The Declaration of Independence - Birth of a Nation

The Declaration of Independence is a document that not only espouses the will and intent of the American people to forge a new nation, away from what the colonists viewed as a tyrannical and unjust rule by Britain, but as a tool to build a new government that allowed fair and equal representation for all people, with rights and freedoms that were guaranteed to be upheld. The Declaration set forth that not only was it just and right that Americans be free to chart their own destiny that this was their divine right as men, just as much as it was their right to be able to choose freedom from the dominion of the King. The colonists felt betrayed by Britain; they believed they were the scapegoats of an unfair policy that saw Britain take from the natural wealth of the colonies and replace this with taxation and reforms that were met with contempt from the people. For a people who were British to their core, the new decrees were the ultimate act of humility and unjust punishment, and pushed the colonies over the edge from compliant and loyal subjects of the crown, to that of rebellious and determined antagonists, determined to win freedom from British dominance and forge a new path into the unknown.

On 7 June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced to the meeting of the Continental Congress, a resolution that laid out the reasons that showed why the colonies felt they were ready to begin life as a free and independent people, no longer accepting the ties and bindings put upon them by the Crown. These colonists had left Britain with the ideals, culture and customs of their homeland intact. They were loyalists to King and Country. Benjamin Franklin, who wrote in a letter in 1770 that the British in America were still British to their bones, and that they had no wish to be separate of Britain at that time. The idea of striking for independence from Britain came only after years of what the Americans viewed as being singled out to replenish the coffers depleted by the prolonged campaigns of the French and Indian Wars. It was as though Britain had decided that the richness of the Colonies was more than sufficient to fulfil the needs of the Crown, and were bent upon getting just what they felt was due them. This demand was placed solely on the doorstep of the Americans, rather than being dispersed throughout the entire Empire. This meant that placing restrictions on a people who were used to a free trade style of commerce, and to trading with many nations, and who were not used to the idea of such heavy handed tactics. This new tax regime was bewildering and caused much distress to the Americans, who tried to come to an understanding of why Britain chose to place these taxes upon them. While this was technically the right of the Crown, the Americans saw it as an affront to their place in the British Empire, as if they were slaves instead of subjects.

Background of a revolution

Britain held a virtual sword of Damocles over the colonists because of its inhibitive and repressive treatment of the established trade market, which had previously been allowed to flourish, and free to conduct business according to the needs of the general populace. Britain was able to import vast quantities of base materials out of the Colonies, using these materials to manufacture goods to export back to America for a reasonably decent profit margin, and all singularly for Britain's exclusive use. During this period, the British government was in need of raising funds to replace the coffers of the National Treasury that had been depleted during the war, and by enforcing stricter regulation of the Navigation Act, Britain effectively halted trade between America and other countries.

This fact, coupled with new laws that Britain had drafted, left the colonists with growing bitterness and distrust. Among the new laws that Parliament passed that greatly upset the Americans were:

• The Sugar Act of 1764, protecting the British interests in the West Indian sugar industry
• The Currency Act of 1764, which controlled the circulation of Colonial paper money
• The Stamp Act of 1765, which placed a tax on legal documents and such basic reading material as newspapers and magazines
• The Townsend Duties Act of 1767, which placed duties on manufactured good, which served as a mechanism that the British paid to loyalists to protect the Crown's interests
• The Quebec Act of 1773, resisted the westward expansion of the Colonies
• The Tea Act of 1773, which placed higher taxes on tea, and thus became the ultimate 'slap to the face' of the most steadfast British citizen in the Colonies

The implementation of these Acts, along with the declaration of George III, denouncing the Americans as rebels, serves to begin pushing the Americans down a path of resistance and nearer to anarchy against the rule of the stagnant and immobile British monarchy. Many leading colonists, such as Paul Revere and Thomas Paine, were taking up the mantle of revolution and gathering support for the ideas of freedom and independence. The unrest in the colonies was growing by leaps and bounds, fuelled by the seemingly closed minded attitudes of the British government officials, who were either unwilling to listen to the concerns of the Americans, or simply unfeeling to the plight of their own subjects, who were abjectly viewed as a large group of ungrateful louts who were unwilling to do their share for country and Crown. The British Parliament did give a token concession to the colonists by repealing the Stamp Act, but then passed the Declaratory Act, which gave the Parliament the right to impose further rules and regulations of their decree on the colonists. The Parliament had in effect, sealed the fates of the Americans who were now left with what they felt was little choice but to begin to take action against Britain.

The Beginnings of Change

The colonists began to Boycott British imports; the Tea Act led to the Americans into dumping crates of tea into the Boston Harbour, in a defiant gesture that was famously known as the Boston Tea Party. The signing of the Quebec Act further incited the colonists in a collective unity against the might of the Empire. This series of events, in effect, gave rise to the coming together of the leaders of various sections of the colonies in order to draft a resolution to show their displeasure with what Britain had subjected them to and to make clear that the people were not prepared to continue being maligned and sequestered by their British controllers. There were many people who round to the idea of independence, spurred on by people such as Thomas Paine, writer of the pamphlet entitled 'Common Sense', which made the idea of moving away from Britain to that of an independent nation palatable. Paine had written many documents of a mutinous tone, and his works seem to help gather support to this quest. In addition, it was this support that led to Thomas Jefferson writing the first draft of what was to become one the greatest documents in American History, the Declaration of Independence

Presenting the views of the Colonists

After Richard Henry Lee had introduced the resolution to press for sovereignty of the Colonies, Jefferson began work on the rough draft of the Declaration. As chairperson of the committee appointed by the Continental Congress to draw up a statement, it fell to Jefferson to compose the document. Jefferson, known as a writer of good stead, began painstakingly drafting what was too viewed as an act of sacrilege and blasphemy from the British hierarchy. A section of his draft, which can be viewed as a synopsis of the feelings that prevailed in the time, stated that the people held that all men are of equal and free, that this right was given to them by God, who was supreme above all others, including the Parliament and the King. It said that the rights of men included the ability to live as they saw fit, to be governed by an administration chosen by the people, so that if the administration began to deteriorate, the people could seek new representation, and that a government by, of and for the people would endeavour to conduct itself in the best interests of the people who were governed.

Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, who also were on the committee with Jefferson, added a few significant changes to Jefferson's draft. The term self-evident was added, perhaps as a gesture to point out to the King and Parliament that what was written of complete clarity to them, the all 'Men' were created equal and that their rights were given to the by the 'creator'. It is of interest to note that Franklin and Adams placed the beginning letter of Men in capitals, while creator was written in the lower case. This might be interpreted as a purposeful way to highlight a reference to the King and Parliament, to emphasise they too were simply men and therefore of no position to enforce their will on the colonists. It is also important to note that they acknowledged the of roll of a higher power in the affirmation of their rights, whereas Jefferson did not do so, but the seeming minimalisation of a divine being and man as the more powerful of the two is rather presumptuous in it's nature.

The Congress added a few changes to the draft as altered by Franklin and Adams. The line '...they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights' was changed to read '...by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..." This can, in the first instance, be interpreted to mean that the people have been given rights by the creator, but that a government can be allowed to tailor to the needs or wants of that government. In the revised sentence, the prominence the 'Creator' is given acknowledges the higher reverence accorded to Him, and that certain rights (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) are such that no government shall have the right to change this fact at their whim. Although the committee and the Congress had input into the wording and structure of the document, it remained by and large a document that was inherently a product of Jefferson considerable efforts to encapsulate the ideology of the American people.

The Declaration of Independence was perhaps, designed to not only express the feelings and desires of the American people, but to a greater extent, to serve as a testament to the world at large. The document could deliver the agenda of a people who were seeking to rid themselves of the domination and persecution of a tyrannical authority, whose abuse of power and rule could no longer be tolerated, and allow the world to decide for itself the validity of the American position. The entire wording of the Declaration laid out the beliefs of the Congress, but it is, in reality, the Preamble that sums up the reason for which this document was created:

"While in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and pf Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinion of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation"

This singular paragraph gave rise to an ideology that was bold in its vision and notable for its simplicity of viewpoint. It suffused the world with the knowledge that a people could rebel against tyranny, to choose to encompass a government that represented the people and that the people could be representative of. While Britain fought against the growing tide of resentment and disenchantment that was prevailing in the colonies, they could not stem the tide of the creation of a government of self-rule. The words of the Declaration laid the gauntlet at the feet of the King and Parliament to challenge the American perseverance to this cause. Jefferson, Paine, Franklin, Adams, Lee and others like them were willing to risk their lives and livelihoods in order to secure the most basic of freedoms for themselves and their fellow colonists. The colonists wished to allow themselves the ability to decide their own futures, rather than to have it dictated by faceless parliamentarians half a world away. They wished to represent themselves on the world stage when they had been denied even this small right by the British government, even those, as British subjects, they should have been given this right, just as their counterparts in the British Isles had enjoyed for many years.

The Birth of a New Nation

The Declaration of Independence as signed on 4 July 1776 delivered the American colony from the auspices of British rule and set the newly born nation on the path of freedom. However, not without significant costs, both human and monetary. The American Revolutionary War, while a victory that secured the nation as an entity on its own, came at great sacrifice, on both sides of the conflict. Nevertheless, the sacrifices of the American patriots could not be measured in the loss of life. Rather, by the act of signing such a significant piece of legislation, Jefferson and his colleagues showed that by standing for what a group of people viewed as a just and right cause, there was validity for rebellion against tyranny. They showed Britain and the world that no one had or has the right to oppress any peoples or nations, simply for the benefit of another.

Britain had made the mistake of giving the Americans leniency in the way in which the colonists conducted themselves, and then sought to repress the freedoms that they had let grow. The repression was met with great resistance and the Americans made life somewhat miserable for the King and his government. The King retaliated, but the seeds of rebellion had been sown. In addition, the reign of Britain over America was lost forever. Lost simply because of greed, the unfair taxation and the inability of the British hierarchy to break though the rigid structure of unbending policies. Compromise was not an option that Britain would employ, their rule was absolute, their King a ruler by divine right. But the divine rule of man could not suppress the divine right that was bestowed on every man and which the Americans embraced with every fibre of their beings. The Declaration was not just a declaration of independence, but also a statement of the ideals of a world of equality for all, and of rights that must be respected by all.