Whether or not the attainment of independence is different from revolution it has long been contested, and has mostly been debated over the question of violence as legal means to gain sovereignty. In general, revolutions aim only to redistribute power with or without an element of emancipation, such as in democratization within a state, which as such may remain unaltered. However, some wars of independence have been described as revolutions, such as the ones in the United States and Indonesia, as some revolutions that were specifically about a change in the political structure have come up in breakaway states.
Mongolia and Finland, for example, came to get their independence during the revolutions occurring in China and Russia respectively. Causes for a country or province wishing to seek independence are very many, but most can be summed up as a feeling of inequality compared to the dominant power. The means can extend from peaceful demonstrations, to a violent war. The American Declaration of Independence has affected the foundation of the United States more than any other event or document in American history. The Declaration of Independence was the basis for what the country was established on.
The document was a way for the colonists to emancipate themselves from the cruelty of King George. This document had such an impacting effect because it was such a new way of bringing up concerns. It was the first of its kind in the history of America in the aspect of liberation of a group of people. Jefferson's text was extremely taboo especially without the support of a reputable country. In the conflict between France, Britain incurred an enormous debt and looked to its American colonies to help pay for the war. Between 1756 and 1776, Parliament issued a series of taxes on the colonies, including the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Duties of 1766, and the Tea Act of 1773. Even when the taxes were relatively light, they met with stiff colonial resistance on principle, with colonists concerned that ‘taxation without representation’ was tyranny and political control of the colonies was increasingly being exercised from London.
Colonists felt that they were being treated as second-class citizens. But after initially compromising on the Stamp Act, Parliament supported increasingly oppressive measures to force colonists to obey the new laws. Eventually, tensions culminated in the shots fired between British troops and colonial militia at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Despite the outbreak of violence, the majority of colonists wanted to remain British. Only when King George III failed to address colonists' complaints against Parliament or entertain their appeals for compromise did colonists begin to consider independence as a last resort. Encouraged by Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, ‘Common Sense’, more and more colonists began to consider independence in the spring of 1776. At the same time, the continuing war and rumors of a large-scale invasion of British troops and German mercenaries diminished hopes for reconciliation.
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While the issue had been discussed quietly in the corridors of the Continental Congress for some time, the first formal proposal for independence was not made in the Continental Congress until June 7, 1776. It came from the Virginian Richard Henry Lee, who offered a resolution insisting that “all political connection is, and ought to be, dissolved” between Great Britain and the American colonies. But this was not a unanimous sentiment. Many delegates wanted to defer a decision on independence or avoid it outright. Despite this disagreement, Congress did nominate a drafting committee of five to compose a declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson, known for his eloquent writing style and reserved manner, became the principal author.
As he sat at his desk in a Philadelphia boarding house, Jefferson drafted a ‘common sense’ treatise in terms so plain and firm, as to command the assent of mankind. Some of his language and many of his ideas drew from well-known political works, such as George Mason's Declaration of Rights. But his ultimate goal was to express the unity of Americans what he called an ‘expression of the American mind against the tyranny of Britain’. Jefferson submitted his 'rough draught' of the Declaration on June 28. Congress eventually accepted the document, but not without debating the draft for two days and making extensive changes. Jefferson was unhappy with many of the revisions particularly the removal of the passage on the slave trade and the insertion of language less offensive to Britons and in later years would often provide his original draft to correspondents.
Benjamin Franklin tried to reassure Jefferson by telling him the now-famous tale of a merchant whose storefront sign bore the words: ‘John Thompson, Hatter, makes and sells hats for ready money’; after a circle of critical friends offered their critiques, the sign merely read, John Thompson' above a picture of a hat. Pressured by the news that a fleet of British troops lay off the coast of New York, Congress adopted the Lee resolution of independence on July 2nd, and the day which John Adams always believed should be celebrated as American Independence Day, and adopted the Declaration of Independence explaining its action on July 4. The Declaration was promptly published, and the whole of July and August, it was spread by word of mouth, delivered on horseback and by ship, read aloud before troops in the Continental Army, published in newspapers from Vermont to Georgia, and dispatched to Europe. The Declaration roused support for the American Revolution and mobilized resistance against Britain at a time when the war effort was going poorly.
The Declaration provides clear and emphatic statements supporting self-government and individual rights, and it has become a model of such statements for several hundred years and around the world. The Declaration is still important because it says the American people believe in equal rights for all. Today we know that the words ‘all men are created equal’ include everyone: women, men, children, and every race, group, and ability. But in 1776, people’s ideas were different. Only white men who owned property had the right to vote. Laws that recognized equal rights of other groups were passed later.
References
- Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. Black Reconstruction in America: Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880. Routledge, 2017.
- Feagin, Joe R., and Kimberley Ducey. Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations. Routledge, 2018.
- Fullilove, Mindy Thompson. Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It. New Village Press, 2016.
- Hutto, Richard Jay. A Poisoned Life: Florence Chandler Maybrick, the First American Woman Sentenced to Death in England. McFarland, 2018.
- Jongman, Albert J. Political Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases, Theories, and Literature. Routledge, 2017.
- Nussbaum, Martha C. 'Capabilities, Entitlements, Rights: Supplementation and Critique’. Justice and the Capabilities Approach. Routledge, 2017. 173-187.
- Wills, Garry. Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. Vintage, 2018.
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