What are we celebrating this coming weekend? Don’t celebrate “the Fourth of July,” but Independence Day. Too often, we seem to forget that this weekend is about the publication of a document, the Declaration of Independence, that forged the American ideal. It’s not about an arbitrary date on the calendar. We invite you to read and thoughtfully consider the Declaration of Independence this Independence Day weekend.
Beginning of the War of Independence
In the 1770s, tension between Britain and her American colonies was rising. Discontent with rising taxes and trade restrictions was rising. Conflicting views of how the colonies should be represented in the British Parliament also drove a wedge between the colonies and the mother country.
In April 1775, this tension boiled over into a shooting war. As British forces marched from Boston to Concord to seize colonial weapons, they colonial minutemen challenged them on a field in Lexington. Such encounters had happened before, and the colonists backed down when ordered by the British to disperse. That did not happen on the morning of April 19, 1775. Instead, a shot was fired. We don’t know by whom. We don’t even know for sure if it came from the battlefield itself.
By the end of the day, the British had recovered and destroyed artillery pieces in Concord. The British, however, failed to recover most of the small arms which colonists had hidden. On the march back to Boston, the British forces faced constant harassment from a growing colonial army that reached into the thousands. The Revolutionary War had begun.
On May 10, 1775, a group of representatives from the American colonies convened in Philadelphia. This began the Second Continental Congress, which, in effect, became the government of the American colonies. In June of 1775, Congress created the Continental Army, and appointed George Washington as its commander. As the war escalated, revolutionaries such as John Adams pushed Congress toward independence.
Need for a Declaration of Independence
Even though revolutionary sentiment was on the rise, many colonists hoped for reconciliation with Britain. Appeals to Britain to change policies toward the colonies were ultimately unsuccessful. Growing numbers of colonists felt that their rights as Englishmen were being denied. Those wanting to break from England were gaining in influence.
On July 2, 1776, Congress passed a resolution breaking ties with Britain. A document had been in the works since mid-June to announce and explain this separation. After a series of edits to Thomas Jefferson’s draft between June 28 and July 4, the wording of the Declaration of Independence was finalized and approved for publication.
The Declaration of Independence has at least three major sections (some scholars break this down more, but we don’t need to here). First, it must explain what principles justify a revolution. Second, it must explain, specifically, what the British Government has done to justify a revolution against it. Finally, it must declare the political relationship with Britain over. While the overarching goal is to break from Britain, the Declaration of Independence must also build support for the revolution from colonists and from foreign countries, like France, who could become allies.
Let’s walk through the text of the Declaration of Independence and see how this is done.
The Declaration of Independence: When is Revolution Justified
When is revolution justified? It is justified when government no longer serves its purpose. What is the purpose of government? To secure the rights of the people. When government no longer does this, it is the right of the governed to throw off the government and replace it with a new one.
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.
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. — 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain 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.
The Declaration of Independence: Complaints against Britain
What has Britain done? Here, the Declaration of Independence lays most of the blame at the feet of King George himself. This is not completely fair, since some of the grievances are really with Acts of Parliament. In fact, many attempts at reconciliation prior to 1776 were attempts to get King George to reign in Parliament. If we look at the Declaration of Independence as an indictment, here are the specific crimes or misdeeds which are alleged.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.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.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
The Declaration of Independence: Independence Declared
Finally, at the end of the Declaration, Congress declares that the colonies are now free and independent states, no longer under the rule of Britain. Recognizing that the Declaration of Independence is unquestionably an act of treason, they close by pledging to each other their lives, fortunes, and honor.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in 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 declare, 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; 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.
John Adams’ Call for Celebration
On July 3, 1776, the day after the vote for independence, John Adams wrote the following to his wife:
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable [Epoch], in the History of America.
I am apt to believe that it 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.
You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
Of course, we celebrate the Declaration of Independence on July 4, instead of July 2 as Adams envisioned. May we, however, keep in the forefront of our celebrations the notions of liberty and self-government that formed a nation. May we honor our national debt of gratitude to the Continental Congress and their sacrifice as we celebrate the Declaration at times in a manner envisioned by John Adams himself.