(Via Milinet)
<The Constitutionalist Society>
Introduction to the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are closely
related. We can compare them to modern legal documents. The
Declaration of Independence can be compared to a corporation's
"Articles of Incorporation," they call the entity into legal
existence. The Constitution can be compared to a corporation's
"By-Laws," it spells out how the company will be operated. The
major
elements of the Declaration of Independence that influenced the
Constitution are:
•The basic purposes and principles of America were set forth
and
declared to be so clearly understood that they required no proof
or
explanation: - God created all men. He created them of equal
value in
His eyes, and with equal rights (this was in sharp contrast to
the
English system of social classes), - God gave them rights the
governments cannot take away (contrasted with rights granted by
the
English king or government), - Governments are set up by people
to
secure these rights, - Governments obtain their power and
authority
from the consent of the people they govern (the people were
sovereign,
not a king).
•The revolution was the considered act of deliberate men.
•The colonists declared their freedom from the rule of the
British
crown.
Many people credit Thomas Jefferson with being the primary
author of
the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Jefferson wrote his own
tombstone
inscription. It provides insight into what he thought were his
greatest achievements: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author
of the
Declaration of American Independence[,] of the Statue of
Virginia for
religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia."
[B]ecause
by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish most to be
remembered."
Thomas Jefferson offers the following view of the purpose of the
document in this excerpt from a letter he wrote to Henry Lee on
May 8,
1825: "But with respect to our rights, and the acts of the
British
government contravening [violating] those rights, there was but
one
opinion on this side of the water. All American Whigs
[supporters of
the war against England] thought alike on these subjects. When
forced,
therefore, to resort to arms for redress [to make amends], an
appeal
to the tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our
justification.
This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to
find
out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of,
not
merely to say things which had never been said before; but to
place
before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so
plain and
firm as to command their assent [agreement], and to justify
ourselves
in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither
aiming at
originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any
particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an
expression
of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper
tone
and spirit called for by the occasion. All its authority rest
then on
the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in
conversation, in letters, printed essays, or in the elementary
books
of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc."
Thomas Jefferson, proposed an anti-slavery clause for the
Declaration
of Independence. This clause was rejected by Congress.
Nevertheless,
it is valuable to gain insight into an issue that troubled the
new
nation. The following is an excerpt from his notes: "reprobating
[declaring to be morally unprincipled] the enslaving the
inhabitants
of Africa was struck out in compliance to South Carolina and
Georgia,
who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves
and who,
on the contrary, still wished to continue it. Our northern
brethren
also, I believe, felt a little tender under those censures
[scolding],
for, though their people have very few slaves themselves, yet
they had
been pretty considerable carriers of them to others."
Almost a century later, on February 22, 1861, President Abraham
Lincoln offered his view on the wider scope and importance of
the
principles behind the Declaration. He did this in a speech at
Independence Hall, Philadelphia while traveling to Washington,
D.C.
for his first inauguration: "The Declaration of Independence
which
gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope
to all
the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise
that in
due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all
men,
and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment
embodied in the Declaration of Independence . . . I would rather
be
assassinated on this spot than surrender it."
President John Quincy Adams, sixth President and son of John
Adams
(our second President) said on July 4,1821: "The highest glory
of the
American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble
bond
the principles of civil government with the principles of
Christianity."
The title "Revolutionary War" does not adequately describe the
conflict. A more appropriate title would have been the War of
Independence (or Session, or Restoration). By this time, the New
England colonies had a history of more than one hundred fifty
years of
being generally independent of the rule by the British
government and
the Church of England. The southern colonies had a similar
history,
but had stronger economic, cultural and religious ties with
England.
The focus of the conflict was the effort, starting in the early
1760's, by both the English Parliament and the Church of England
to
force their authority on the colonies. The British were acting
in the
role of radicals and revolutionaries. It was the British that
used the
force of arms to change the established government. The
colonists were
defending their historical form of government.
========================The Text=========
THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN STATES OF AMERICA
A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of
America,
in General Congress assembled, July 4, 1776.
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 shown, 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.
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 meantime, exposed to all the dangers
of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored 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 harass our People, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without
the
Consent of our legislature.
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 may cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tired for pretended
offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring
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 Legislature, 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
complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already
begun
with circumstances of Cruelty and 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
endeavored
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 in thus marked by
every
act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be 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
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.
We, therefore, the Representative 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 those 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.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Josiah Bartlett, Wm. [William] Whipple, Matthew Thornton
MASSACHUSETTS BAY
Saml. [Samuel] Adams, John Adams, Robt. [Robert] Treat Paine,
Elbridge
Gerry
John Hancock (President of the Continental Congress and
presiding
officer of the convention)
RHODE ISLAND
Step. [Stephen] Hopkins, William Ellery
CONNECTICUT
Roger Sherman (also signed the Constitution), Sam'el [Samuel]
Huntington, Wm. [William] Williams, Oliver Wolcott
NEW YORK
Wm. [William] Floyd, Phil. [Philip] Livingston, Frans. [Francis]
Lewis, Lewis Morris
NEW JERSEY
Richd. [Richard] Stockton, Jno. [Johnathan] Witherspoon, Fras.
[Francis] Hopkinson,
John Hart, Abra. [Abraham] Clark
PENNSYLVANIA
Robt. [Robert] Morris (also signed the Constitution), Benjamin
Rush,
Banja. [Benjamin] Franklin (also signed the Constitution), John
Morton, Geo. [George] Clymer (also signed the Constitution),
Jas.
[James] Smith, Geo. [George] Taylor, James Wilson (also signed
the
Constitution), Geo. [George] Ross
DELAWARE
Caesar Rodney, Geo. [George] Read (also signed the
Constitution), Tho.
[Thomas] M'Kean
MARYLAND
Samuel Chase, Wm. [William] Paca, Thos. [Thomas] Stone, Charles
Carroll of Carrollton
VIRGINIA
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Th. [Thomas] Jefferson, Benja.
[Benjamin] Harrison,
Ths. [Thomas] Nelson Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
NORTH CAROLINA
Wm. [William] Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
SOUTH CAROLINA
Edward Rutledge, Thos. [Thomas] Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr.,
Arthur
Middleton
GEORGIA
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. [George] Walton
=========================
Amen
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