The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution not only molded a fledgling United States, but they also set a precedent for countries around the world seeking democracy. And now, more than ever before, it is vital that Americans REACQUAINT themselves with these two historic documents – so they might “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.” Floyd G. Cullop – History teacher in Monroe County, Florida
Our American history that should be taught:
When the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the American colonies (settlements in a new country that are ruled by the mother country) had already been at war with Great Britain for more than a year. With the declaration, the meaning of that war subtly changed.What had been a resistance to unjust acts by the British government now BECAME A WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. The colonies had united to form a new nation.
In 1760, when King George III took the throne, there was very little anti-British feeling in America. Most Americans were content to be subjects of the King. The British almost never interfered in the government of the colonies, and there was very little antiroyalist (opposed to the idea of rule by a hereditary king or queen) feeling.
The roots of the change were in the French and Indian War (1754-63), fought by the British against the French (and their Native American allies) in America. England was ultimately triumphant, driving the French out of Canada. But the war was won at the cost of a crippling debt. The British Parliament (national lawmaking body) believed it was fair to expect the American colonists to help to pay off the debt. After all, British soldiers had fought the French and Indian War partly to protect the Americans’ homes and property. The Americans had formerly contributed very little tax to the British. In fact, the British had been paying most of the expenses of American government and American defense. For these reasons, the British began a POLICY of NEW TAXATION on the colonies.
Immediately the colonists OBJECTED. When the colonies were originally established, their charters (written statements of purpose and rights) gave them almost complete freedom from England. Their OWN legislatures (lawmaking bodies of colonies) had always imposed the taxes and made the laws. Each colony did have a colonial governor, appointed by the King. In theory, the governor could veto (reject) any measures passed by the state legislatures, and even dissolve (shut down) these legislatures. But in practice this was almost never done. The colonies were effectively INDEPENDENT STATES.
So when Britain began to impose taxes on the colonists, there were two reason for the Americans to be angry. Their FINANCIAL INTERESTS WERE HURT; and their political SOVEREIGNTY (self-rule) was THREATENED.
The FIRST attempt by the British Parliament to raise revenue from the Americans was the Revenue Act of 1764, usually known as the Sugar Act. It actually lowered the tax of molasses (used as sugar) but levied duties (collected taxes) on imported European luxury goods, like wine, linen, and silk. Eight of the thirteen colonies sent petitions to the King asking him to repeal the Act. Americans also began to boycott (refuse to buy) the affected goods. This nonimportation movement would later grow to be an important tactic for the patriots.
Many of the most passionate advocates of independence were MERCHANTS like Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Hancock – the President of the Second Continental Congress – himself had one of his ships confiscated (taken away) by the British for breaking the customs laws. Because the British were taxing imports, the expense most immediately affected these merchants. They were also hurt by new British restrictions on trade with other countries.
Parliament made a crucial mistake with its next tax. The Stamp Act of 1765 required Americans to put revenue stamps (stamps indicating taxes paid) on all printed matter: newspapers, pamphlets, licenses, legal documents, even playing cards. The stamps had to be purchased from agents appointed by the crown, with the money going back to the British Treasury. Now, in addition to cutting the profits of merchants, the British had threatened the incomes of journalist and lawyers. In America, merchants, lawyers, and journalists were important leaders in the community. They now became the leaders of the RESISTANCE as well. Organized groups of BUSINESSMEN, known as the “Sons of Liberty,” attacked stamp agents and destroyed the stamps. Angry mobs broke into British officials’ homes, robbing and destroying their belongings.
Meanwhile, the nonimportation movement grew more powerful. Trade with Britain fell. And defiance (refusing to obey) the Stamp Act meant that business in the colonies continued as usual. Licenses were issued without stamps, newspapers and pamphlets distributed without stamps, legal documents served without stamps – all in VIOLATION of the BRITISH law. But this was NOT regarded as criminal behavior. After all, legislatures from most of the American states had declared the Stamp Act itself to be against THEIR laws.
Representatives from nine of the thirteen colonies joined in a Stamp Act Congress (assembly) to come up with ways of PROTESTING the Act. They passed resolutions (decisions) declaring that Parliament had no right to tax the colonies. Since the American colonists had no representatives in the British Parliament, the Parliament should NOT PASS LAWS governing them. This idea was summed up in the slogan, “No taxation without representation.”
Finally, the British gave in. They repealed the Stamp Act in 1766. However, they responded to the Stamp Act Congress by passing yet another Act, the Declaration Act. This said that the British Parliament had the right to make laws governing the colonies “in ALL cases whatsoever.” MORE taxes and trade restrictions followed. First came the Townshend Acts of 1767, which raised taxes on glass, tea, paper, paint, and lead. Then came the Tea Act. This gave England’s’ East India Company a monopoly (complete control) on the export of tea to the colonies. Since they were the only provider of tea, they could change any price they wished. This led to the BOSTON TEA PARTY, a protest in which the SONS OF LIBERTY disguised themselves as Native American warriors, boarded three British ships, and dumped their cargo of tea into the ocean.
Meanwhile, the British gradually took power from the Americans. This is the BASIS of many of the COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE KING in the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
Here are only some of the 27 complaints listed that seem relative to what America is going through with a current tyrannical government in power:
He (the King) has refused His Assent (agreement) to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. (They want all the power in the Congress, Senate and House of representatives, to fulfill their anti-American agenda while they have the White House too.)
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. (They want to stack the courts with leftist judges that will serve them.)He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent thither swarms of Officers to HARASS our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. (They want to hire thousands more IRS agents to come after conservatives, to put fear in those who oppose the democrat party.)
He has imposed taxes on us without our consent. (Unfair taxation as they use our money to fund their evil agenda to transform America from a first-world nation to a third-world nation.)
He has deprived us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury. (Their agenda is ‘guilty till proven innocent’ for those who oppose their tyrannical ways with a two-tiered justice system.)
He has transported us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences. (Unjust arrests and kangaroo courts.)He has taken away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments. (They are coming against our Sovereignty, Independence, Constitution and Rights.)
He has suspended our own Legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. (They don’t want us to have a say through the voting system, nor speaking out publicly against their policies that are ruining our nation.)
He has waged war against us, plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people. (They are doing everything they can get away with in order to silence and shut down their opposition. Lawlessness in democrat run states has ruined cities and put fear in peace-loving law-abiding citizens.)
He has transported large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation.
He has excited DOMESTIC INSURRECTIONS amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the MERCILESS Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. (We don’t have Indians today being used like then, but we have a Soros-funded army of destruction within our cities and going after conservatives and politicians that our president’s administration disapproves of.)
He has repeatedly ignored our petitions for Redress (restoration, compensation, remedy, for damages). (America’s current administration has no desire and plan to shut down lawlessness, especially at our borders of illegal crossings in the millions; no desire or plan to stop all the damage being done to our country and its legal/law-abiding/tax-paying/God-fearing families.)
“A Prince (president) whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a FREE people.”
They have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity (blood-kinship). We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, ENEMIES in War, in Peace FRIENDS.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the SUPREME JUDGE OF THE WORLD for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, THAT THESE UNITED COLONIES ARE, AND OF RIGHT OUGHT TO BE FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all Acts and Things which Independent States may of RIGHT do. And for the support of this DECLARATION, with a firm reliance on the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Other complaints concerned the quartering of soldiers in American communities. (What we see happening today with them calling parents, Christians and Trump supporters TERRORISTS, when in fact, that is what the democrat left is.)
In places like Boston, this amounted to marital law (rule by the military). Clashes between soldiers and the outraged townspeople sometimes became violent. The worst incident was the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1774, known as the Intolerable Acts in America. These closed Boston’s port, gave Britain direct rule of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and allowed the confiscation of American property by the British army.
In reaction, the Virginian Assembly called for a congress of representatives from all thirteen colonies – the First Continental Congress. It met on September 12, 1775, in Philadelphia. At this point, the Congress aimed at reconciliation with Britain, not revolution. They sent a petition (written request) to King George III, and wrote the DECLARATION of RIGHTS and GRIEVANCES addressed to the British people. Both documents are conciliatory in tone (intended to regain friendship). On the other hand, the First Continental Congress endorsed Massachusetts’ Suffolk Resolves. These rejected the Coercive Acts and called on the people of Massachusetts to rise up against the British. They amounted to a declaration of war.
Parliament responded with the North Conciliatory Resolve, which offered everything the colonists had wanted in the first place. It said that any colony that could pay for its own government and defense would not be taxed by Britain. But the Coercive Acts remained in place. It was too little, too late.
On April 18, 1775, General Gage, the commander in chief of the British army in America, sent soldiers to confiscate arms from rebels in Concord, Massachusetts. The rebels were warned, however, by PAUL REVERE and other patriots, who rode out ahead of the British. The colonists gathered to DEFEND THEMSELVES, and faced the British forces at nearby Lexington. There the FIRST BATTLE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION was fought on April 19, 1775.
The Second Continental Congress met on May 10, 1775. Because the colonies were in a state of open rebellion, this Congress acted as the FIRST GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED AMERICAN STATES. They appointed GEORGE WASHINGTON as the leader of the Continental Army. There were a few more attempts at reconciliation (agreement) with Britain, but a hear after the Congress had first met, Congress adopted a resolution advising the colonies to FORM THEIR OWN GOVENRMENTS, without the now-hated British governors. And on June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, proposed the motion that THESE UNITED COLONIES ARE, AND OF RIGHT OUGHT TO BE FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.
The debate lasted two days. The vote itself was delayed another three weeks because some state assemblies had not yet voted for independence. Delegates from those states returned home to get their states’ approval. In this time, Congress chose a committee to prepare the Declaration of Independence. The most famous members of the committee were the eminent scientist Benjamin Franklin and the noted Massachusetts patriot John Adams (who would later become the second president of the United States). The other members were Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and a shy, awkward junior delegate from Virginia called Thomas Jefferson. It was Jefferson who was given the task of writing the document itself. His draft (first version of a document) was rewritten only very slightly by the other members before it was put before the Congress.
No one realized at the time how important this document would become. Jefferson was given the task at least partly because the more important members of the committee, like Franklin and Adams, were too busy. Of course, it gained its fame partly through Jefferson’ brilliance as a writer and political thinker.
Jefferson borrowed freely from other people’s ideas and even their writings. Like all the writings of the Founders, the Declaration was influenced by British political thinkers like Algernon Sidney and John Locke. It also took many of its ideas from Britain’s Declaration of Rights of 1689. This was very popular in the Colonies. The American patriots often cited the Declaration of Rights in their complaints against the King. Also, Virginia’s Constitution and Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, both written in early 1776, were clearly in Jefferson’s mind as he sat down to write. Much of the language and content of the Declaration of Independence echoes these documents.
When the declaration of Independence was debated, Congress made serious cuts and alterations. They deleted about one-quarter of the original. They made the attacks on the British more mild. They also added two mentions of GOD.
The change that matters most to us today is the removal of all direct discussion of SLAVERY. Jefferson’s draft included a very long and passionate CONDEMNATION of the slave trade. Jefferson accuses the King of engaging in the abduction and enslaving of people in Africa. He also blames King George III for introducing slaves into America, and for blocking attempts by the colonists to discourage and restrict slavery.
In the final text, all direct references to slavery were cut out. This was partly because the colonists were aware they would be vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy (saying one thing and doing another). Jefferson himself was a slave owner, although wanting to free the slaves. Large parts of the colonies were dependent on slavery. Attacks on slavery were also unpopular with some delegates because of the economic importance slavery had in their states. (But later we see slavery abolished by law under President Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated. Slaves were free, but part of the democrat party then, that consisted of those politicians and slave-owners who wanted to keep slavery, started the KKK party of disguised secret murderers of freed slaves, women and children too, and even those who helped their slaves go free. Today, we still see this type of democrat politicians, but wanting to make slaves of all of us, of all races, to serve them. They are to SERVE US!)
The Declaration of Independence was approved by Congress on July 4, 1776, the day we still celebrate as Independence Day. Only twelve of the thirteen colonies had voted in favor of it on that day. The delegates from New York had not yet received approval for independence from their state assembly (they got that approval on July 19). The official signing took place on August 2. John Hancock, the President of the Congress, made his signature huge, joking that it would be big enough for King George to read without his glasses. As he signed, Hancock said, “There must be no pulling different ways. We must all hang together.” Benjamin Franklin replied, “Yes, we must, indeed, hang together (stick together), or most assuredly we shall all hang separately (be executed).” This was a joke, but a very serious one. Signing the Declaration was an act of treason (crime against one’s government), and all the signers were risking their lives if the revolution had failed.
The first printed version of the Declaration was called the Dunlap Broadside. Copies of it were sent throughout the colonies. Public readings of it were help through July and August, and greeted with public celebration – parades, concerts, and sometimes fireworks.
Abroad, the first reaction was not so positive. Both King George III and Parliament refused to respond to it, because any response would seem like an acknowledgment of its validity (worth). The British philosopher Jeremy Bentham commented, “To accomplish their independence is not so easy as to declare it.” But America’s victory in the revolution was soon to follow. American independence was officially recognized by Britain in 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the war.
The Declaration of Independence is a formal announcement that America considers itself an independent nation. It also explains why the Americans believed they were right to secede (break away) from Great Britain. It consists of a preamble, a list of grievances against King George III, and the declaration itself. (The list of 27 grievances, more than I have listed above.)
The Preamble (introductory statement) sets out the principles behind the American Revolution. It is addressed to the world, and is written to justify the revolution to world opinion. It is also a statement of the principles of American government.
It begins by saying that, when a people wants to become independent, they should explain their reasons. The second paragraph begins to set out those reasons. It says that some truths are self-evident – they are obvious to everyone and don’t need proof. The first self-evident truth is that all men are created equal. With this statement, the Preamble dismisses all inherited rank and power. Everyone begins with the same rights, which are GIVEN BY GOD. These rights are unalienable – they cannot be taken away. The Preamble then lists three crucial rights: the rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Governments are created to safeguard these rights, and not deny them. (Like we see in America today, and other world governments.) When any government begins to threaten these rights or attack them, THE PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR ABOLISH THE GOVERNMENT. They may then CREATE A NEW GOVERNMENT, one that will GUARANTEE THEIR SAFETY AND HAPPINESS.
A government should NOT be changed unless there is an important reason. If the government’s flaws are minor or short-lived, they should be forgiven. People naturally prefer to endure bad government for as long as they can, instead of changing a system with which they are familiar. But when a government consistently acts like a TYRANNY (unreasonable harsh rule), robbing the people of their freedom, it is the people’s right and responsibility to change it.
The Declaration then says that this is the situation in America. King George had committed a series of crimes against the American colonists, harming their interests and taking away their freedom, trying to establish a tyranny over them. The Declaration then presents the colonists’ 27 grievances against the King to prove this.
We are now watching an investigation of America’s leaders on crimes they have been committing and still are. So, given our Declaration of Independence, WHAT SHALL BE DONE BY “WE THE PEOPLE?”
*Taken from the books: THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE and THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES by Floyd G. Cullop. COMMON LAW HANDBOOK FOR JUROR’S, SHERIFF’S, BAILIFF’S, AND JUSTICES’S by WE THE PEOPLE – NATIONAL LIBERTY ALLIANCE.