Comprehensive Study Notes on the Declaration of Independence (1776)
Historical Timeline leading to the Declaration of Independence
On the 10th of May, 1776, the delegates of the United Colonies (New Hampshire; Massachusetts Bay; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations; Connecticut; New York; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, in Delaware; Maryland; Virginia; North Carolina, and South Carolina) assembled in Congress at Philadelphia.
The Congress resolved to recommend to the respective assemblies and conventions of the United Colonies to adopt such governments as would best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents and America in general, particularly where no sufficient government existed.
On May 15, 1776, a preamble to this resolution was agreed upon, stating the intention to totally suppress the exercise of any authority under the British crown.
On June 7, 1776, certain resolutions respecting independency were moved and seconded.
On June 10, 1776, it was resolved that a committee should be appointed to prepare a declaration based on the effect that the United Colonies are free and independent States, absolved from allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connections to Great Britain are dissolved.
On June 11, 1776, resolutions were passed to appoint a committee for a form of confederation and a committee to prepare a plan of treaties for foreign powers.
On June 12, 1776, a committee of Congress was appointed as the board of war and ordnance, consisting of five members.
On June 25, 1776, a declaration from the deputies of Pennsylvania was laid before Congress expressing willingness to concur in the vote for independence.
On June 28, 1776, the committee brought in a draught of the declaration, which was read and ordered to lie on the table.
On July 1, 1776, Maryland's convention resolution authorizing deputies to concur in declaring independence was read. Congress then resolved into a committee of the whole to consider the resolution respecting independency.
On July 2, 1776, the resolution declaring the colonies free and independent States was adopted.
On July 4, 1776, the formal Declaration of Independence was agreed to, engrossed on paper, and signed by John Hancock as president.
On August 2, 1776, a copy engrossed on parchment was signed by fifty-five of the eventual fifty-six signers.
Matthew Thornton of New Hampshire signed the document in November 1776 after asking and obtaining the privilege upon taking his seat.
The Committee of Five and Administrative Structural Appointments
The committee for preparing the declaration consisted of five members chosen in the following order: Mr. Jefferson, Mr. J. Adams, Mr. Franklin, Mr. Sherman, and Mr. R. R. Livingston.
On June 11, 1776, a committee was appointed to prepare and digest the form of a confederation to be entered into between the colonies.
On June 11, 1776, another committee was appointed to prepare a plan of treaties to be proposed to foreign powers.
On June 12, 1776, the Board of War and Ordnance was established with five members.
Philosophical Foundations and Rights (The Preamble)
The Declaration asserts that it periodically becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands connecting them with another and assume a separate and equal station as entitled by the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.
Self-Evident Truths:
All men are created equal.
They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.
Among these rights are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Purpose of Government: To secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Right of Revolution: 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.
Prudence suggests that long-established governments should not be changed for light and transient causes; mankind is generally more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to abolish familiar forms.
Necessity of Change: When a long train of abuses and usurpations evinces a design to reduce the people under absolute Despotism, it is their right and duty to throw off such Government.
Grievances against the King of Great Britain
The history of the present King of Great Britain is described as a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, aiming to establish an absolute Tyranny.
Legislative and Executive Abuses:
Refusal of Assent to Laws most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
Forbidding Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended for his Assent, then neglecting them.
Refusal to pass laws for large districts unless they relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature.
Calling legislative bodies at unusual, uncomfortable, and distant places from public records to fatigue them into compliance.
Repeated dissolution of Representative Houses for opposing invasions on the rights of the people.
Refusal for a long time after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected, exposing the State to dangers of invasion and internal convulsions.
Obstruction of Growth and Justice:
Endeavouring to prevent population growth by obstructing Naturalization Laws and raising conditions for new land appropriations.
Obstructing the Administration of Justice by refusing Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
Making Judges dependent on his Will alone for office tenure and salary amounts.
Erecting a multitude of New Offices and sending "swarms of Officers" to harass the people.
Military and Jurisdictional Abuses:
Keeping Standing Armies among the people in times of peace without legislative consent.
Rendering the Military independent of and superior to Civil power.
Combining with others to subject the colonies to a foreign jurisdiction unacknowledged by their laws.
Giving Assent to acts of "pretended Legislation" for:
Quartering large bodies of armed troops.
Protecting troops via mock Trials from punishment for murders of inhabitants.
Cutting off Trade with all parts of the world.
Imposing Taxes without Consent.
Depriving people of the benefits of Trial by Jury.
Transporting citizens beyond Seas for trial for pretended offenses.
Abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province (Quebec) to establish an Arbitrary government.
Taking away Charters and altering fundamentally the Forms of Governments.
Suspending the colonies’ own Legislatures and declaring power to legislate for the colonies in all cases whatsoever.
Acts of War and Tyranny:
Abdicating Government by declaring the colonies out of his Protection and waging War against them.
Plundering seas, ravaging coasts, burning towns, and destroying lives.
Transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete works of death, desolation, and tyranny.
Constraining fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country.
Exciting domestic insurrections and bringing on the "merciless Indian Savages" whose rule of warfare is undistinguished destruction.
Efforts Toward Redress and Appeals to the British People
The colonies have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms at every stage of oppression.
Repeated petitions were answered only by repeated injury; a Prince marked by such acts of tyranny is deemed unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Appeals to the British Brethren:
Warned them of attempts by their legislature to extend unwarrantable jurisdiction.
Reminded them of the circumstances of emigration and settlement.
Appealed to their native justice, magnanimity, and common kindred (consanguinity).
The British brethren have been "deaf to the voice of justice."
Conclusion of Appeal: The colonies must acquiesce in the necessity of separation and hold the British as the rest of mankind: "Enemies in War, in Peace Friends."
The Formal Declaration and Powers of Independent States
The Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of their intentions.
They solemnly publish and declare that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.
They are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown.
All political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is totally dissolved.
As Free and Independent States, they have full Power to:
Levy War.
Conclude Peace.
Contract Alliances.
Establish Commerce.
Do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
For the support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, the signers mutually pledge their Lives, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor.
Signatories of the Declaration of Independence
President of Congress: John Hancock
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
Massachusetts Bay: Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
Rhode Island: Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Sam’el Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.
New York: Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frans. Lewis, Lewis Morris.
New Jersey: Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.
Pennsylvania: Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read, Tho. M’Kean.
Maryland: Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Th. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
North Carolina: Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thos. Heyward, Junr., Thomas Lynch, Junr., Arthur Middleton.
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
Archival and Editorial Notes
Evidence and proof of the document were provided by Mr. Ferdinand Jefferson, the Keeper of the Rolls at the Department of State in Washington.
The original instrument runs on without a break in the text, though dashes are mostly inserted.
The arrangement into paragraphs followed in this text corresponds with the publication in the newspaper of John Dunlap and the copy printed for Congress.
The author (Thomas Jefferson) also utilized the same paragraphs in the original draught preserved at the Department of State.
The names of the signers are spelled as they appear in the fac-simile, though punctuation may vary.
In the original fac-simile, names are grouped by state, though the state names themselves do not appear; Matthew Thornton's name follows that of Oliver Wolcott.