Declaration of Independence of Venezuela – July 5, 1811
Editor’s Note: July 5, 1811 heralded Venezuela’s formal break with the Spanish crown when its members of congress approved the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence, which was clearly influenced by our July 4, 1776 declaration. In establishing an independent nation, the Venezuelan “Firma Acta de la Independencia,” or “Signing of the Act of Independence,” aimed to create a society based on […]
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 […]
Constitution of the United States of the World (includes a series of declarations), 1870
Editor’s Note: Though unsung today, Victoria Woodhull (1838 – 1937) was at the vanguard of the women’s rights movement, which she connected with the labor rights movement. Not only that, she was the first-ever woman to be nominated by her party — the Equal Rights Party — to be its candidate for President of the United States. […]
The Black Declaration of Independence (1970)
Editor’s Note: Though in some respects an adaptation of our July 4, 1776 Declaration, this time the tyrant is not King George but the endemic system of oppression and segregation that prevented Black Americans from being part of “all men are created equal.” The public proclamation issued by the National Committee of Black Churchmen on […]
Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959)
Editor’s Note: Approved by all 78 member states of the United Nations, this declaration is a first in the formal global agreement on children’s rights and the principles on which they are based. This declaration is a follow-on to the unprecedented 1924 declaration by the League of Nations (see image) endowing children the world over with […]
Virginia Declaration of Rights (June 12, 1776)
Editor’s Note: Take a careful gander at the Virginia Declaration of Rights, crafted by American patriot George Mason and adapted by the Virginia Constitutional Convention on June 12, 1776, and you’ll see readily how deeply it influenced Jefferson’s opening paragraphs in his draft of the Declaration of Independence, not to mention our Constitution’s Bill of […]
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 […]
