MAKING THE REVOLUTION: AMERICA, 1763-1791
PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTION
National Archives
On July 2, 1776, after months of deliberation and while directing battle in the colonies and Canada, the Second Continental
Congress voted to declare the “united States of America” separate and independent from Britain. On July 4, the Congress approved
the final wording of the Declaration, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson. Copies were immediately printed and distributed
throughout the colonies and the continental troops. On July 9, with the approval of the last colony, New York, the Declaration
became the “unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” On August 2, 1776, the printed Declaration was
signed by most of the congressional delegates, the final signature affixed in 1781 by the New Hampshire delegate.
*
__DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE__
[grievances annotated]
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
W hen 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 of Nature’s God
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation.1
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation
on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not
be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to
which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the
patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their
former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these
States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.2
*
Copyright © National Humanities Center, 2010/2013. AMERICA IN CLASS®: americainclass.org/. Text presented as in original Declaration; annotations
by NHC. Complete image credits at americainclass.org/sources/makingrevolution/imagecredits.htm.
1
Jefferson based much of the Declaration’s text on his preamble to the Virginia constitution and on Virginia’s Declaration of Rights (composed by
George Mason), both written in June 1776. Scholars still debate the relative influence on Jefferson from other documents, including Locke’s 1689
treatises on government, yet it is clear that the Enlightenment concepts of “natural law” and the “natural rights of mankind” found an early forceful
expression in the 1776 declaration of the “thirteen united States of America.”
2
Twenty-seven grievances are given, many in vague or overstated language for the purpose of persuasion and dramatic intensity. All relate to Britain’s
increase of imperial control after the French and Indian War (1754-1763), which ended the relative autonomy long valued by the colonies.
, He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most 1 Colonial laws had to be approved by the British monarch,
wholesome and necessary for the public good. and Parliament could ban colonial initiatives. For exam-
ple, the king blocked several colonies’ attempts to tax the
slave trade, and Parliament banned colonies from
printing their own paper money, which colonists felt was
essential to their commercial vitality.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of 2 In several instances, the king instructed royal governors
immediate and pressing importance, unless to block pending colonial legislation. At times, months or
years would pass before the king addressed a colonial
suspended in their operation till his Assent should enactment, if ever.
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the 3 The British officials feared large legislative bodies as
accomodation of large districts of people, unless parochial and democratic, so they sought to restrict their
growth. This restriction left many new frontier commu-
those people would relinquish the right of nities poorly represented in their colonial assemblies.
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable
to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places 4 In retribution for their resistance to British authority, the
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the assemblies of Massachusetts, Virginia, and South
Carolina were ordered for periods of time to convene at a
depository of their public Records, for the sole site other than their normal meeting places where all
purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his their critical papers and records were kept.
measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, 5 By 1776, nearly all the colonial assemblies had been
for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on dissolved at some point, for weeks or months, due to
their stands against British authority.
the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such 6 With their assemblies dissolved and unable to elect new
dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby representatives, colonists were in effect without local
government.
the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation,
have returned to the People at large for their
exercise; the State remaining in the mean time
exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without,
and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of 7 King George III considered limiting emigration to the
these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws colonies of non-British Europeans, especially Germans,
partly because they would not bring with them a tradi-
for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass tional allegiance to the Crown. Americans, however,
others to encourage their migrations hither, and valued the increase of independent settlers (rather than
raising the conditions of new Appropriations of of freed prisoners from British jails). In addition, the king
Lands. in 1763 had virtually banned American settlement in the
Ohio River Valley, a region long coveted by the expand-
ing colonies (the ban was lifted in 1768).
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, 8 From 1773 to 1776 North Carolina had no superior
by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing courts due to a stalemate between its assembly and the
governor over the assembly’s insistence on allowing
Judiciary powers. “attachments” (similar to garnishment) to seize British
debtors’ property, a practice banned by Parliament.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, 9 In 1767 the king removed one essential power of the
for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and coloniespaying the salaries of royal officials. Without
the “power of the purse,” the assemblies could wield little
payment of their salaries. influence over governors, judges, customs commis-
sioners, and other British officials.
National Humanities Center Second Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, 1776 2
PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTION
National Archives
On July 2, 1776, after months of deliberation and while directing battle in the colonies and Canada, the Second Continental
Congress voted to declare the “united States of America” separate and independent from Britain. On July 4, the Congress approved
the final wording of the Declaration, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson. Copies were immediately printed and distributed
throughout the colonies and the continental troops. On July 9, with the approval of the last colony, New York, the Declaration
became the “unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” On August 2, 1776, the printed Declaration was
signed by most of the congressional delegates, the final signature affixed in 1781 by the New Hampshire delegate.
*
__DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE__
[grievances annotated]
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
W hen 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 of Nature’s God
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation.1
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation
on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not
be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to
which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the
patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their
former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these
States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.2
*
Copyright © National Humanities Center, 2010/2013. AMERICA IN CLASS®: americainclass.org/. Text presented as in original Declaration; annotations
by NHC. Complete image credits at americainclass.org/sources/makingrevolution/imagecredits.htm.
1
Jefferson based much of the Declaration’s text on his preamble to the Virginia constitution and on Virginia’s Declaration of Rights (composed by
George Mason), both written in June 1776. Scholars still debate the relative influence on Jefferson from other documents, including Locke’s 1689
treatises on government, yet it is clear that the Enlightenment concepts of “natural law” and the “natural rights of mankind” found an early forceful
expression in the 1776 declaration of the “thirteen united States of America.”
2
Twenty-seven grievances are given, many in vague or overstated language for the purpose of persuasion and dramatic intensity. All relate to Britain’s
increase of imperial control after the French and Indian War (1754-1763), which ended the relative autonomy long valued by the colonies.
, He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most 1 Colonial laws had to be approved by the British monarch,
wholesome and necessary for the public good. and Parliament could ban colonial initiatives. For exam-
ple, the king blocked several colonies’ attempts to tax the
slave trade, and Parliament banned colonies from
printing their own paper money, which colonists felt was
essential to their commercial vitality.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of 2 In several instances, the king instructed royal governors
immediate and pressing importance, unless to block pending colonial legislation. At times, months or
years would pass before the king addressed a colonial
suspended in their operation till his Assent should enactment, if ever.
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the 3 The British officials feared large legislative bodies as
accomodation of large districts of people, unless parochial and democratic, so they sought to restrict their
growth. This restriction left many new frontier commu-
those people would relinquish the right of nities poorly represented in their colonial assemblies.
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable
to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places 4 In retribution for their resistance to British authority, the
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the assemblies of Massachusetts, Virginia, and South
Carolina were ordered for periods of time to convene at a
depository of their public Records, for the sole site other than their normal meeting places where all
purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his their critical papers and records were kept.
measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, 5 By 1776, nearly all the colonial assemblies had been
for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on dissolved at some point, for weeks or months, due to
their stands against British authority.
the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such 6 With their assemblies dissolved and unable to elect new
dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby representatives, colonists were in effect without local
government.
the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation,
have returned to the People at large for their
exercise; the State remaining in the mean time
exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without,
and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of 7 King George III considered limiting emigration to the
these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws colonies of non-British Europeans, especially Germans,
partly because they would not bring with them a tradi-
for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass tional allegiance to the Crown. Americans, however,
others to encourage their migrations hither, and valued the increase of independent settlers (rather than
raising the conditions of new Appropriations of of freed prisoners from British jails). In addition, the king
Lands. in 1763 had virtually banned American settlement in the
Ohio River Valley, a region long coveted by the expand-
ing colonies (the ban was lifted in 1768).
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, 8 From 1773 to 1776 North Carolina had no superior
by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing courts due to a stalemate between its assembly and the
governor over the assembly’s insistence on allowing
Judiciary powers. “attachments” (similar to garnishment) to seize British
debtors’ property, a practice banned by Parliament.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, 9 In 1767 the king removed one essential power of the
for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and coloniespaying the salaries of royal officials. Without
the “power of the purse,” the assemblies could wield little
payment of their salaries. influence over governors, judges, customs commis-
sioners, and other British officials.
National Humanities Center Second Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, 1776 2
