Outline

I. Why a declaration?

A. In efforts to pay the debt accumulated during the French and Indian War, Britain imposed the Sugar and Stamp Acts on the colonies.

i. The Sugar Act levied a tax on sugar in order to finance the large British military presence in the colonies meant to protect the colonies from being retaken by the French or the Spanish.

ii. The Stamp Act required that all newspapers, pamphlets, almanacs, advertisements, legal documents (deeds, wills, diplomas, etc.), and even playing cards in the colonies were to be printed on special paper bought from Britain.

B. The Colonies Respond

When the Stamp Act was enacted, the colonies ignored it and went on printing on unstamped paper. A year later, in 1766, after an examination of Benjamin Franklin, the Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and lessened the constraints of the Sugar Act, but the damage was done. The colonist’s greatest objections to these acts was that they had been levied without their consent. The consensus view was "...no taxation without representation."

II. The Writer

Like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson was "a living example of an Aristotelian gentleman." Born of Virginia, he graduated from William and Mary College after which he practiced law. He served as governor of Virginia, Ambassador to France, and later, President of the United States. He was a farmer, lawyer, writer, political philosopher and scholar, inventor, architect, diplomat, and an honored statesman. He was a friend of James Madison, John Adams, and many other notable people of the time.

III. The Founders

Virginia sent delegates to the Continental Congress on May 15, 1776 with national independence in mind. On June 7, the leader of the Virginia delegation, Richard Henry Lee (which also included Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton, and Benjamin Harrison), introduced a formal resolution for declaring independence, known as the Lee Resolution. The Lee resolution was passed on July 2nd after nearly a month of heated debate, over which time the Declaration of Independence was being formed by the Committee of Five. This committee was comprised by John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, R. R. Livingston of New York, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. They presented the first draft of the Declaration of Independence on June 28. The founders debated and edited the Declaration of Independence for five days. On July 4, editing complete, they passed the final version of the Declaration of Independence. It being messy with revisions, they ordered a new ornate one be composed for signing, which took place on August 2, 1776.

The main revision of the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was the exclusion of denouncing King George III for having promoted the slave trade among the colonists. The members of the Committee of Five and most of the other members of the foundry were strongly opposed to slavery, but South Carolina would not have this part written in the Declaration of Independence as they profited from the slave trade, as did some "northern brethren" as Jefferson later wrote. The delegates, however, were in agreement that all men were created equal, but, as it would seem, often created a bit greedy.

When the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Congress on July 4th, it was rushed across the street to John Dunlop’s printing house where 500 copies in standard type were made. These wash towel-sized posters were distributed to various states assemblies and in town halls where it could be viewed by the public. Twenty-four of these "Dunlop-Broadside" versions still exist today. One particularly well-preserved copy is being displayed in the Utah State capitol for viewing during the Olympics.

The Declaration of Independence proclaims that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." The bulk of the Declaration contains the reasons why the colonies were impelled to separate from Great Britain. And mentioned near the end of the document, the first formal acknowledgment of the name by which our nation has hence been known, the United States of America.