Buckingham County, VA, Declaration of Independence (June 14, 1776)
Editor’s Note: This declaration of independence was one of scores that was issued by states and localities in the months following the publication of Thomas Paine’s influential and rabble-rousing Common Sense. These declarations in turn informed our July 4, 1776 document. This statement, or declaration, was published in the Virginia Gazette on June 14, 1776, and was likely issued […]
Spanish Translation of July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence
From Semanario Político, Económico y Literario, Dec. 12, 1821. Cuando en el curso de los acontecimientos humanos se hace necesario para un pueblo disolver los lazos políticos que le han unido con otro y asumir entre los poderes de la tierra, el rango separado é igual, para el cual lo habilitan las leyes de la naturaleza […]
The Declaration of Independence – July 4, 1776
Editor’s Note: In American Scripture, eminent scholar Pauline Maier characterizes the July 4, 1776 Declaration originally as “a workaday document” that came to be “in the grubby world of 18th century politics.” Maybe so, but it has long since come to be seen as “a statement of values that more than any other expresses not why we […]
Declaration of Independence — Reported Draft, Submitted by Committee of Five to Second Continental Congress (1776)
Editor’s note: This draft of our Declaration of Independence is the one submitted by the Committee of Five — John Adams of Massachusetts and Roger Sherman of Connecticut; Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York; and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia — to the Second Continental Congress, which then made significant changes. A […]
Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand (1835)
Editor’s Note: Declarations of independence don’t always set a people, but can further constrain them. Harvard historian David Armitage asserts that in the case of New Zealand, the declaration of independence signed by a preponderance of Maori indigenous group leaders, who had no input in the document, “recognized the territorial sovereignty of the Maori only […]
New York Mechanics Declaration of Independence (May 29, 1776)
Editor’s Note: This local declaration of independence — which preceded the July 4, 1776 document was issued in May 1776, signed by manual laborers in the Mechanick-Hall, New York — requested that New York’s contingent in the Second Continental Congress formally vote for independence. This eloquent local declaration calls for a pan-colonial declaration of independence. New […]
Vermont Declaration of Independence — January 15, 1777
Editor’s Note: Five months before it became known as Vermont — a roughish translation of the French for ‘green mountain’ — the territory was at its origins ‘New Connecticut.’ In January 1777, delegates gathered in Westminster to declare formally their independence both from the British crown and from the New York colony (Congress didn’t recognize it as a […]
Preamble to Virginia Constitution – a Declaration of Grievances (June 29, 1776)
Editor’s Note: Ever wonder where Jefferson came up with the grievances enumerated in his first draft of the Declaration? You need look no further than the Preamble he composed for the Virginia Constitution. While Jefferson was not present at the proceedings of Virginia’s constitutional constitution, such was his passion for constitution making that he sent the convention delegates a constitution […]
English Bill of Rights of 1689
Editor’s Note: From grievances such ‘taxation without representation,’ having a standing army in a time of peace, and other usurpations of power by king and parliament, to enumerated rights like freedom of speech and the right to be governed only with the people’s consent, Our Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 was clearly influenced by the English Bill of […]
Jefferson’s First Draft of the Declaration of Independence (1776)
Editor’s note: While Jefferson audaciously, and incorrectly, had etched on his tombstone the he was “author of the Declaration of Independence,” the best he can lay claim to is that he was the composer of the first draft. Would Americans of his day have been as galvanized and presented as united a front, if Jefferson’s draft had […]
