Independence!

On this day, 250 years ago, Congress approved the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration arose from the Lee Resolution. Congress had formed a committee of 5 to draft a declaration explaining to the world why the Resolution and American independence was justified.

The committee included Thomas Jefferson, the principal author, with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Jefferson finished the first draft by June 18th. The committee then helped him edit and polish it.

After receiving the draft on June 28th, Congress spent the next several days debating and revising the declaration. Congress approved it on July 4th – Independence Day.

FIVE Big Things

Let’s look at FIVE big things about American independence and the Declaration.

1. It had to be unanimous - Congress decreed that all 13 colonies had to approve independence for it to take effect. Otherwise, there might have been a civil war, with colony fighting colony.
2. The wrong date? We celebrate independence on July 4th but but Congress approved the Lee Resolution on July 2nd. Why celebrate the 4th? That’s when Congress approved the Declaration, explaining why they declared independence.
3. The Declaration was just the start - Declaring independence was the easy part. Securing it took several more years of war and hardship. At times, it looked like America would fail. But Patriot perseverance ultimately triumphed.
4. Unfinished work - The Declaration made a bold statement that “all men are created equal.” But the new nation did not always live up to that ideal. Instead, as Abraham Lincoln once said, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work....”
5. Immense impact - The Declaration has had an immense impact, both here in the US and abroad.
• American abolitionists, suffragists, and civil rights leaders all used its language to argue that the nation must live up to its founding ideals.
• In 1789, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen drew inspiration from the American Declaration. Jefferson even helped the Marquis de Lafayette draft it.
• Later independence movements, such as those in Latin America in the 1800s, were inspired by the American example.
• And the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights embraced the same core principle of inherent rights found in the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence played a fundamental role in the development of the modern concept of human rights and sovereignty of the people.

And there you have it – America 250 years ago.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!