The Declaration of Independence wasn't just a breakup letter to King George III—it was a bold statement that completely changed how people thought about government and human rights. These ideas are still shaping conversations around the world today.
Enlightenment Ideas Fuel the Revolution
The revolution started brewing when Enlightenment thinking made its way from Europe across the Atlantic. John Locke had some pretty radical ideas: he believed people were born with natural rights to "life, liberty, and property" and that governments existed to protect these rights, not rule because God said so. Thomas Jefferson, who had one of the biggest personal libraries in America, couldn't get enough of these ideas.
Then Thomas Paine showed up and published "Common Sense" in January 1776. He took these big philosophical ideas and turned them into arguments that made sense to everyone, whether you worked on the docks or owned a plantation. Suddenly, all those complaints about British taxes turned into serious talk about breaking away completely.
Drafting the Declaration
The actual process of writing of the Declaration of Independence was fascinating. Congress picked a Committee of Five to draft the document: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. They gave them just over two weeks to write one of history's most important documents.
Jefferson worked in a tiny, rented room in Philadelphia, writing at a desk he'd designed himself. The summer heat was brutal—he later complained about horseflies biting through his silk stockings while he worked. Franklin and Adams were supposed to help but mostly left Jefferson to it. Adams said he picked Jefferson because "you can write ten times better than I can," and they needed support from Virginia.
Jefferson knocked out the first draft in just three days—from June 11 to June 28. That's like writing a term paper that would change the course of human history over a long weekend. He then spent two more days revising it based on Adams' and Franklin's feedback. Franklin's changes were minimal but brilliant—for instance, he changed Jefferson's "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to the more powerful "We hold these truths to be self-evident."
Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin work out the first draft of the Declaration of Independence
The Congressional Chopping Block
The really intense part came when Congress reviewed it. From July 1 to July 4, they went through it line by line, word by word. Jefferson had to sit there watching as 50-plus people picked apart his writing. At one point, he slumped in his chair while Benjamin Harrison of Virginia made major cuts to his favorite passages.
The document went through 86 changes. Some were huge— Jefferson's original draft included a passionate attack of slavery, calling it a "cruel war against human nature itself." But this section was stripped out to appease southern delegates and keep the coalition together.
The Continental Congress also spent a lot of time arguing about whether or not the word ‘parliament’ should be included. In Jefferson's original draft, he actually avoided mentioning Parliament almost entirely, which was completely intentional. Instead, he used phrases like "combined with others" when talking about the King's actions. The few references to Parliament were indirect, usually referring to them as "foreign legislature" or similar terms.
Here's where it gets really interesting though – there was one key passage about Parliament that got cut. In the original list of grievances against the King, Jefferson included this line:
"By the influence which he has employed with the legislature of Great Britain, [the King] has rendered their legislature foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their pretended acts of legislation..."
This line got completely axed in the final version. The delegates who argued for removing it were basically making a clever legal argument. They said that by complaining about Parliament's actions, even indirectly, they were accepting that Parliament had some legitimate power over the colonies. Instead, they wanted to maintain the position that the only legitimate connection between Britain and the colonies was through the King directly.
The final version ended up focusing all blame on King George III himself, using "He has" statements rather than acknowledging Parliamentary power. It's why you see lines like "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution" rather than directly naming Parliament.
This wasn't just nitpicky editing – it was revolutionary legal theory in action. The delegates were trying to create a document that would stand up to international scrutiny while maintaining their long-held position that Parliament had no legitimate authority over them. They were essentially writing both a revolution manifesto and a legal brief at the same time.
This deletion shaped American legal theory for years to come, influencing how the new nation would think about its own federal system and the relationship between different levels of government. The founders were already thinking about how these words would be interpreted not just in their own time, but by future generations.
A Global Influence
When King George III read it, he wasn't impressed. He called it "the ill-grounded philosophies of the rights of man" and declared the colonies to be in illegal rebellion. Parliament didn't take it seriously either, though some, like Edmund Burke, understood just how significant this moment was.
The final version, approved on July 4, was rushed to John Dunlap's print shop. He worked through the night to produce what are now known as the Dunlap Broadsides—the first printed copies of the Declaration. Only 26 of these original printings survive today. The fancy handwritten version on parchment that we all know from history books? That wasn't actually created until weeks later, and most delegates didn't sign it until August 2.
This furious pace of writing and revision under intense pressure might explain some of the Declaration's power. There wasn't time for overthinking or watering down the language. The urgency of the moment—with British ships already approaching New York harbor—forced them to get right to the heart of their arguments. Sometimes the best writing happens when there's no time to second-guess yourself.
Why It Matters
The Declaration of Independence didn't just spark America's revolution - it lit a flame that spread across the globe. Think of it as the world's first viral message about freedom, copied and remixed by people fighting for their rights everywhere.
Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh borrowed Jefferson's exact words in 1945, starting his declaration with "All men are created equal." Haiti's revolution took America's ideas about natural rights and made them even more powerful, explicitly extending them to people of all races. Across Latin America, revolutionaries like Simon Bolivar used the Declaration as their template, though each country added its own local flavor - Mexico emphasized indigenous rights, while Brazil took a more gradual approach.
Even in the 20th century, as European colonialism crumbled, freedom fighters from Ghana to India were still drawing inspiration from 1776. They took Jefferson's core message - that governments should answer to their people - and adapted it for their own struggles. Each revolution was different, but they all shared that basic DNA: list your grievances, assert your rights, and declare your independence.
The Declaration's genius was its flexibility. Whether you were fighting British rule in 1776 or colonial oppression in 1960, its framework worked. That's why it's still relevant today - it's not just an American story, it's a universal one about people standing up and demanding better.
Pulling down the statue of King George III. Boston Commons.
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