THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
Topic #4
Historical Circumstances
•
The Continental Congresses were ad hoc meetings of delegates from each of
the several American colonies to deliberate on matters of common concern.
– The First Continental Congress met in 1774.
– The Second Continental Congress first met in 1775.
• In 1776 it drafted and voted on the Declaration of Independence.
– Congress appointed a committee to draft such a document.
– John Adams was the chair of the committee and Thomas Jefferson
was a member.
– Adams delegated to Jefferson the task of writing a first draft.
– Jefferson’s draft was revised a bit in committee and further revised
by Congress as a whole.
– The Declaration was enacted on July 4, 1776.
– [Adams and Jefferson subsequently were estranged due to political
conflicts but reconciled later in life. They both died on July 4,
1826.]
• The Second Continental Congress remained in session until 1781 and
organized the revolutionary war effort against the British.
•
The British did find the Declaration entirely persuasive.
Structure of Declaration
•
Preamble: When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of Nature 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.
• Statement of Political Philosophy: We hold these truths to be selfevident:
– 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.
– that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
– that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and
to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Structure of Declaration (cont.)
• Charges against the King: The history of the present King of Great
Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,
all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny
over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid
world.
– [27 specific charges taking up about 75% of the document]
• Conclusion: In every stage of these Oppressions We have
Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated
Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince
whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a
Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. . . . They too have
been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We,
therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in
General Congress, Assembled, . . . solemnly publish and declare,
That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and
Independent States. . . .
The Logic of the Declaration
• The Declaration does not specify a proper form of government. The
(logically interconnected) criteria for judging whether a government
is normatively legitimate or not are
– whether it is based on the consent of the governed, and
– whether it acts to secure people’s natural rights.
• Therefore, the Declaration does not condemn monarchy per se.
– Otherwise, a Prince [of any character] could never be the ruler of
a free people, and
– there would be no need to come up with 27 charges against the
King.
• Also, the Declaration can be used to condemn a democratic
governments that abridges, rather than secures, natural rights.
– Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.