Declaration of Independence

Examples of Declaration of Independence in the following topics:

• The Declaration of Independence

  • Declaration of Independence.
  • His motion called upon Congress to declare independence, form foreign alliances, and prepare a plan for colonial confederation.
  • Opponents of Lee’s resolution argued that although reconciliation with Great Britain was unlikely, the timing was premature to declare independence and Congress ought to focus on securing foreign aid.
  • Proponents of Lee’s resolution, however, argued that foreign governments were unlikely to grant aid to a party to an internal British struggle, making a formal declaration of independence all the more urgent.
  • The text of the Declaration of Independence was drafted by a “Committee of Five” appointed by Congress, which consisted of John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R.

• The American Enlightenment

  • Politically, the age is distinguished by an emphasis on liberty, democracy, republicanism, and religious tolerance – culminating in the writings of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and the drafting of the United States Declaration of Independence.
  • Common Sense called for independence and challenged the largely accepted notion that a good government employed a balance of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy.
  • The culmination of these enlightenment ideas occurred with Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, in which he declared:
  • Drawing on Locke, Smith, and Paine, the Declaration of Independence thus asserted to Britain and to other contemporary observers that both George III and Parliament were violating colonial rights and freedoms and the American colonies intended to sever ties with Britain.
  • Essentially, the Declaration of Independence, heavily inspired by Enlightenment political theory, proclaimed that the American people were fighting to maintain their essential freedoms and liberties by overthrowing despotic, irrational tyranny.

• The Political Revolution

  • Politically, the age is distinguished by an emphasis upon liberty, democracy, republicanism, and religious tolerance – culminating in the drafting of the United States Declaration of Independence and the U.S.
  • Attempts to reconcile science and religion led to the growing appeal of Deism, often resulting from a rejection of prophecy, miracle, and revealed religion.
  • It was seen as hostile to the development of reason and the progress of science, and it was incapable of verification.
  • As Outram notes, the Enlightenment comprised "many different paths, varying in time and geography, to the common goals of progress, of tolerance, and the removal of abuses in Church and state. "
  • This painting depicts the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress.

• Legal Changes to Slavery: 1777-1804

  • The Declaration of Independence also had prominent influence on the debate over slavery.
  • Its 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.
  • For radical abolitionists like 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.
  • The first major public debate about slavery and the Declaration took place during the Missouri controversy of 1819 to 1821.
  • Pro-slavery congressmen, led by Senator Macon of North Carolina, argued that since the Declaration was not a part of the Constitution, it had no relevance to the question at all.

• The Spreading Conflict

  • Many American colonists saw the Coercive Acts as a violation of the British Constitution and a threat to the liberties of all of British America, not just Massachusetts.
  • On July 6, 1775 Congress approved a Declaration of Causes outlining the rationale and necessity for taking up arms in the Thirteen Colonies.
  • That same day, the Virginia Convention instructed its delegation in Philadelphia to propose a resolution that called for a declaration of independence, the formation of foreign alliances, and a confederation of the states.
  • The resolution of independence was delayed for several weeks as revolutionaries consolidated support for independence in their home governments.
  • The Assembly Room in Philadelphia's Independence Hall, where the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

• Pursuing Both War and Peace

  • In the period of uncertainty leading up to the formal declaration of war, the Second Continental Congress attempted to pacify the British and declare allegiance to the Crown, while simultaneously asserting independence and engaging British forces in armed conflict.
  • The petition was rejected, and in August 1775, A Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition (or the Proclamation of Rebellion) formally declared that the colonies were in rebellion.
  • The rejection of the "olive branch" polarized the issue in the minds of many colonists, who realized that from that point forward the choice was between full independence or full submission to British rule.
  • This document declared the North American colonies to be in a state of rebellion and ordered British officers and loyal subjects to suppress this uprising.
  • Describe the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain in the year before the Declaration of Independence.

• Secession of the South

  • South Carolina invoked the Declaration of Independence to defend their right to secede from the Union, seeing their declaration of secession as a comparable document.
  • Declaring themselves the Confederate States of America, these seven states elected Jefferson Davis as their provisional president, declared Montgomery the nation's capital, and began raising an army.
  • After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and Lincoln's subsequent call for troops on April 15, four more states declared their secession.
  • Immediately following Fort Sumter, the Confederate Congress declared war against the United States and the Civil War officially began.
  • During the four years of its wartime existence, the Confederacy asserted its independence by appointing dozens of diplomatic agents abroad.

• Land Policy

  • In 1793, France and Britain declared war on each other, thrusting the United States, a primary trading partner with both nations, into a difficult situation.
  • President James Madison declared West Florida a U.S. possession in 1810, while the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 legitimized Spain's cession of East Florida and the surrender of any claims to the Oregon Country.
  • Led by a large community of American settlers, Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1842 and became a republic.
  • Cuba became an independent nation in 1902, the Philippines in 1946.
  • Map of current U.S. states that are direct successor states of the original Thirteen Colonies that declared independence from Great Britain in 1776.

• The Monroe Doctrine

  • The doctrine was issued at a time when nearly all Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal had achieved independence from the Spanish Empire (except for Bolivia, which became independent in 1825, Cuba, and Puerto Rico).
  • The United States, dedicated to the ideals of republicanism, wanted to uphold republican institutions in these newly independent states, as well as to seek treaties of commerce on a most-favored-nation basis.
  • For that reason, Great Britain's foreign secretary, George Canning, proposed to the United States that they mutually declare and enforce a policy of separating the Americas (the "new world") from Europe (the "old world").
  • The doctrine put forward that the Americas and Europe were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence, being composed of entirely separate and independent nations.
  • But with the governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.

• The Second American Revolution

  • Southerners viewed the Confederate States of America's claim to independence as heir to the American Revolution.
  • These Democrats felt that Lincoln's nomination in 1860 threatened the institution of slavery; they also opposed the Republican goals of enacting a tariff for the protection of industry and granting free homesteads to settlers who would aid in the opening of the West.
  • Historians would later characterize the Civil War as the fulfillment of the Declaration of Independence's promise that "all men are created equal. "
  • The collapse of the Southern plantation economy aided the national shift toward industry and wage labor, as did the Morrill Tariff, which encouraged the growth of domestic manufacturing.
  • Explain why Southerners viewed the Confederate States of America's claim to independence as part of the tradition of the American Revolution