THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

1
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

• Topic 4

2
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.
• Jeffersons 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.

3
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 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.

4
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. . . .

5
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 peoples 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.