The Declaration of Independence
As all their representations and petitions for just treatment had been
made in vain, the Americans felt that the time had come to declare this
to the world and to explain that they considered themselves absolved
from all their duties to England and resolved to form a State of their
own. It was a solemn moment when the announcement was made to the people
assembled before the house of Congress in Philadelphia, on the fourth of
July, 1776, that the thirteen colonies of America had voted for the
Declaration of Independence and the bell rang out, upon which were
engraved the words, “Liberty throughout the land to all its
inhabitants!” The pealing of this bell awakened the neighboring bells to
life, and these still others, so that they echoed and reëchoed from
village to village, from town to town, and thus within a short time the
whole expectant country learned that the great and momentous step had
been taken that separated it completely and irrevocably from the mother
country; a step to which English tyranny had forced the American people.
Everywhere festivities were held to celebrate this great event. The
inhabitants of Savannah organized a funeral procession and the effigy of
George the Third was buried in front of the State House. One of the
citizens pronounced a formal funeral oration in which he said, among
other things: “The King has broken his oath to the crown in the most
shameless fashion. He has trodden the constitution of our country and
the sacred rights of man under foot. For this we lay his political body
in the grave—the corrupt to corruption—in the confident hope that it
will remain buried forever and ever, and never be resurrected to reign
again over these free and independent States of America.” All
freedom-loving people in Europe were in sympathy with the struggle
across the ocean. Timid souls, to be sure, believed that this example
would raise a storm everywhere against the monarchical form of
government, although the Americans had been an example of long-suffering
patience. Had they not striven to maintain the monarchical form with
admirable devotion? What had they asked of the King? Only that the laws
of the land should be respected. Laws are the foundation pillars of all
government, even the monarchic. It is certainly true that it was King
George the Third and his ministers who broke the tie which bound the
colonies to England, and that the colonies did not declare themselves an
independent nation until all their sincere efforts for just legislation
had failed, owing to the obstinacy of the English government. Instead of
giving them bread it offered them a stone. Tyranny answered their
respectful petitions with powder and lead, instead of a conciliatory
recognition of their rights.
The Declaration of Independence is a masterpiece in style and contents.
The Americans did not invite others to follow their example; indeed they
deprecate this, for it says: “Prudence indeed will dictate that
governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes”; but, on the other hand, the intention is evident,
from the beginning of the document, of justifying their step before the
whole world, while setting forth the true principles of government. It
says, among other things:
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:
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to
their pretended acts of legislation:
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 neighboring
province, establishing therein an arbitrary government;
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, burned our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.
He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries
to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny.
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 among us and has endeavored 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.
Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We
must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our
separation and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind—enemies in
war—in peace, friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in
general congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and
declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free
and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to
the British crown and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. And
for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
This Declaration of Independence, as well as the whole conduct of the
Congress, won the admiration of the most brilliant thinkers of Europe,
among them some who occupied thrones, but were watching without
prejudice the progress of affairs. We shall mention only Frederick the
Great, who, in his “Observations on the Condition of the European
Governmental System,” had given utterance to ideas on the aims of
government which were in complete accord with those being promulgated in
the forests of America.