In honor of Independence Day

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.

As conflict with Britain intensified, the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia debated a course of action. Options ranged from reconciliation with Britain to outright independence. Pushing for independence were the delegations from Virginia and Massachusetts, among them Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.

As matters came to a head, the Second Continental Congress passed Lee's Resolution stating their intent to declare independence. A committee was immediately convened to draft their statement of independence. Jefferson was chosen to write it, as he was "a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business" and had a "reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent of composition"(John Adams, Letters).

When the declaration came out, it was mostly met with praise, although a few wondered at the hypocrisy between "all men are created equal" and the fact that slave-owners had a hand in its creation. The declaration was most directly influenced by the Virginian Constitution (which Jefferson wrote) as well as the ideas of John Locke. The ideas voiced were not highly radical; they were commonplace in America at the time. There were no other high purposes for the Declaration of Independence other than to stir patriotic fervor and give a coherent statement of the new nation’s intent.

In fact, in the decade following independence, the Declaration was ignored. The act of declaring independence was important; the text of declaring independence was not. The revival of interest came during the 1790s elections, when Jeffersonians battled the Federalists for power. The Jeffersonians sought to promote Jefferson and the Declaration in their fight. There was a preceding view that the Declaration did not belong to one man; rather, it was the work of the whole drafting committee. Eventually, the Declaration would become interchangeable with independence itself.

Throughout history, repressed minority would look to the language of the Declaration for support. The Seneca Falls convention, in their Declaration of Sentiments stated: “all men and women are created equal.”  Groups as diverse as Liberia, Venezuela, and perhaps most ironically, the Ho Chi Minh, looked to the Declaration as inspiration or model for their own declaration of independence.

Maybe the most influential role the Declaration played in American history other than declaring independence was in the debate over slavery. Abolitionists ad other opponents of slavery would point to “…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” for support.

Indeed, that sentence is one of the most influential in human history.