independence were issued to the captains of vessels in the newly formed Navy of America which when captured were sent to Britain.[National Archives (United Kingdom). ADM1]
==History of the documents==
{{main|Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence}}
[[File:The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution on Display in the Library of Congress Prior to the Removal to the National Archives (35140937496).jpg|thumb|The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution on display in the Library of Congress prior to the removal to the National Archives, December 13, 1952]]
[[File:ArchivesRotunda.jpg|thumb|The [[United States National Archives|National Archives']] [[Charters of Freedom|Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom]] where, between two [[Barry Faulkner]] murals, the original United States Declaration of Independence, [[United States Constitution]], and other American founding documents are publicly exhibited]]
[[File:United States Declaration of Independence in Oval Office (2025-03-18).jpg|thumb|In March 2025, President [[Donald Trump]] requested that a copy of the Declaration of Independence be hung in the [[Oval Office]].]]
The official copy of the Declaration of Independence was the one printed on July 4, 1776, under Jefferson's supervision. It was sent to the states and to the Army and was widely [[Early American publishers and printers|reprinted in newspapers]]. The slightly different "engrossed copy" (shown at the top of this article) was made later for members to sign. The engrossed version is the one widely distributed in the 21st century. Note that the opening lines differ between the two versions.{{Sfn|Boyd|1976|p=456}}
The copy of the Declaration that was signed by Congress is known as the engrossed or [[parchment]] copy. It was probably engrossed (that is, carefully handwritten) by clerk [[Timothy Matlack]].[{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_history.html|title=The Declaration of Independence: A History|work=Charters of Freedom|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]]|access-date=July 1, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100126014257/http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_history.html|archive-date=January 26, 2010|url-status=live}}] A facsimile made in 1823 has become the basis of most modern reproductions rather than the original because of poor conservation of the engrossed copy through the 19th century.[{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/press/press-kits/charters.html#pressrelaese1 |title=Charters of Freedom Re-encasement Project |publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]] |access-date=July 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919005306/http://www.archives.gov/press/press-kits/charters.html#pressrelaese1 |archive-date=September 19, 2011 |url-status=live }}]
The document signed by Congress and enshrined in the National Archives is usually regarded as ''the'' Declaration of Independence, but historian [[Julian P. Boyd]] argued that the Declaration, like [[Magna Carta]], is not a single document. Boyd considered the printed broadsides ordered by Congress to be official texts, as well. The Declaration was first published as a broadside that was printed the night of July 4 by [[John Dunlap]] of [[Philadelphia]]. Dunlap printed about 200 broadsides, of which 26 are known to survive. The 26th copy was discovered in [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]] in England in 2009.[{{cite news |title= Rare copy of United States Declaration of Independence found in Kew |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5727812/Rare-copy-of-United-States-Declaration-of-Independence-found-in-Kew.html |newspaper= The Daily Telegraph |date= July 3, 2009 |access-date= July 1, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111113051140/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5727812/Rare-copy-of-United-States-Declaration-of-Independence-found-in-Kew.html |archive-date= November 13, 2011 |url-status= live }}]
In 1777, Congress commissioned [[Mary Katherine Goddard]] to print a new broadside that listed the signers of the Declaration, unlike the Dunlap broadside.[{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/dube/inde2.htm |title=The Declaration of Independence |first=Ann Marie |last=Dube |date=May 1996 |work=A Multitude of Amendments, Alterations and Additions: The Writing and Publicizing of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=July 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108130901/http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/dube/inde2.htm |archive-date=November 8, 2012 |url-status=dead }}] A variety of broadsides printed by the states are also extant, including seven copies of the Solomon Southwick broadside, one of which was acquired by [[Washington University in St. Louis]] in 2015.[{{Cite web|url=https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/made-in-rare-copy-of-the-declaration-of-independence-goes/article_7e07b5dd-3129-5ebc-a0da-47169f0fd0ae.html|title=Made in 1776: Rare copy of the Declaration of Independence goes on view at Washington U.|last=Henderson|first=Jane|website=STLtoday.com|language=en|access-date=March 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702044653/https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/made-in-rare-copy-of-the-declaration-of-independence-goes/article_7e07b5dd-3129-5ebc-a0da-47169f0fd0ae.html|archive-date=July 2, 2018|url-status=live}}]
Several early handwritten copies and drafts of the Declaration have also been preserved. Jefferson kept a four-page draft that late in life he called the "original Rough draught".{{Sfn|Boyd|1976|p=446}}[Copy of original draft https://jeffersonpapers.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/decp1.jpg] Historians now understand that Jefferson's Rough draft was one in a series of drafts used by the Committee of Five before being submitted to Congress for deliberation. According to Boyd, the first, "original" handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence that predated Jefferson's Rough draft, was lost or destroyed during the drafting process.{{Sfn|Boyd|1976|p=}} It is not known how many drafts Jefferson wrote prior to this one, and how much of the text was contributed by other committee members.
In 1947, Boyd discovered a fragment of an earlier draft in Jefferson's handwriting that predates Jefferson's Rough draft.{{Sfn|Gawalt|1999}} In 2018, the Thomas Paine National Historical Association published findings on an additional early handwritten draft of the Declaration, referred to as the "Sherman Copy", that John Adams copied from the lost original draft for [[Committee of Five]] members Roger Sherman and Benjamin Franklin's initial review. An inscription on the document noting "A beginning perhaps...", the early state of the text, and the manner in which this document was hastily taken, appears to chronologically place this draft earlier than both the fair Adams copy held in the Massachusetts Historical Society collection and the Jefferson "rough draft".[{{Cite web |title=TPNHA |url=https://www.thomaspaine.org/pages/resources/sherman-copy-di.html |access-date=October 10, 2022 |website=www.thomaspaine.org |language=en |archive-date=October 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003154927/https://thomaspaine.org/pages/resources/sherman-copy-di.html |url-status=dead }}] After the text was finalized by Congress as a whole, Jefferson and Adams sent copies of the rough draft to friends, with variations noted from the original drafts.
During the writing process, Jefferson showed the rough draft to Adams and Franklin, and perhaps to other members of the drafting committee,{{Sfn|Boyd|1976|p=446}} who made a few more changes. Franklin, for example, may have been responsible for changing Jefferson's original phrase "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "We hold these truths to be self-evident".{{Sfn|Becker|1922|pp=427–28}} Jefferson incorporated these changes into a copy that was submitted to Congress in the name of the committee.{{Sfn|Boyd|1976|p=446}} The copy that was submitted to Congress on June 28 has been lost and was either perhaps destroyed during the printing process,{{Sfn|Boyd|1976|pp=448–50}} or destroyed during the debates in accordance with [[Article One of the United States Constitution#Clause 3: Record of proceedings|Congress's secrecy rule]].{{Sfn|Ritz|1992|p=501}}
On April 21, 2017, it was announced that a second engrossed copy had been discovered in the archives at [[West Sussex County Council]] in [[Chichester]], England.[{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-sussex-44703928 |title=Declaration of Independence document found |website=BBC News |date=July 4, 2018 |access-date=July 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704003338/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-sussex-44703928/declaration-of-independence-found-in-chichester-archives |archive-date=July 4, 2018 |url-status=live }}] Named by its finders the "Sussex Declaration", it differs from the National Archives copy (which the finders refer to as the "Matlack Declaration") in that the signatures on it are not grouped by States. How it came to be in England is not yet known, but the finders believe that the randomness of the signatures points to an origin with signatory [[James Wilson (Founding Father)|James Wilson]], who had argued strongly that the Declaration was made not by the States but by the whole people.[{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/21/declaration-of-independence-sussex-england-rare|last=Yuhas|first=Alan|title=Rare parchment copy of US Declaration of Independence found in England|work=The Guardian|date=April 22, 2017|access-date=April 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422012036/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/21/declaration-of-independence-sussex-england-rare|archive-date=April 22, 2017|url-status=live}}][{{cite web|url=http://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/resources/sussex-dec|title=The Sussex Declaration|work=Declaration Resources Project|publisher=Harvard University|access-date=April 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422212148/http://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/resources/sussex-dec|archive-date=April 22, 2017|url-status=live}}]
Years of exposure to damaging lighting resulted in the original Declaration of Independence document having much of its ink fade by 1876.[Pappalardo, Joe (July 3, 2020). [https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a22025447/declaration-of-independence-science/#:~:text=It%20sounded%20like%20a%20smart,remained%20to%20fade%20even%20more. "The Science of Saving the Declaration of Independence."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109093650/https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a22025447/declaration-of-independence-science/#:~:text=It%20sounded%20like%20a%20smart,remained%20to%20fade%20even%20more. |date=November 9, 2020 }} ''[[Popular Mechanics]]''. Retrieved February 3, 2020.][{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/was-the-declaration-of-independence-defaced-experts-say-yes/2016/10/21/5bb6efaa-96d9-11e6-bb29-bf2701dbe0a3_story.html |title=Was the Declaration of Independence 'defaced'? Experts say yes. |newspaper=The Washington Post |last=Ruane |first=Michael E. |date=October 21, 2016 |access-date=August 27, 2021 }}]
At the request of President [[Donald Trump]], a copy of the Declaration of Independence was hung in the [[Oval Office]] in March 2025.[{{Cite web |date=March 17, 2025 |title=Trump hangs a copy of Declaration of Independence in Oval Office |url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-declaration-of-independence-oval-office-5b9b9a07ac61ab303d77bcb4f6f252e5 |access-date=March 20, 2025 |website=AP News |language=en}}]
==Legacy==
The Declaration was given little attention in the years immediately following the American Revolution, having served its original purpose in announcing the independence of the United States.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|pp=87–88}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=162, 168–169}} Early celebrations of [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]] largely ignored the Declaration, as did early histories of the Revolution. The ''act'' of declaring independence was considered important, whereas the ''text'' announcing that act attracted little attention.{{sfn|McDonald|1999|pp=178–79}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=160}} The Declaration was rarely mentioned during the debates about the [[Constitution of the United States|United States Constitution]], and its language was not incorporated into that document.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|p=92}} George Mason's draft of the [[Virginia Declaration of Rights]] was more influential, and its language was echoed in state constitutions and state bills of rights more often than Jefferson's words.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|p=90}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=165–167}} "In none of these documents", wrote Pauline Maier, "is there any evidence whatsoever that the Declaration of Independence lived in men's minds as a classic statement of American political principles."{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=167}}
===Global influence===
Many leaders of the [[French Revolution]] admired the Declaration of Independence{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=167}} but were also interested in the new American state constitutions.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|p=82}} The inspiration and content of the French [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] (1789) emerged largely from the ideals of the [[American Revolution]].[{{cite book|first=Georges|last=Lefebvre|title=The Coming of the French Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P4EYuia7buUC&pg=PA212|year=2005|publisher=Princeton UP|page=212|isbn=0-691-12188-5|access-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913023125/https://books.google.com/books?id=P4EYuia7buUC&pg=PA212|archive-date=September 13, 2015|url-status=live}}] [[Marquis de Lafayette|Lafayette]] prepared its key drafts, working closely in Paris with his friend Thomas Jefferson. It also borrowed language from [[George Mason]]'s [[Virginia Declaration of Rights]].[{{cite book|editor-first=George Athan|editor-last=Billias|title=American Constitutionalism Heard Round the World, 1776–1989: A Global Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7WV0nP5n_AoC&pg=PA92|year=2009|publisher=NYU Press|page=92|isbn=978-0-8147-9139-4|access-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527204714/https://books.google.com/books?id=7WV0nP5n_AoC&pg=PA92|archive-date=May 27, 2016|url-status=live}}][Susan Dunn, ''Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light'' (1999) pp. 143–145] The declaration also influenced [[Russia and the American Revolution|the Russian Empire]], and it had a particular impact on the [[Decembrist revolt]] and other Russian thinkers.
Historian [[George Athan Billias]] says: "Independence amounted to a new status of interdependence: the United States was now a sovereign nation entitled to the privileges and responsibilities that came with that status. America thus became a member of the international community, which meant becoming a maker of treaties and alliances, a military ally in diplomacy, and a partner in foreign trade on a more equal basis."[George Billias ''American Constitutionalism Heard Round the World, 1776–1989'' (2011) p 17.]
According to historian [[David Armitage (historian)|David Armitage]], the Declaration of Independence did prove to be internationally influential, but not as a statement of human rights. Armitage argues that the Declaration was the first in a new genre of [[Declaration of independence|declarations of independence]] which announced the creation of new states. Other French leaders were directly influenced by the text of the Declaration of Independence itself. The ''Manifesto of the Province of Flanders'' (1790) was the first foreign derivation of the Declaration;{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|p=113}} others include the [[Venezuelan Declaration of Independence]] (1811), the [[Liberian Declaration of Independence]] (1847), the declarations of secession by the [[Confederate States of America]] (1860–61), and the [[Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam|Vietnamese Proclamation of Independence]] (1945).{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|pp=120–135}} These declarations echoed the United States Declaration of Independence in announcing the independence of a new state, without necessarily endorsing the political philosophy of the original.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|pp=104,113}}
Other countries have used the Declaration as inspiration or have directly copied sections from it. These include the Haitian declaration of January 1, 1804, during the [[Haitian Revolution]], the [[United Provinces of New Granada]] in 1811, the [[Argentine Declaration of Independence]] in 1816, the [[Chilean Declaration of Independence]] in 1818, [[Costa Rica]] in 1821, [[El Salvador]] in 1821, [[Guatemala]] in 1821, [[Honduras]] in 1821, [[Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire|Mexico in 1821]], [[Nicaragua]] in 1821, [[Peru]] in 1821, [[Bolivian War of Independence]] in 1825, [[Uruguay]] in 1825, [[Ecuador]] in 1830, [[Colombia]] in 1831, [[Paraguay]] in 1842, [[Dominican Republic]] in 1844, [[Texas Declaration of Independence]] in March 1836, [[California Republic]] in November 1836, [[Hungarian Declaration of Independence]] in 1849, [[Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand]] in 1835, and the [[Czechoslovak declaration of independence]] from 1918 drafted in [[Washington, D.C.]], with [[Gutzon Borglum]] among the drafters. The [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|Rhodesian declaration of independence]] is based on the American one, as well, ratified in November 1965, although it notably omits the phrases "[[all men are created equal]]" and "[[Consent of the governed|the consent of the governed]]".[{{cite book
|title=The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia 1888–1965, with Special Reference to Imperial Control
|last=Palley
|first=Claire
|year=1966
|edition=First
|location=Oxford
|publisher=Clarendon Press
|oclc=406157
|page=750}}][{{cite book
|title=Sourcebook on Public International Law
|last=Hillier
|first=Tim
|year=1998
|edition=1st
|location=London & Sydney
|publisher=Cavendish Publishing
|isbn=1-85941-050-2
|page=207}}][{{cite book
|title=Collective Responses to Illegal Acts in International Law: United Nations action in the question of Southern Rhodesia
|last=Gowlland-Debbas
|first=Vera
|publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]
|location=Leiden and New York
|year=1990
|edition=1st
|isbn=0-7923-0811-5
|page=71}}] In a similar vein, the [[s:Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union|South Carolinian declaration of secession]] from December 1860 also mentions the U.S. Declaration of Independence, though it too omits references to "all men are created equal" and "consent of the governed".
===Revival of interest===
Interest in the Declaration was revived in the 1790s with the emergence of the United States's [[First Party System|first political parties]].{{sfn|McDonald|1999|p=172}} Throughout the 1780s, few Americans knew or cared who wrote the Declaration.{{sfn|McDonald|1999|pp=172, 179}} But in the next decade, [[Democratic-Republican Party|Jeffersonian Republicans]] sought political advantage over their rival [[Federalist Party|Federalists]] by promoting both the importance of the Declaration and Jefferson as its author.{{sfn|McDonald|1999|p=179}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=168–171}} Federalists responded by casting doubt on Jefferson's authorship or originality, and by emphasizing that independence was declared by the whole Congress, with Jefferson as just one member of the drafting committee. Federalists insisted that Congress's act of declaring independence, in which Federalist John Adams had played a major role, was more important than the document announcing it.{{sfn|McDonald|1999|pp=180–184}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=171}} But this view faded away, like the Federalist Party itself, and, before long, the act of declaring independence became synonymous with the document.
A less partisan appreciation for the Declaration emerged in the years following the [[War of 1812]], thanks to a growing American nationalism and a renewed interest in the history of the Revolution.[{{cite journal | last=Detweiler | first=Philip F. | title=The Changing Reputation of the Declaration of Independence: The First Fifty Years | journal=[[William and Mary Quarterly]] | volume=19 | issue=4 | date=October 1962 | pages=557–574 | doi=10.2307/1920163 | jstor=1920163}}]{{rp|pages=571–572}}{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=175–178}} In 1817, Congress commissioned [[John Trumbull]]'s [[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|famous painting]] of the signers, which was exhibited to large crowds before being installed in the [[United States Capitol|Capitol]].[John C. Fitzpatrick, ''Spirit of the Revolution'' (Boston 1924).] Collective biographies of the signers were first published in the 1820s,{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=176}} giving birth to what Garry Wills called the "cult of the signers".{{Sfn|Wills|1978|p=90}} In the years that followed, many stories about the writing and signing of the document were published for the first time.
When interest in the Declaration was revived, the sections that were most important in 1776 were no longer relevant: the announcement of the independence of the United States and the grievances against King George. But the second paragraph was applicable long after the war had ended, with its talk of self-evident truths and unalienable rights.{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|p=93}} The identity of natural law since the 18th century has seen increasing ascendancy towards political and moral norms versus the law of nature, God, or human nature as seen in the past.[{{cite journal |last1=Armitage |first1=David |date=2002 |title=The Declaration of Independence and International Law |publication-place=Williamsburg |publisher=Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture |journal=[[William and Mary Quarterly]] | volume=59 |number=1 | pages=39–64 |doi=10.2307/3491637 |issn=0043-5597 |jstor=3491637}}] The Constitution and the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] lacked sweeping statements about rights and equality, and advocates of groups with grievances turned to the Declaration for support.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=196–197}} Starting in the 1820s, variations of the Declaration were issued to proclaim the rights of workers, farmers, women, and others.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=197}}[Philip S. Foner, ed., ''We, the Other People: Alternative Declarations of Independence by Labor Groups, Farmers, Woman's Rights Advocates, Socialists, and Blacks, 1829–1975'' (Urbana 1976).] In 1848, for example, the [[Seneca Falls Convention]] of women's rights advocates [[Declaration of Sentiments|declared]] that "all men and women are created equal".{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=197}}{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|p=95}}
===John Trumbull's ''Declaration of Independence'' (1817–1826)===
{{main|Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)}}
[[File:Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull.jpg|thumb|alt=About 50 men, most of them seated, are in a large meeting room. Most are focused on the five men standing in the center of the room. The tallest of the five is laying a document on a table.|[[John Trumbull]]'s [[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|famous 1818 portrait]] is often identified as a depiction of the Declaration's signing, but it actually shows the [[Committee of Five|drafting committee]] presenting its work to the [[Second Continental Congress]].{{Sfn|Wills|1978|p=348}}]]
[[File:US $2 reverse.jpg|thumb|The reverse side of the [[United States two-dollar bill]]]]
[[John Trumbull]]'s painting ''Declaration of Independence'' has played a significant role in popular conceptions of the Declaration of Independence. The painting is {{convert|12|by|18|ft|adj=on}} in size and was commissioned by the [[United States Congress]] in 1817; it has hung in the [[United States Capitol rotunda|United States Capitol Rotunda]] since 1826. It is sometimes described as the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but it actually shows the [[Committee of Five]] presenting their draft of the Declaration to the [[Second Continental Congress]] on June 28, 1776, and not the signing of the document, which took place later.[{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tv47AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA30 |title=[[Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography]] |volume=31 |year=1907 |author=John Hazelton |chapter= The Historical Value of Trumbull's – Declaration of Independence |page=38 }}]
Trumbull painted the figures from life whenever possible, but some had died and images could not be located; hence, the painting does not include all the signers of the Declaration. One figure had participated in the drafting but did not sign the final document; another refused to sign. In fact, the membership of the Second Continental Congress changed as time passed, and the figures in the painting were never in the same room at the same time. It is, however, an accurate depiction of the room in [[Independence Hall]], the centerpiece of the [[Independence National Historical Park]] in [[Philadelphia|Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]].
Trumbull's painting has been depicted multiple times on U.S. currency and postage stamps. Its first use was on the [[Obverse and reverse|reverse]] side of the $100 [[National Bank Note]] issued in 1863. A few years later, the [[steel engraving]] used in printing the bank notes was used to produce a 24-cent stamp, issued as part of the [[1869 Pictorial Issue]]. An engraving of the signing scene has been featured on the reverse side of the [[United States two-dollar bill]] since 1976.
===Slavery and the Declaration===
{{further |Slavery in the colonial United States}}
The apparent contradiction between the claim that "all men are created equal" and the existence of [[slavery in the United States]] attracted comment when the Declaration was first published. Many of the founders understood the incompatibility of the statement of natural equality with the institution of slavery, but continued to enjoy the "Rights of Man".[{{cite journal |last1=Tsesis |first1=Alexander |date=May 2012 |title=Self-government and the Declaration of Independence |journal=Cornell Law Review |volume=97 |issue=4 |publication-place=Ithaca |publisher=Cornell University |issn=0010-8847 |url=https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol97/iss4/1/ |archive-date=December 30, 2025 |access-date=March 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251230120354/https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol97/iss4/1/ |url-status=live }}] Jefferson had included a paragraph in his initial rough [[s:Draft of the Declaration of Independence|Draft of the Declaration of Independence]] vigorously condemning the evil of the [[Slave Trade|slave trade]], and condemning King George III for forcing it onto the colonies, but this was deleted from the final version.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=146–150}}[Cohen (1969), ''Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Slavery''] Referring to this contradiction, English abolitionist [[Thomas Day (writer)|Thomas Day]] wrote in a 1776 letter, "If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves."{{Sfn|Armitage|2007|p=77}}[{{cite book|last=Day|first=Thomas|url=https://archive.org/stream/fragmentoforigin00dayt#page/10/mode/2up|title=Fragment of an original letter on the Slavery of the Negroes, written in the year 1776|publisher=London: Printed for John Stockdale (1784). Boston: Re-printed by [[William Lloyd Garrison|Garrison]] and Knapp, at the office of "[[The Liberator (anti-slavery newspaper)|The Liberator]]" (1831)|page=10|access-date=February 26, 2014|quote=If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316112142/https://archive.org/stream/fragmentoforigin00dayt#page/10/mode/2up|archive-date=March 16, 2016|url-status=live}} At: [https://archive.org/ Internet Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304015927/https://archive.org/ |date=March 4, 2014 }}: [https://archive.org/details/Johns_Hopkins_University The Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140423235217/https://archive.org/details/Johns_Hopkins_University |date=April 23, 2014 }}: [https://archive.org/details/birney James Birney Collection of Antislavery Pamphlets] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140806025911/https://archive.org/details/birney |date=August 6, 2014 }}.] The African-American writer [[Lemuel Haynes]] expressed similar viewpoints in his essay "Liberty Further Extended", where he wrote that "Liberty is Equally as pre[c]ious to a Black man, as it is to a white one".[{{Cite web |author=|date=February 24, 2020|title=Lemuel Haynes' Liberty Further Extended|url=https://thefoundingproject.com/lemuel-haynes-liberty-further-extended/|access-date=November 17, 2020|website=The Founding Project|language=en-US|archive-date=October 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027095546/https://thefoundingproject.com/lemuel-haynes-liberty-further-extended/}}]
In the 19th century, the Declaration took on a special significance for the abolitionist movement. Historian [[Bertram Wyatt-Brown]] wrote that "abolitionists tended to interpret the Declaration of Independence as a theological as well as a political document".{{sfn|Wyatt-Brown|1969|p=287}} Abolitionist leaders [[Benjamin Lundy]] and [[William Lloyd Garrison]] adopted the "twin rocks" of "the [[Bible]] and the Declaration of Independence" as the basis for their philosophies. He wrote, "As long as there remains a single copy of the Declaration of Independence, or of the Bible, in our land, we will not despair."{{sfn|Mayer|1998|pp=53, 115}} For radical abolitionists such as Garrison, the most important part of the Declaration was its assertion of the [[right of revolution]]. Garrison called for the destruction of the government under the Constitution, and the creation of a new state dedicated to the principles of the Declaration.{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=198–199}}
On July 5, 1852, [[Frederick Douglass]] delivered a speech asking the question, "[[What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?]]".
The controversial question of whether to allow additional [[Slave states and free states|slave states]] into the United States coincided with the growing stature of the Declaration. The first major public debate about slavery and the Declaration took place during the [[Missouri Compromise|Missouri controversy]] of 1819 to 1821.[{{cite journal | last=Detweiler | first=Philip F. | title=Congressional Debate on Slavery and the Declaration of Independence, 1819–1821 | journal=American Historical Review | volume=63 | issue=3 | date=April 1958 | publisher=Oxford University Press | doi=10.2307/1848882 | pages=598–616 | jstor=1848882 }}] Anti-slavery Congressmen argued that the language of the Declaration indicated that the [[Founding Fathers of the United States]] had been opposed to slavery in principle, and so new slave states should not be added to the country.[{{cite book|first=Frederick|last=Douglass|author-link=Frederick Douglass|location=[[Dover, New Hampshire]]|year=1881|title=John Brown. An Address at the Fourteenth Anniversary of Storer College, May 30, 1881 |publisher=Morning Star job printing house |url=https://archive.org/details/johnbrownaddress00doug/page/n1/mode/2up}} Also available at [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31839/31839-h/31839-h.htm Project Gutenberg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015093740/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31839/31839-h/31839-h.htm |date=October 15, 2011 }}.]{{rp|27–28}} abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] had many copies printed of a [[John Brown's Provisional Constitution|Provisional Constitution]]. When the [[secession crisis|seceding states]] created the [[Confederate States of America]] 16 months later, they operated for over a year under a [[Constitution of the Confederate States|Provisional Constitution]]. It outlines the three branches of government in the quasi-country he hoped to set up in the [[Appalachian Mountains]]. It was widely reproduced in the press, and in full in the Select Senate Committee report on John Brown's insurrection (the [[James M. Mason|Mason]] Report).[{{cite web
|title=Senate Select Committee Report on the Harper's Ferry Invasion
|url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/masonreport.html
|date=June 15, 1860
|series="His Soul Goes Marching On": The Life and Legacy of John Brown
|website=West Virginia Division of Culture and History
|access-date=July 25, 2016
|archive-date=July 10, 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160710135118/http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/masonreport.html
}}]
Brown did not have it printed, and his Declaration of Liberty, dated July 4, 1859, was found among his papers at the [[Kennedy Farm]].[{{rp|330–331}} It was written out on sheets of paper attached to fabric, to allow it to be rolled, and it was rolled when found. The hand is that of [[Owen Brown (abolitionist, born 1824)|Owen Brown]], who often served as his father's [[amanuensis]].][{{cite magazine
|url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/12/john-brown-the-abolitionist-s-declaration-of-liberty-written-by-owen-brown-in-scroll-form.html
|magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]
|title=John Brown's Passionate 'Declaration of Liberty', Written on a Lengthy Scroll
|first=Rebecca
|last=Onion
|date=December 2, 2013
|access-date=January 25, 2021
|archive-date=February 13, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213020758/https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/12/john-brown-the-abolitionist-s-declaration-of-liberty-written-by-owen-brown-in-scroll-form.html
|url-status=live
}}]
Imitating the vocabulary, punctuation, and capitalization of the 73-year-old U.S. Declaration, the 2000-word document begins:
{{Blockquote|July 4th 1859
{{Center|A Declaration of Liberty
By the Representatives of the slave {{sic|Popolation}} of the United States of America}}
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for an Oppressed People to Rise, and assert their Natural Rights, as Human Beings, as Native & mutual Citizens of a free Republic, and break that odious Yoke of oppression, which is so unjustly laid upon them by their fellow Countrymen, and to assume among the powers of Earth the same equal privileges to which the Laws of Nature, & natures God entitle them; A moderate respect for the opinions of Mankind, requires that they should declare the causes which incite them to this just & worthy action.
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; & the persuit of happiness. That Nature hath freely given to all Men, a full Supply of Air. Water, & Land; for their sustinance, & mutual happiness, That No Man has any right to deprive his fellow Man, of these Inherent rights, except in punishment of Crime. That to secure these rights governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That when any form of Government, becomes destructive to these ends, It is the right of the People, to alter, Amend, or Remoddel it, Laying its foundation on Such Principles, & organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect the safety, & happiness of the Human Race.[{{cite book
|last=Brown
|first=John
|author-link=John Brown (abolitionist)
|date=July 4, 1859
|title=A Declaration of Liberty By the Representatives of the slave Popolation of the United States of America
|url=http://digitalhistory.hsp.org/pafrm/doc/declaration-liberty-representatives-slave-population-united-states-america-july-4-1859
|series=Preserving American Freedom: The Evolution of American Liberties in Fifty Documents
|publisher=[[Historical Society of Pennsylvania]]
|archive-date=April 13, 2021
|access-date=January 25, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413200515/http://digitalhistory.hsp.org/pafrm/doc/declaration-liberty-representatives-slave-population-united-states-america-july-4-1859
|url-status=live
}}]
|author=John Brown
|multiline=yes
}}
The document was apparently intended to be read aloud, but so far as is known Brown never did so, even though he read the Provisional Constitution aloud the day the raid on Harpers Ferry began.[{{rp|74}} Very much aware of the history of the [[American Revolution]], he would have read the Declaration aloud after the revolt had started. The document was not published until 1894, and by someone who did not realize its importance and buried it in an appendix of documents.][{{cite book
|title=John Brown and his men; with some account of the roads they traveled to reach Harper's Ferry
|last=Hinton
|first=Richard J.
|location=New York
|publisher=[[Funk & Wagnalls]]
|year=1894
|edition=Revised
|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/ack4822.0001.001/3
|archive-date=May 25, 2021
|access-date=January 25, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525052516/https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/ack4822.0001.001/3?q1=Declaration+of+independence
|url-status=live
}}]{{rp|637–643}} It is missing from most but not all studies of John Brown.[{{cite journal
|first=John
|last=Mead
|title=Declarations of Liberty: Representations of Black/White Alliances Against Slavery by John Brown, James Redpath, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson
|journal=Journal for the Study of Radicalism
|volume=3
|number=1
|date=2008
|pages=111–144
|doi=10.1353/jsr.0.0017
|jstor=41887620
|s2cid=159213688
}}][{{cite book
|last=DeCaro
|first=Louis A. Jr.
|title=The Untold Story of Shields Green: The Life and Death of a Harper's Ferry Raider
|publisher=[[New York University Press]]
|year=2020
|isbn=978-1-4798-0275-3}}]{{rp|69–73}}
===Lincoln and the Declaration===
[[File:Abelincoln1846.jpeg|thumb|Then U.S. Congressman [[Abraham Lincoln]], who believed the Declaration expressed the highest principles of the [[American Revolution]], in 1846]]
The Declaration's relationship to slavery was taken up in 1854 by [[Abraham Lincoln]], a little-known former Congressman who idolized the [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Fathers]].{{Sfn|Maier|1998|pp=201–202}} Lincoln thought that the Declaration of Independence expressed the highest principles of the [[American Revolution]], and that the Founding Fathers had tolerated slavery with the expectation that it would ultimately wither away.[{{cite web |title=Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865): Political Debates Between Lincoln and Douglas 1897 |page=415 |url=http://www.bartleby.com/251/pages/page415.html |publisher=Bartleby |access-date=January 26, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510104632/http://www.bartleby.com/251/pages/page415.html |archive-date=May 10, 2013 |url-status=live }}]}}
According to Pauline Maier, Douglas's interpretation was more historically accurate, but Lincoln's view ultimately prevailed. "In Lincoln's hands," wrote Maier, "the Declaration of Independence became first and foremost a living document" with "a set of goals to be realized over time".{{Sfn|Maier|1998|p=207}}
{{quote box
| align = right
| width = 33%
| quote = [T]here is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man.
| source = —Abraham Lincoln, 1858{{Sfn|Wills|1992|p=100}}
}}
Like [[Daniel Webster]], [[James Wilson (Founding Father)|James Wilson]], and [[Joseph Story]] before him, Lincoln argued that the Declaration of Independence was a founding document of the United States, and that this had important implications for interpreting the Constitution, which had been ratified more than a decade after the Declaration.{{Sfn|Wills|1992|pp=129–131}} The Constitution did not use the word "equality", yet Lincoln believed that the concept that "all men are created equal" remained a part of the nation's founding principles.{{Sfn|Wills|1992|p=145}} He famously expressed this belief, referencing the year 1776, in the opening sentence of his 1863 [[Gettysburg Address]]: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Lincoln's [[Declarationism|view of the Declaration]] became influential, seeing it as a moral guide to interpreting the Constitution. "For most people now," wrote Garry Wills in 1992, "the Declaration means what Lincoln told us it means, as a way of correcting the Constitution itself without overthrowing it."{{Sfn|Wills|1992|p=147}} Admirers of Lincoln such as [[Harry V. Jaffa]] praised this development. Critics of Lincoln, notably [[Willmoore Kendall]] and [[Mel Bradford]], argued that Lincoln dangerously expanded the scope of the national government and violated [[states' rights]] by reading the Declaration into the Constitution.{{Sfn|Wills|1992|pp=39, 145–146}}[Harry V. Jaffa, ''Crisis of the House Divided'' (1959)][''A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War'' (2000)][Willmoore Kendall and George W. Carey, ''The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition'' (1970)][M. E. Bradford (1976), "The Heresy of Equality: A Reply to Harry Jaffa", reprinted in ''A Better Guide than Reason'' (1979) and ''Modern Age, the First Twenty-five Years'' (1988)]
===Women's suffrage and the Declaration===
[[File:ElizabethCadyStanton-1848-Daniel-Henry.jpg|thumb|[[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] and her two sons in 1848]]
In July 1848, the [[Seneca Falls Convention]] was held in [[Seneca Falls (hamlet), New York|Seneca Falls]], New York, the first women's rights convention. It was organized by [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], [[Lucretia Mott]], [[Mary Ann M'Clintock|Mary Ann McClintock]], and Jane Hunt. They patterned their "[[Declaration of Sentiments]]" on the Declaration of Independence, in which they demanded social and political equality for women. Their motto was that "All men ''and women'' are created equal", and they demanded the right to vote.{{Sfn|Norton|1994|p=339}}[{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/senecafalls.html|title=Modern History Sourcebook: Seneca Falls: The Declaration of Sentiments, 1848|access-date=October 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020144859/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/senecafalls.html|archive-date=October 20, 2014|url-status=live}}]
Excerpt from "Declaration of Sentiments":
{{blockquote|We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal|source=The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments 1848}}
=== Civil Rights Movement and the Declaration ===
In 1963, at the [[March on Washington]] for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C., [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] delivered his famous "[[I Have a Dream]]" speech. This speech was meant to inspire the nation, to take up the causes of the Civil Rights Movement. King uses quotations from the Declaration of Independence to encourage equal treatment of all persons regardless of race.
Excerpt from King's speech:
{{blockquote|I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."|Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963}}
In 1966, [[Black Panther Party]] founders [[Huey P. Newton]] and [[Bobby Seale]] quoted the Declaration's preamble in its entirety in the party's [[Ten-Point Program (Black Panther Party)|Ten-Point Program]]—for the tenth point, "We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people's community control of modern technology". The Black Panthers were dedicated to community organizing for self-defense and mutual benefit among working-class Black people, and the Ten-Point Program was intended to serve as a concise statement of what the Panthers organization hoped to achieve for Black people, including full employment, decent housing, freedom from compulsory military service, and an end to police brutality.
=== LGBTQ+ rights movement and the Declaration ===
In 1978, at the Gay Pride Celebration in [[San Francisco]], activist and later politician [[Harvey Milk]] delivered a speech. Milk alluded to the Declaration of Independence, emphasizing that the inalienable rights established by the Declaration apply to all persons and cannot be hindered because of one's sexual orientation.
Excerpt from Milk's speech:
{{blockquote|All men are created equal and they are endowed with certain inalienable rights... that's what America is. No matter how hard you try, you cannot erase those words from the Declaration of Independence.|Harvey Milk, 1978{{Sfn|Milk|1978|p=6}}}}
===20th century and later===
[[File:56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial (2dc161f6-4699-4bac-8437-bdd5e198b6ba).jpg|thumb|The [[Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence]] in Washington, D.C.'s [[Constitution Gardens]]]]
The Declaration was one of the first texts to be made into an ebook (1971).[{{cite news |first=Alison |last=Flood |work=The Guardian |title=Michael Hart, inventor of the ebook, dies aged 64 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/08/michael-hart-inventor-ebook-dies |date=September 8, 2011 |access-date=December 13, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213052819/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/08/michael-hart-inventor-ebook-dies |archive-date=February 13, 2015 |url-status=live }}]
The [[Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence]] was dedicated in 1984 in [[Constitution Gardens]] on the [[National Mall]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], where the signatures of all the original signers are carved in stone with their names, places of residence, and occupations.
The new [[One World Trade Center]] building in [[New York City]] (2014) is 1776 feet high to symbolize the year that the Declaration of Independence was signed.[{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/10/us/new-york-world-trade-center-spire/index.html?hpt=hp_abar_wknd |title=Crews finish installing World Trade Center spire |work=CNN|date=May 10, 2013 |access-date=July 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719160917/http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/10/us/new-york-world-trade-center-spire/index.html?hpt=hp_abar_wknd |archive-date=July 19, 2013 |url-status=live }}][{{cite web |url=http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=8 |title=Tallest buildings in NY |publisher=Skyscraperpage.com |access-date=June 23, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130721113248/http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=8 |archive-date=July 21, 2013 |url-status=live }}][{{cite web |url=http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?25002165 |title=Tallest buildings under construction in the world |publisher=Skyscraperpage.com |access-date=June 23, 2012}}]
===Popular culture===
The adoption of the Declaration of Independence was dramatized in the 1938 Academy Award–winning short film ''[[Declaration of Independence (film)|Declaration of Independence]]'', the 1969 Tony Award–winning musical ''[[1776 (musical)|1776]]'', the [[1776 (film)|1972 film version]], and the 2008 television miniseries ''[[John Adams (miniseries)|John Adams]]''.[{{cite web|url=http://1776themusical.us/about-us/|title=1776: The Musical About Us|publisher=Pratico|access-date=May 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180509012540/http://1776themusical.us/about-us/|archive-date=May 9, 2018|url-status=live}}][{{cite web|url=https://www.hbo.com/john-adams/episodes/2-independence/synopsis|title=John Adams: Independence |publisher=Home Box Office |access-date=May 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508185703/https://www.hbo.com/john-adams/episodes/2-independence/synopsis|archive-date=May 8, 2018|url-status=live}}] In 1970, [[The 5th Dimension]] recorded the opening of the Declaration on their 1970 album ''[[Portrait (The 5th Dimension album)|Portrait]]'' in the song "Declaration". It was first performed on ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'' on December 7, 1969, and it was taken as a song of protest by some opposed to the Vietnam War.[{{cite news| title=Independence| author=| date=July 4, 2010| access-date=February 10, 2018| newspaper=[[Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]]| url=http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9786-song-when-the-fifth-dimension-sang-the-declaration-of-independence.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331030957/http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9786-song-when-the-fifth-dimension-sang-the-declaration-of-independence.html| archive-date=March 31, 2019| url-status=live}}]
The original handwritten and signed Declaration of Independence is a plot device in the 2004 American film ''[[National Treasure (film)|National Treasure]]''.[{{cite web| url=https://rottentomatoes.com/m/national_treasure/| title=National Treasure| website=Rotten Tomatoes| year=2004| access-date=June 10, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171129005241/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/national_treasure/| archive-date=November 29, 2017| url-status=live}}]
The 2008 video game ''[[Fallout 3]]'' involves a quest in which the playable character acquires the Declaration of Independence from the National Archives. The player is tasked with bringing the document back to a history lover who wants to reclaim pieces of America following a nuclear war.[{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/wikis/fallout-3/Stealing_Independence|title=Stealing Independence|date=May 19, 2014|last=Gameguides|first=IGN|access-date=August 24, 2024|publisher=IGN|archive-date=August 12, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250812111607/https://www.ign.com/wikis/fallout-3/Stealing_Independence|url-status=live}}]
After the 2009 death of radio broadcaster [[Paul Harvey]], Focus Today aired a clip of Harvey speaking about the lives of all the [[signers of the Declaration of Independence]].[{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubHWyjEtfpY | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200903114539/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubHWyjEtfpY&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=September 3, 2020 |date=August 19, 2019 |title=The Price of Freedom |time= 1:36–8:50 |medium=Commentary |work=TheDove TV |access-date=June 20, 2020}}]
==See also==
* [[Influence of the American Revolution on the French Revolution]]
* [[Journals of the Continental Congress]]
* [[Signers Monument]]
==Notes==
{{notelist-lr}}
== References ==
{{Duplicated citations|reason=DuplicateReferences script detected:
* https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_history.html (refs: 5, 173)
|date=August 2026}}
{{reflist}}
=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin|colwidth=30em}}
* {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/declarationofind00armi/ |first=David |last=Armitage |title=The Declaration of Independence: A Global History |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02282-9 |date=2007 |access-date=June 1, 2026}} {{Google Books | id=X2QCAa27Zy4C}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Bernard Bailyn |first=Bernard |last=Bailyn |title=The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution |edition=Enlarged |orig-date=1967 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=1992 |isbn=0-674-44302-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Becker |first=Carl Lotus |author-link=Carl L. Becker |url=https://archive.org/details/declarationinde00beckgoog/page/n6/mode/2up |title=The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas |publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Company |year=1922 |location=New York }}
* {{cite book |last=Boyd |first=Julian P. |author-link=Julian P. Boyd |url=https://archive.org/details/declarationofind0000unse_s2d8/page/n5/mode/2up |title=The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text as Shown in Facsimiles of Various Drafts by Its Author, Thomas Jefferson |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1945 |location=Princeton, NJ }}
* {{cite book |title=The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1, 1760-1776 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1950a |editor-last=Boyd |editor-first=Julian P. |volume=1|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000229174227/https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html |archive-date=February 29, 2000 |via=[[Library of Congress]] |chapter=Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence }}
* {{cite book |title=The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1, 1760-1776 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1950b |editor-last=Boyd |editor-first=Julian P. |volume=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZRCnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA311 |p=311 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Boyd |first=Julian P. |date=October 1976 |title=The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original |url=http://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/43289/43010 |url-status=live |journal=[[Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography]] |volume=100 |issue=4 |pages=438–467 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212073815/http://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/43289/43010 |archive-date=February 12, 2015 }}
* {{cite book |last=Burnett |first=Edmund Cody |url=https://archive.org/details/continentalcongr0000burn/page/n5/mode/2up |title=The Continental Congress |publisher=The Macmillan Company |year=1941 |location=New York }}
* {{cite book |last=Christie |first=Ian R. |title=Empire or Independence, 1760–1776: A British-American Dialogue on the Coming of the American Revolution |last2=Labaree |first2=Benjamin W. |publisher=Norton |year=1976 |location=New York}}
* {{cite web |title=Declaration of Sentiments |url=https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/declaration-of-sentiments.htm |website=[[National Park Service]] |department=[[Women's Rights National Historical Park]] |access-date=November 25, 2025 |archive-date=May 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220515074647/https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/declaration-of-sentiments.htm |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Dumbauld |first=Edward |title=The Declaration of Independence and What It Means Today |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=1950 |location=Norman |ref=none }}
* {{cite book |title=Declaring Independence: The Origins and Influence of America's Founding Document |publisher=University of Virginia Library |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-9799997-1-0 |editor-last1=Dupont |editor-first1=Christian Y. |edition=Revised |location=Charlottesville |editor-last2=Onuf |editor-first2=Peter S.}}
* {{cite book |last=Ferling |first=John E. |author-link=John E. Ferling |url=https://archive.org/details/leapindark00ferl/page/n5/mode/2up |title=A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic |publisher=Oxford University Press, Inc. |year=2003 |isbn=0-19-515924-1 |location=New York }}
* {{cite book |last1=Ferling |first1=John E. |author-link=John E. Ferling |title=Setting the world ablaze : Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution |date=2000 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=[[New York City]] |pages=136 |url=https://archive.org/details/settingworldabla0000ferl/page/136/mode/2up?q=majestic |access-date=May 31, 2026}}
* {{cite book |last=Friedenwald |first=Herbert |author-link=Herbert Friedenwald |url=https://archive.org/details/declarationofind00frierich/page/n7/mode/2up |title=The Declaration of Independence: An Interpretation and an Analysis |publisher=The Macmillan Company |year=1904 |location=New York }}
* {{cite web |last1=Gawalt |first1=Gerrard W. |title=Jefferson and the Declaration - (Library of Congress Information Bulletin, Volume 58, No. 7) |url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9907/jeffdec.html |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=May 30, 2026 |date=July 1999 |quote=The discovery in 1947 by [Julian] Boyd, librarian at Princeton University, of the fragment—a previously unknown draft of the Declaration of Independence—shed new light on earlier studies of the Declaration's composition.}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Gustafson |first=Milton |date=Winter 2002 |title=Travels of the Charters of Freedom |url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/winter/travels-charters.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019174353/https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/winter/travels-charters.html |archive-date=October 19, 2017 |magazine=Prologue Magazine |volume=34 |issue=4 |ref=none }}
* {{cite journal |last=Hamowy |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Hamowy |date=October 1979 |title=Jefferson and the Scottish Enlightenment: A Critique of Garry Wills's ''Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence'' |journal=[[William and Mary Quarterly]] |series=3rd series |volume=36 |pages=503–523 |jstor=1925181 |doi=10.2307/1925181 }}
* {{cite book |last=Hazelton |first=John H. |title=The Declaration of Independence: Its History |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=1970 |isbn=0-306-71987-8 |location=New York |orig-date=1906}}{{snd}}[https://archive.org/details/declarationinde00unkngoog 1906 version via archive.org]
* ''Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789'', Vol. 5 (Library of Congress, 1904–1937)
* {{cite book |first=Stephen E. |last=Lucas |chapter=Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document |editor-first=Thomas W. |editor-last=Benson | title=American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism |location=Carbondale, Illinois |publisher=[[Southern Illinois University Press]] |date=1989 |page=85}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Mahoney |first1=D. J. |year=1986 |title=Declaration of independence |journal=Society |volume=24 |pages=46–48 |doi=10.1007/BF02695936 |s2cid=189888819 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite book |last=Maier |first=Pauline |author-link=Pauline Maier |url=https://archive.org/details/americanscriptur00paul |title=American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-307-79195-5 |location=New York }}
* {{cite book |last=Malone |first=Dumas |author-link=Dumas Malone |title=Jefferson and His Time |publisher=Little Brown |year=1948 |volume=1 |chapter=Jefferson the Virginian |location=Boston}}
* {{cite book |last1=Malone |first1=Dumas |author-link=Dumas Malone |title=The Story of the Declaration of Independence |date=1954 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=263 |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofdeclarati0000malo/page/n9/mode/2up?q=1944 |access-date=May 29, 2026}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |publisher=[[Sage Publishing]] |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |last=Mayer |first=David |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-first=Ronald |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |pages=113–15 |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n72 |isbn=978-1-4129-6580-4 |chapter=Declaration of Independence |access-date=June 1, 2026 |archive-date=September 27, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240927012307/https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |url-status=live |ref=none }}
* {{cite book |last=Mayer |first=Henry |title=All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-312-18740-8 |location=New York}}
* {{cite journal |last=McDonald |first=Robert M. S. |date=Summer 1999 |title=Thomas Jefferson's Changing Reputation as Author of the Declaration of Independence: The First Fifty Years |journal=Journal of the Early Republic |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=169–195}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Merrill Jensen |first=Merrill |last=Jensen |title=The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776 |url=https://archive.org/details/foundingofnation0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up |location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1968}}
* {{cite book |last=Middlekauff |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Middlekauff |title=The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2005 |edition=Revised and expanded |location=New York}}
* {{Cite speech |last=Milk |first=Harvey |date=June 25, 1978 |access-date=November 25, 2025 |title=That's What America Is |url=https://www.onearchives.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/1978_harvey_milk_gay_freedom_day_speech.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503185119/https://www.onearchives.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/1978_harvey_milk_gay_freedom_day_speech.pdf |archive-date=May 3, 2021 |publisher=San Francisco Lesbian Gay Freedom Day Parade & Celeb Committee }}
* {{cite web |last1=North |first1=Michael |title=Printing the Declaration of Independence (Bibliomania) |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/bibliomania/2023/07/04/printing-the-declaration-of-independence/ |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=May 30, 2026 |date=July 4, 2023 |quote=The Library of Congress owns two of the surviving 26 copies of the first printing of the Declaration of Independence, also known as the “Dunlap Broadside,” printed in Philadelphia on the evening of July 4 and the early morning of July 5, 1776. ... One of the Library’s copies, which is incomplete, belonged to George Washington and is part of his papers in the Manuscript Division. ... The other copy, which is complete and in very good condition, is housed in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.}}
* {{cite book |last=Norton |first=Mary Beth |title=A People and a Nation |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]]/[[Cengage Group|Cengage]] |year=1994 |edition=4th |location=Boston |display-authors=et al |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0395691168_1/page/n1/mode/2up?q=cady}}
* {{cite book |last=Rakove |first=Jack N. |author-link=Jack N. Rakove |url=https://archive.org/details/beginningsofnati00jack/page/n7/mode/2up |title=The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. |year=1979 |isbn=0-394-42370-4 |location=New York }}
* {{cite journal |last=Ritz |first=Wilfred J. |date=Spring 1986 |title=The Authentication of the Engrossed Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 |journal=Law and History Review |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=179–204 |ref=none }}
* {{cite journal |last=Ritz |first=Wilfred J. |date=October 1992 |title=From the ''Here'' of Jefferson's Handwritten Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence to the ''There'' of the Printed Dunlap Broadside |url=https://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/44820/44541 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613145749/http://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/44820/44541 |archive-date=June 13, 2015 |journal=[[Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography]] |volume=116 |issue=4 |pages=499–512 }}
* {{cite news |last= |date=January 16, 2023 |orig-date=January 18, 2010 |title=Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' Speech in Its Entirety |url=https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety |website=[[NPR]] |department=[[Talk of the Nation]] }}
* {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/declarationinde01statgoog |title=The Declaration of Independence, 1776 |publisher=[[United States Department of State]] |year=1911 |location=Washington }}
* {{cite book |last=Tsesis |first=Alexander |url=https://archive.org/details/forlibertyequali0000tses/page/n5/mode/2up |title=For Liberty and Equality: The Life and Times of the Declaration of Independence |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-195-37969-3 |location=New York |ref=none }}
* {{cite journal |last=Warren |first=Charles |date=July 1945 |title=Fourth of July Myths |journal=[[William and Mary Quarterly]] |series=3rd Series |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=238–272 |jstor=1921451}}
* {{cite book |last=Wills |first=Garry |author-link=Garry Wills |url=https://archive.org/details/inventingamerica0000will_f4a7/page/n7/mode/2up |title=Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence |publisher=Doubleday |year=1978 |isbn=0-385-08976-7 |location=Garden City, NY }}
* {{cite book |last=Wills |first=Garry |author-link=Garry Wills |title=Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Rewrote America |location=New York |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |date=1992 |isbn=0-671-76956-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Wyatt-Brown |first=Bertram |title=Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War Against Slavery |publisher=Press of Case Western Reserve University |year=1969 |isbn=0-8295-0146-0 |location=Cleveland}}
{{Refend}}
== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book |last=Isaacson |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Isaacson |year=2025 |title=The Greatest Sentence Ever Written |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iR1pEQAAQBAJ |edition=First hardcover |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1982181314 |oclc=1526851469 |access-date=November 25, 2025}}
* [[Jill Lepore|Lepore, Jill]], 'What We Hold: The writing and meaning of the Declaration of Independence", ''[[The New Yorker]]'', May 11 & 18, 2026, pp. 18–22. "If you were to cut [the Declaration of Independence] down to the length of the shortest short story – 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn' – you'd get something like 'Hear ye! Men are free! Mostly.'" (p. 19.)
==External links==
{{Sister project links |wikt=no |commons=Category:United States Declaration of Independence |b=no |n=no |q=United States Declaration of Independence |s=United States Declaration of Independence |v=no}}
* [https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plans/declare-causes-declaration-independence "Declare the Causes: The Declaration of Independence"] lesson plan for grades 9–12 from National Endowment for the Humanities
* [https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration Declaration of Independence at the National Archives]
* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/DeclarInd.html Declaration of Independence at the Library of Congress]
* [//uscon.mobi/ind/ Mobile-friendly Declaration of Independence]
{{United States Declaration of Independence}}
{{American Revolution origins}}
{{Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War}}
{{American Revolutionary War|state=collapsed}}
{{United States topics}}
{{Navboxes
|title=Signers related articles
|list=
{{John Adams}}
{{Samuel Adams}}
{{Benjamin Franklin}}
{{John Hancock}}
{{Thomas Jefferson}}
{{Richard Henry Lee}}
{{Robert Morris}}
{{Roger Sherman}}
{{James Wilson}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:United States Declaration of Independence| ]]
[[Category:1776 in American law]]
[[Category:1776 in international relations]]
[[Category:1776 in American politics]]
[[Category:1776 works]]
[[Category:American Enlightenment]]
[[Category:American political philosophy literature]]
[[Category:Continental Congress|Declaration of Independence]]
[[Category:Government documents of the United States|Declaration of Independence]]
[[Category:Market Street (Philadelphia)]]
[[Category:National human rights instruments]]
[[Category:Philadelphia in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:United States documents|Declaration of Independence]]
[[Category:Works by Thomas Jefferson|Declaration of Independence]]