The Declaration of Independence is the founding document of the United States, adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Principally drafted by Thomas Jefferson with input from the Committee of Five, it announced the result of the Lee Resolution, passed two days earlier, that the Thirteen Colonies were independent states no longer subject to British rule. The Declaration justified separation by asserting the principles of natural rights, government by consent, and the right of revolution, while listing grievances against George III. Its assertion that “all men are created equal” has become one of the most influential statements in political history, shaping democratic and independence movements worldwide. The image shows the engrossed parchment copy prepared by Timothy Matlack and signed by the delegates. This version, signed primarily on August 2, is preserved in the Charters of Freedom of the National Archives Building and is generally considered to be the official document.

Author: Thomas Jefferson

    • Fondots@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      4 days ago

      Perhaps you haven’t read the declaration since grade school and only remember the preamble

      A big part of the declaration is basically a list of grievances, and a lot (but not quite all) of these points still seem pretty damn relevant to me

      • He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
      • He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
      • He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
      • He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
      • He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
      • He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby 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 these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
      • He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
      • He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
      • He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
      • He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
      • He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
      • He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation
      • For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us
      • For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States
      • For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world
      • For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent
      • For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury
      • For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
      • For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
      • For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments
      • For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever
      • He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
      • He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
      • He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
      • He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
      • He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

      In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people

      • huppakee@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 days ago
        1. I am not an American, so i didn’t read your declaration of independence in grade school or like ever. Your effort of putting it in a comment might be a good reason to read it, but it’s exact content isn’t directly related to my life so yeah.
        2. Obviously i was being sarcastic, why would i subscribe to a history sub if i did’t think things of the past were relevant to things of today, especially if such a thing is still legally binding and also considering it’s the us declaration of independence on the us’s independence day. I was just taking the piss, because of the US’s current state of affairs. No offense or serious argument intended.