This piece of parchment is the reason Americans sit outdoors grilling burgers and veggie dogs every ...
This piece of parchment is the reason Americans sit outdoors grilling burgers and veggie dogs every 4th of July. It's the reason we chant USA! USA! USA! during the Olympics. It's the reason we get all teary-eyed when we hear Whitney Huston's rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" (and wince when other singers flub it). Oh, yeah—and the Declaration of Independence is the reason America as a country exists. At all. It was written to tell England: "We're done with your nonsense, stay over there and we're going to make our own thing over here, okay? Deal with it." Lo and behold, the United States of America was born. Not only did the Declaration, for lack of better words, declare independence from England and King George III, but also Thomas Jefferson's words embody the founding ideas of the United States, which is why they're still often referenced today when discussing legal and social issues in the U.S. Yeah. This document is a big, huge, red, white, and blue deal. You've definitely heard or seen the phrase, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" in some variation or other in your lifetime. Probably so many times that it has become just one those phrases you see on commemorative plates in generic gift stores, along with "Home Sweet Home" and "May the Force be with you." How It Went Down The Declaration was presented and approved (and signed by two people) on July 4, 1776. Thomas Jefferson (yup—the Thomas Jefferson) took about a month to draft it, as part of the appointed Committee of Five, which included big-deal names like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and lesser-known-big-deal names Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman. The Committee of Five was formed following a resolution in the Second Continental Congress that the time had come for the colonies to make the case for their independence. After decades of increasingly strict legislation, forced conscription into the British Army, and a war that only benefited Great Britain the leadership of the colonies felt like it was time to peace out of the whole being-a-colony-of-the-British-Empire deal. Once the Declaration was signed by almost every member of the Congress the American Revolution had truly begun. King George III had considered the American colonies to be in open rebellion since August of 1775, but now the battle was really on. (Source) The Declaration of Independence was a new and radical way to a) start a country and b) establish that country with very definite principles about the relationship between government and the people. (Get it, Thomas Jefferson.) We take for granted now the idea that government is supposed to represent and serve the people, and to be as helpful as possible, but this text is where that whole idea was first explicitly stated by Jefferson and the Continental Congress. Basically, Jefferson and the delegates are saying that a government cannot take advantage of its people, and if they do, those people are totally justified to pull a Katniss Everdeen and overthrow them (raises hand in a three-fingered salute). And it's not like the idea of a government created by and for the people stopped with good ol' 'Murica. These ideas were adopted quickly around the world following the success of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. It contributed to other revolutions, like the French Revolution in 1789 (more on that later) and Venezuelan independence in 1811. So the next time you don your star-spangled tank top, maybe you'll remember that Independence Day is the result of this single page of text…and that you're barbequing to commemorate the fact that America was born out of the conviction that government is responsible to its people. But hey—maybe you'll forget all about the Declaration of Independence because you're too busy watching the fireworks display with your jaw open in amazement. That's cool too—after all, you're entitled to a little (or a lot) of the pursuit of happiness.
