The Declaration of Independence is Signed: July 4, 1776
- Catholic Textbook Project
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This text comes from our book, From Sea to Shining Sea.
Despite Lexington and Concord, and despite Bunker Hill, most patriots believed that King George was on their side. It was Parliament, they believed, that was causing all the trouble. Thus, except for a few like Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty, most colonial patriots wanted to remain part of the British Empire. They simply wanted their rights respected. All this changed because of the publication of a pamphlet called Common Sense.
Common Sense was published in January 1776 anonymously (that is, the author did not give his name). Later, a young man named Thomas Paine was known to be the writer. Soon, people all over the colonies were reading the writer’s revolutionary new thoughts. The colonies should be independent, for only by being independent could they be free, declared Common Sense. Further, since the king of England was a tyrant (one who used the colonists for his own benefit), the colonists owed him no loyalty or obedience. Finally, Common Sense declared that a free America could become the only truly free nation on earth. It could become the home of freedom for all mankind.
George Washington had remained faithful to the King—toasting George III’s health every night at dinner. But then, Washington read Common Sense and embraced the cause of independence. So did many members of the Second Continental Congress; yet many still were not convinced. Throughout the spring of 1776, the congress debated whether the colonies should declare their independence from Great Britain. Delegates from the New England colonies and from Virginia were in favor of independence, and soon the other southern colonies voiced their support. The middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania were opposed.
After months of debate and disagreement, the congress decided to bring the question of independence to a vote. On July 2, 1776, the representatives of all the colonies except New York voted for independence—New York’s representatives did not vote against independence; they just did not vote at all. Two days later, on July 4, the congress approved what would become the most important document in the history of the United States, the Declaration of Independence. On that day John Hancock (who presided over the Continental Congress), along with the delegates, signed this famous document declaring the thirteen American colonies to be free and independent states.
Though the congress had appointed a committee of five men to compose the Declaration of Independence, only one of them did most of the writing. This was Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, but he was influenced by his friend and colleague, John Adams. Jefferson’s declaration was more than a simple statement that the colonies had separated themselves from Great Britain; it was a statement of beliefs that would inspire Americans from Revolutionary War days to our own: “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” said the Declaration of Independence, “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.”
The statement, that all are “created equal,” comes from a Christian view of human nature. The Church for centuries has taught that all people—male and female, rich and poor, slave and free—are equal as human beings in the sight of God. Christ had died for all and promised heaven to everyone if he or she followed the teachings of the Gospel. The declaration’s statement, that everyone has inalienable rights, is inspired partly by the Christian Faith, though Jefferson probably took it from an English writer named John Locke. Locke, too, had spoken about natural rights that no one could justly take from another—but Locke spoke of life, liberty, and property. Jefferson just replaced property with pursuit of happiness to express the idea that everyone has the right to follow after the thing or things that will make him happy.
Governments come into being, said the declaration, “to secure these rights”; and these governments must be formed by the people who will be governed by them. The declaration further said that whenever a government acts against the natural rights of mankind, that government must be changed or abandoned for a new government. The government of Great Britain had violated the rights of the American colonists, said the declaration, and so the colonies had the right to form their own independent governments.
Having declared their independence, the new states had to fight a long war to keep it.
