Declaration of Independence
The 1776 document, drafted mostly by Thomas Jefferson, by which the thirteen American colonies broke from Britain and which set 'all men are created equal' loose on the world.
Origin
Adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, after a year of fighting that had already begun. The text has three parts: a philosophical preamble (the Enlightenment case for self-government, 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'), a long list of George III's abuses, and the formal declaration of independence. Jefferson did most of the drafting; Franklin and Adams revised it; Congress cut the most radical passages, including one denouncing the slave trade. Fifty-six men signed, knowing it was technically treason. Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address dated the founding of the nation to the Declaration ('four score and seven years ago' = 1776), not the Constitution — making the Declaration's universal-equality clause, not the Constitution's compromises, the country's stated ideal. Martin Luther King quoted it from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.
Modern usage
The most quoted American political text. 'Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' is the standard shorthand for the American ideal; 'all men are created equal' is the line every civil-rights movement has cited back at the country. The handwritten parchment, badly faded, is on display in the National Archives in Washington — and June and July tourist traffic in DC is largely organized around it.
Tags