United States Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is the statement We hold these truths to be self-evident, that adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, all men are created equal, that they are en- which announced that the thirteen American colonies,[2] dowed by their Creator with certain unalien- then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves able Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no and the pursuit of Happiness. longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America. John Adams This has been called “one of the best-known sentences in was a leader in pushing for independence, which was the English language”,[7] containing “the most potent and unanimously approved on July 2. A committee of five had consequential words in American history”.[8] The passage already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when came to represent a moral standard to which the United Congress voted on independence. The term “Declaration States should strive. This view was notably promoted by of Independence” is not used in the document itself. Abraham Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jef- the foundation of his political philosophy, and argued that ferson to compose the original draft of the document,[3] the Declaration is a statement of principles through which [9] which Congress would edit to produce the final version. the United States Constitution should be interpreted. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of It provided inspiration to numerous national declarations why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare indepen- of independence throughout the world. Historian David dence from Great Britain, more than a year after the out- Armitage, after examining the influence of the American break of the American Revolutionary War. The national “Declaration” on over 100 other declarations of indepen- birthday, Independence Day, is celebrated on July 4, al- dence, says: though Adams wanted July 2. After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the The American Revolution was the first out- Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was break of the contagion of sovereignty that has initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that swept the world in the centuries since 1776. was widely distributed and read to the public. The Its influence spread first to the Low Countries source copy used for this printing has been lost, and may and then to the Caribbean, Spanish America, have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson’s hand.[4] Jeffer- the Balkans, West Africa, and Central Europe son’s original draft, complete with changes made by John in the decades up to 1848.... Declarations of Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and Jefferson’s notes of independence were among the primary symp- changes made by Congress, are preserved at the Library toms of this contagion of sovereignty.[10] of Congress. The best known version of the Declara- tion, a signed copy that is popularly regarded as the of- ficial document, is displayed at the National Archives in 1 Background Washington, D.C. This engrossed copy was ordered by Congress on July 19, and signed primarily on August Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the 2.[5][6] British empire a man who more cordially loves The sources and interpretation of the Declaration have a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. The Decla- the God that made me, I will cease to exist ration justified the independence of the United States by before I yield to a connection on such terms as listing colonial grievances against King George III, and by the British Parliament propose; and in this, I asserting certain natural and legal rights, including a right think I speak the sentiments of America. of revolution. Having served its original purpose in an- —Thomas Jefferson, November 29, 1775[11] nouncing independence, references to the text of the Dec- laration were few for the next four score years. Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his rhetoric (as in the By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted Gettysburg Address of 1863), and his policies. Since in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain had then, it has become a well-known statement on human been at war for more than a year. Relations between rights, particularly its second sentence: the colonies and the mother country had been deterio- rating since the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763.

1 2 2 TOWARD INDEPENDENCE

that the colonies, which had their own legislatures, were connected to the rest of the empire only through their allegiance to the Crown.[18]

1.1 Congress convenes

The issue of Parliament’s authority in the colonies be- came a crisis after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774 to punish the Province of Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Many colonists saw the Coer- cive Acts as a violation of the British Constitution and thus a threat to the liberties of all of British America. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress con- vened in Philadelphia to coordinate a response. Congress organized a boycott of British goods and petitioned the king for repeal of the acts. These measures were un- successful because King George III and the ministry of Prime Minister Lord North were determined not to re- treat on the question of parliamentary supremacy. As the king wrote to North in November 1774, “blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent”.[19] Even after fighting in the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with Great Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration Britain.[20] When the Second Continental Congress con- vened at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia in May 1775, some delegates hoped for eventual inde- pendence, but no one yet advocated declaring it.[21] Al- The war had plunged the British government deep into though many colonists no longer believed that Parlia- debt, and so Parliament enacted a series of measures to ment had any sovereignty over them, they still professed increase tax revenue from the colonies. Parliament be- loyalty to King George, whom they hoped would inter- lieved that these acts, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and cede on their behalf. They were to be disappointed: the Townshend Acts of 1767, were a legitimate means in late 1775, the king rejected Congress’s second peti- of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs to tion, issued a Proclamation of Rebellion, and announced keep the colonies in the British Empire.[12] before Parliament on October 26 that he was consid- Many colonists, however, had developed a different con- ering “friendly offers of foreign assistance” to suppress ception of the empire. Because the colonies were not the rebellion.[22] A pro-American minority in Parliament directly represented in Parliament, colonists argued that warned that the government was driving the colonists to- Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them. This ward independence.[23] tax dispute was part of a larger divergence between British and American interpretations of the British Con- stitution and the extent of Parliament’s authority in the colonies.[13] The orthodox British view, dating from the 2 Toward independence Glorious Revolution of 1688, was that Parliament was the supreme authority throughout the empire, and so by In January 1776, just as it became clear in the colonies definition anything Parliament did was constitutional.[14] that the king was not inclined to act as a concil- In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that iator, Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense was the British Constitution recognized certain fundamental published.[24] Paine, who had only recently arrived in the rights that no government—not even Parliament—could colonies from England, argued in favor of colonial in- violate.[15] After the Townshend Acts, some essayists dependence, advocating republicanism as an alternative even began to question whether Parliament had any to monarchy and hereditary rule.[25] Common Sense in- legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all.[16] Anticipat- troduced no new ideas,[26] and probably had little direct ing the arrangement of the British Commonwealth,[17] by effect on Congress's thinking about independence; its 1774 American writers such as Samuel Adams, James importance was in stimulating public debate on a topic Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson were arguing that Par- that few had previously dared to openly discuss.[27] Pub- liament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and lic support for separation from Great Britain steadily in- 2.1 Revising instructions 3 creased after the publication of Paine’s enormously pop- 2.1 Revising instructions ular pamphlet.[28] In the campaign to revise Congressional instructions, many Americans formally expressed their support for separation from Great Britain in what were effectively state and local declarations of independence. Historian Pauline Maier identified more than ninety such declara- tions that were issued throughout the Thirteen Colonies from April to July 1776.[35] These “declarations” took a variety of forms. Some were formal, written instruc- tions for Congressional delegations, such as the Halifax Resolves of April 12, with which North Carolina became the first colony to explicitly authorize its delegates to vote for independence.[36] Others were legislative acts that of- ficially ended British rule in individual colonies, such as on May 4, when the Rhode Island legislature became the first to declare its independence from Great Britain.[37] The Assembly Room in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of In- Many “declarations” were resolutions adopted at town or dependence county meetings that offered support for independence. A few came in the form of jury instructions, such as the statement issued on April 23, 1776, by Chief Justice Although some colonists still held out hope for recon- William Henry Drayton of South Carolina: “the law of ciliation, developments in early 1776 further strength- the land authorizes me to declare...that George the Third, ened public support for independence. In February King of Great Britain...has no authority over us, and we 1776, colonists learned of Parliament’s passage of the owe no obedience to him.”[38] Most of these declarations Prohibitory Act, which established a blockade of Ameri- are now obscure, having been overshadowed by the dec- can ports and declared American ships to be enemy ves- laration approved by Congress on July 4.[39] sels. John Adams, a strong supporter of independence, Some colonies held back from endorsing independence. believed that Parliament had effectively declared Amer- Resistance was centered in the middle colonies of ican independence before Congress had been able to. New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Adams labeled the Prohibitory Act the “Act of Indepen- Delaware.[40] Advocates of independence saw Pennsyl- dency”, calling it “a compleat Dismemberment of the vania as the key: if that colony could be converted to the [29] British Empire”. Support for declaring independence pro-independence cause, it was believed that the others grew even more when it was confirmed that King George would follow.[40] On May 1, however, opponents of in- had hired German mercenaries to use against his Ameri- dependence retained control of the Pennsylvania Assem- [30] can subjects. bly in a special election that had focused on the question Despite this growing popular support for independence, of independence.[41] In response, on May 10 Congress Congress lacked the clear authority to declare it. Del- passed a resolution, which had been promoted by John egates had been elected to Congress by thirteen dif- Adams and Richard Henry Lee, calling on colonies ferent governments—which included extralegal conven- without a “government sufficient to the exigencies of tions, ad hoc committees, and elected assemblies—and their affairs” to adopt new governments.[42] The reso- were bound by the instructions given to them. Regard- lution passed unanimously, and was even supported by less of their personal opinions, delegates could not vote Pennsylvania’s John Dickinson, the leader of the anti- to declare independence unless their instructions permit- independence faction in Congress, who believed that it ted such an action.[31] Several colonies, in fact, expressly did not apply to his colony.[43] prohibited their delegates from taking any steps towards separation from Great Britain, while other delegations had instructions that were ambiguous on the issue.[32] As 2.2 May 15 preamble public sentiment for separation from Great Britain grew, advocates of independence sought to have the Congres- This Day the Congress has passed the most important sional instructions revised. For Congress to declare in- Resolution, that ever was taken in America. dependence, a majority of delegations would need autho- [44] rization to vote for independence, and at least one colonial —John Adams, May 15, 1776 government would need to specifically instruct (or grant permission for) its delegation to propose a declaration As was the custom, Congress appointed a committee to of independence in Congress. Between April and July draft a preamble to explain the purpose of the resolution. 1776, a “complex political war”[33] was waged to bring John Adams wrote the preamble, which stated that be- this about.[34] cause King George had rejected reconciliation and was 4 3 DRAFT AND ADOPTION hiring foreign mercenaries to use against the colonies, “it tee should prepare a document announcing and explain- is necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority ing independence in the event that Lee’s resolution was under the said crown should be totally suppressed”.[45] approved when it was brought up again in July. Adams’s preamble was meant to encourage the over- Support for a Congressional declaration of independence throw of the governments of Pennsylvania and Mary- [46] was consolidated in the final weeks of June 1776. On land, which were still under proprietary governance. June 14, the Connecticut Assembly instructed its dele- Congress passed the preamble on May 15 after sev- gates to propose independence, and the following day the eral days of debate, but four of the middle colonies legislatures of New Hampshire and Delaware authorized voted against it, and the Maryland delegation walked [55] [47] their delegates to declare independence. In Pennsyl- out in protest. Adams regarded his May 15 pream- vania, political struggles ended with the dissolution of ble effectively as an American declaration of indepen- the colonial assembly, and on June 18 a new Confer- dence, although a formal declaration would still have to ence of Committees under Thomas McKean authorized be made.[48] Pennsylvania’s delegates to declare independence.[56] On June 15, the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, which 2.3 Lee’s resolution and the final push had been governing the province since January 1776, re- solved that Royal Governor William Franklin was “an enemy to the liberties of this country” and had him On the same day that Congress passed Adams’s radical arrested.[57] On June 21, they chose new delegates to preamble, the Virginia Convention set the stage for a Congress and empowered them to join in a declaration formal Congressional declaration of independence. On of independence.[58] May 15, the Convention instructed Virginia’s congres- sional delegation “to propose to that respectable body to Only Maryland and New York had yet to authorize inde- declare the United Colonies free and independent States, pendence. When the Continental Congress had adopted absolved from all allegiance to, or dependence upon, the Adams’s radical May 15 preamble, Maryland’s delegates Crown or Parliament of Great Britain”.[49] In accordance walked out and sent to the Maryland Convention for with those instructions, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia instructions.[59] On May 20, the Maryland Convention presented a three-part resolution to Congress on June rejected Adams’s preamble, instructing its delegates to 7.[50] The motion, which was seconded by John Adams, remain against independence, but Samuel Chase went to called on Congress to declare independence, form foreign Maryland and, thanks to local resolutions in favor of in- alliances, and prepare a plan of colonial confederation. dependence, was able to get the Maryland Convention The part of the resolution relating to declaring indepen- to change its mind on June 28.[60] Only the New York dence read: delegates were unable to get revised instructions. When Congress had been considering the resolution of inde- pendence on June 8, the New York Provincial Congress Resolved, that these United Colonies are, [61] and of right ought to be, free and indepen- told the delegates to wait. But on June 30, the Provin- dent States, that they are absolved from all al- cial Congress evacuated New York as British forces ap- legiance to the British Crown, and that all po- proached, and would not convene again until July 10. litical connection between them and the State This meant that New York’s delegates would not be au- thorized to declare independence until after Congress had of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally [62] dissolved.[51] made its decision.

Lee’s resolution met with resistance in the ensuing de- bate. Opponents of the resolution, while conceding 3 Draft and adoption that reconciliation with Great Britain was unlikely, ar- gued that declaring independence was premature, and While political maneuvering was setting the stage for an that securing foreign aid should take priority.[52] Advo- official declaration of independence, a document explain- cates of the resolution countered that foreign govern- ing the decision was being written. On June 11, 1776, ments would not intervene in an internal British struggle, Congress appointed a "Committee of Five", consisting and so a formal declaration of independence was needed of John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of before foreign aid was possible. All Congress needed to Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. do, they insisted, was to “declare a fact which already Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Con- exists”.[53] Delegates from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New necticut, to draft a declaration. Because the commit- Jersey, Maryland, and New York were still not yet au- tee left no minutes, there is some uncertainty about how thorized to vote for independence, however, and some the drafting process proceeded—accounts written many of them threatened to leave Congress if the resolution years later by Jefferson and Adams, although frequently were adopted. Congress therefore voted on June 10 to cited, are contradictory and not entirely reliable.[64] What postpone further discussion of Lee’s resolution for three is certain is that the committee, after discussing the gen- weeks.[54] Until then, Congress decided that a commit- eral outline that the document should follow, decided that 5

“Declaration House”, the boarding house at Market and S. 7th Street where Jefferson wrote the Declaration

This idealized depiction of (left to right) Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson working on the Declaration (Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1900) was widely reprinted.[63]

Jefferson would write the first draft.[65] The committee in general, and Jefferson in particular, thought Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded the committee to choose Jefferson and promised to consult with Jefferson personally.[3] Considering Congress’s busy schedule, Jefferson probably had limited time for writing over the next seventeen days, and likely wrote the draft quickly.[66] He then consulted the others, made some changes, and then produced another copy incorporating Jefferson drafted the Declaration on this portable lap desk of his these alterations. The committee presented this copy to own design. the Congress on June 28, 1776. The title of the document was “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United [67] States of America, in General Congress assembled.” resumed debate on Lee’s resolution of independence.[70] Congress ordered that the draft "lie on the table".[68] For John Dickinson made one last effort to delay the decision, two days Congress methodically edited Jefferson’s pri- arguing that Congress should not declare independence mary document, shortening it by a fourth, removing un- without first securing a foreign alliance and finalizing the necessary wording, and improving sentence structure.[69] Articles of Confederation.[71] John Adams gave a speech Congress removed Jefferson’s assertion that Britain had in reply to Dickinson, restating the case for an immediate forced slavery on the colonies, in order to moderate the declaration. document and appease persons in Britain who supported After a long day of speeches, a vote was taken. As al- the Revolution. Although Jefferson wrote that Congress ways, each colony cast a single vote; the delegation for had “mangled” his draft version, the Declaration that was each colony—numbering two to seven members—voted finally produced, according to his biographer John Fer- amongst themselves to determine the colony’s vote. Penn- ling, was “the majestic document that inspired both con- [69] sylvania and South Carolina voted against declaring inde- temporaries and posterity.” pendence. The New York delegation, lacking permission On Monday, July 1, having tabled the draft of the dec- to vote for independence, abstained. Delaware cast no laration, Congress resolved itself into a committee of the vote because the delegation was split between Thomas whole, with Benjamin Harrison of Virginia presiding, and McKean (who voted yes) and George Read (who voted 6 5 INFLUENCES no). The remaining nine delegations voted in favor of in- 4 Annotated text of the engrossed dependence, which meant that the resolution had been ap- Declaration proved by the committee of the whole. The next step was for the resolution to be voted upon by the Congress itself. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, who was opposed The Declaration is not divided into formal sections; but it to Lee’s resolution but desirous of unanimity, moved that is often discussed as consisting of five parts: Introduction, the vote be postponed until the following day.[72] the Preamble, the Indictment of George III, the Denunci- ation of the British people, and the Conclusion.[79] On July 2, South Carolina reversed its position and voted for independence. In the Pennsylvania delegation, Dick- inson and Robert Morris abstained, allowing the delega- tion to vote three-to-two in favor of independence. The 5 Influences tie in the Delaware delegation was broken by the timely arrival of Caesar Rodney, who voted for independence. The New York delegation abstained once again, since they were still not authorized to vote for independence, although they would be allowed to do so by the New York Provincial Congress a week later.[73] The resolution of independence had been adopted with twelve affirmative votes and one abstention. With this, the colonies had of- ficially severed political ties with Great Britain.[74] In a now-famous letter written to his wife on the following day, John Adams predicted that July 2 would become a great American holiday.[75] Adams thought that the vote for independence would be commemorated; he did not foresee that Americans—including himself—would in- stead celebrate Independence Day on the date that the announcement of that act was finalized.[76] After voting in favor of the resolution of independence, Congress turned its attention to the committee’s draft of the declaration. Over several days of debate, Congress made a few changes in wording and deleted nearly a fourth of the text, most notably a passage critical of the slave trade, changes that Jefferson resented.[77] On July 4, 1776, the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved and sent to the printer for publication. English political philosopher John Locke (1632–1704)

Historians have often sought to identify the sources that most influenced the words and political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence. By Jefferson’s own admis- sion, the Declaration contained no original ideas, but was instead a statement of sentiments widely shared by sup- porters of the American Revolution. As he explained in 1825:

Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any partic- ular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and The opening of the original printing of the Declaration, printed to give to that expression the proper tone and on July 4, 1776 under Jefferson’s supervision. The engrossed spirit called for by the occasion.[81] copy (shown at the top of this article) was made later. Note the [78] opening lines of the two versions differ. Jefferson’s most immediate sources were two documents written in June 1776: his own draft of the preamble of the Constitution of Virginia, and George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Ideas and phrases from both of these documents appear in the Declaration 7

of Independence.[82] They were, in turn, directly influ- laration of Independence does not have the force of law enced by the 1689 English Declaration of Rights, which domestically, but nevertheless it may help to provide his- formally ended the reign of King James II.[83] During torical and legal clarity about the Constitution and other the American Revolution, Jefferson and other Americans laws.[97][98][99] looked to the English Declaration of Rights as a model of how to end the reign of an unjust king.[84] The Scottish Declaration of Arbroath (1320) and the Dutch Act of Ab- 6 Signing juration (1581) have also been offered as models for Jef- ferson’s Declaration, but these models are now accepted by few scholars.[85] Jefferson wrote that a number of authors exerted a gen- eral influence on the words of the Declaration.[86] The English political theorist John Locke, whom Jefferson called one of “the three greatest men that have ever lived”,[87] is usually cited as one of the primary influ- ences. In 1922, historian Carl L. Becker wrote that “Most Americans had absorbed Locke’s works as a kind of po- litical gospel; and the Declaration, in its form, in its phraseology, follows closely certain sentences in Locke’s second treatise on government.”[88] The extent of Locke’s influence on the American Revolution has been ques- tioned by some subsequent scholars, however. Histo- rian Ray Forrest Harvey declared in 1937, as he ar- gued for the dominant influence of the Swiss jurist Jean Jacques Burlamaqui, that Jefferson and Locke were at “two opposite poles” in their political philosophy, as ev- idenced by Jefferson’s use in the Declaration of Inde- pendence of the phrase “pursuit of happiness” instead of “property”.[89] Other scholars emphasized the influ- ence of republicanism rather than Locke’s classical lib- eralism.[90] Historian Garry Wills argued that Jefferson was influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, particu- [91] The signed copy of the Declaration. Now badly faded, because larly Francis Hutcheson, rather than Locke, an inter- of poor preserving practices in the 19th century, is on display at [92] pretation that has been strongly criticized. the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Legal historian John Phillip Reid has written that the em- phasis on the political philosophy of the Declaration has Main article: Signing of the United States Declaration of been misplaced. The Declaration is not a philosophi- Independence cal tract about natural rights, argues Reid, but is instead a legal document—an indictment against King George The Declaration became official when Congress voted for [93] for violating the constitutional rights of the colonists. it on July 4; signatures of the delegates were not needed In contrast, historian Dennis J. Mahoney argues that to make it official. The handwritten copy of the Decla- the Declaration is not a legal document at all, but a ration of Independence that was signed by Congress is philosophical document influenced by Emerich de Vat- dated July 4, 1776. The signatures of fifty-six delegates [94] tel, Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, and Samuel Pufendorf. are affixed; however, the exact date each person signed it Historian David Armitage has argued that the Decla- has long been the subject of debate. Jefferson, Franklin, ration is a document of international law. According and Adams all wrote that the Declaration had been signed to Armitage, the Declaration was strongly influenced by by Congress on July 4.[100] But in 1796, signer Thomas de Vattel’s The Law of Nations, a book that Benjamin McKean disputed that the Declaration had been signed Franklin said was “continually in the hands of the mem- on July 4, pointing out that some signers were not then [95] bers of our Congress”. Armitage writes that because present, including several who were not even elected to “Vattel made independence fundamental to his definition Congress until after that date.[101] of statehood”, the primary purpose of the Declaration was “to express the international legal sovereignty of the According to the 1911 record of events by the U.S. United States”. If the United States were to have any hope State Department, under Secretary Philander C. Knox, of being recognized by the European powers, the Amer- the Declaration was transposed on paper, adopted by the ican revolutionaries had first to make it clear that they Continental Congress, and signed by John Hancock, Pres- [102] were no longer dependent on Great Britain.[96] The Dec- ident of the Congress, on July 4, 1776. On August 2, 1776, a parchment paper copy of the Declaration was 8 7 PUBLICATION AND REACTION

signed by 56 persons.[102] Many of these signers were 7 Publication and reaction not present when the original Declaration was adopted on July 4.[102] One signer, Matthew Thornton from New Hampshire, who was seated in the Continental Congress in November, asked for and received the privilege of adding his signature at that time, and signed on November 4, 1776.[102]

On July 4, 1776, Continental Congress President John Hancock's signature authenticated the United States Declaration of Indepen- dence. Johannes Adam Simon Oertel's painting Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C., ca. 1859, depicts citizens destroying a statue of King George after the Declaration was read in New Historians have generally accepted McKean’s version of York City on July 9, 1776. events, arguing that the famous signed version of the Dec- laration was created after July 19, and was not signed by [103] After Congress approved the final wording of the Decla- Congress until August 2, 1776. In 1986, legal histo- ration on July 4, a handwritten copy was sent a few blocks rian Wilfred Ritz argued that historians had misunder- away to the printing shop of John Dunlap. Through the stood the primary documents and given too much cre- night Dunlap printed about 200 broadsides for distribu- dence to McKean, who had not been present in Congress [104] tion. Before long, the Declaration was read to audiences on July 4. According to Ritz, about thirty-four del- and reprinted in newspapers across the thirteen states. egates signed the Declaration on July 4, and the oth- [105] The first official public reading of the document was by ers signed on or after August 2. Historians who re- John Nixon in the yard of Independence Hall on July 8; ject a July 4 signing maintain that most delegates signed public readings also took place on that day in Trenton, on August 2, and that those eventual signers who were [111] [106] New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania. A German not present added their names later. Two future U.S. translation of the Declaration was published in Philadel- presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, were phia by July 9.[112] among the signatories. President of Congress John Hancock sent a broadside to The most famous signature on the engrossed copy is that General George Washington, instructing him to have it of John Hancock, who, as President of Congress, pre- [107] proclaimed “at the Head of the Army in the way you shall sumably signed first. Hancock’s large, flamboyant sig- think it most proper”.[113] Washington had the Declara- nature became iconic, and John Hancock emerged in the [108] tion read to his troops in New York City on July 9, with United States as an informal synonym for “signature”. thousands of British troops on ships in the harbor. Wash- A commonly circulated but apocryphal account claims ington and Congress hoped the Declaration would inspire that after Hancock signed, the delegate from Mas- the soldiers, and encourage others to join the army.[111] sachusetts commented, “The British ministry can read After hearing the Declaration, crowds in many cities tore that name without spectacles.” Another apocryphal re- down and destroyed signs or statues representing royal port indicates that Hancock proudly declared, “There! I [109] authority. An equestrian statue of King George in New guess King George will be able to read that!" York City was pulled down and the lead used to make Various legends about the signing of the Declaration musket balls.[114] emerged years later, when the document had become an British officials in North America sent copies of the Dec- important national symbol. In one famous story, John laration to Great Britain.[115] It was published in British Hancock supposedly said that Congress, having signed newspapers beginning in mid-August, it had reached Flo- the Declaration, must now “all hang together”, and Ben- rence and Warsaw by mid-September, and a German jamin Franklin replied: “Yes, we must indeed all hang translation appeared in Switzerland by October. The together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” first copy of the Declaration sent to France got lost, and The quotation did not appear in print until more than fifty [116] [110] the second copy arrived only in November 1776. It years after Franklin’s death. reached Portuguese America by Brazilian medical stu- The Syng inkstand, used at the signing, was also used at dent 'Vendek' José Joaquim Maia e Barbalho, who had the signing of the United States Constitution in 1787. met with Thomas Jefferson in Nîmes in 1786. Though 9

decades, other slaveholders also freed their slaves; from 1790 to 1810, the percentage of free blacks in the Upper South increased to 8.3 percent from less than one percent of the black population.[125] All Northern states abolished slavery by 1804.

8 History of the documents

Main article: Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence

The official copy was the one printed on July 4, 1776 un- der Jefferson’s supervision. It was sent to the states and the Army, and was widely reprinted in newspapers. The slightly different “engrossed copy” (shown at the top of this article) was made later for members to sign. The engrossed version is the one widely distributed in the 21st century. Note the opening lines of the two version differ.[78] The copy of the Declaration that was signed by Congress William Whipple, signer of the Declaration of Independence, is known as the engrossed or parchment copy. It was freed his slave believing he could not fight for liberty and own probably engrossed (that is, carefully handwritten) by [126] a slave. clerk Timothy Matlack. Because of poor conserva- tion of the engrossed copy through the 19th century, a facsimile made in 1823, rather than the original, has the Spanish-American authorities banned the circulation become the basis of most modern reproductions.[126] of the Declaration, it was widely transmitted and trans- In 1921, custody of the engrossed copy of the Decla- lated, by the Venezuelan Manuel García de Sena, by the ration, along with the United States Constitution, was Colombian Miguel de Pombo, by the Ecuadorian Vicente transferred from the State Department to the Library of Rocafuerte and by the New Englanders Richard Cleve- Congress. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in land and William Shaler, who distributed the Declaration 1941, the documents were moved for safekeeping to the and the United States Constitution among creoles in Chile United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox in Ken- and Indians in Mexico in 1821.[117] The North Ministry tucky, where they were kept until 1944.[127] In 1952, did not give an official answer to the Declaration, but in- the engrossed Declaration was transferred to the National stead secretly commissioned pamphleteer John Lind to Archives, and is now on permanent display at the Na- publish a response, which was entitled Answer to the Dec- tional Archives in the “Rotunda for the Charters of Free- laration of the American Congress.[118] British Tories de- dom".[128] nounced the signers of the Declaration for not applying the same principles of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to African Americans.[119] Thomas Hutchin- son, the former royal governor of Massachusetts, also published a rebuttal.[120][121] These pamphlets challenged various aspects of the Declaration. Hutchinson argued that the American Revolution was the work of a few con- spirators who wanted independence from the outset, and who had finally achieved it by inducing otherwise loyal colonists to rebel.[122] Lind’s pamphlet had an anonymous attack on the concept of natural rights, written by Jeremy Bentham, an argument which he would repeat during the French Revolution.[123] Both pamphlets asked how the American slaveholders in Congress could proclaim that The Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in the National “all men are created equal” without freeing their own Archives building slaves.[124] William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Indepen- Although the document signed by Congress and en- dence who had fought in the war, freed his slave, Prince shrined in the National Archives is usually regarded as Whipple, because of revolutionary ideals. In the postwar the Declaration of Independence, historian Julian P. Boyd 10 9 LEGACY

argued that the Declaration, like Magna Carta, is not a 9.1 Influence in other countries single document. Boyd considered the printed broadsides ordered by Congress to be official texts as well. The Dec- Many leaders of the French Revolution admired the Dec- laration was first published as a broadside that was printed laration of Independence[140] but were also interested in the night of July 4 by John Dunlap of Philadelphia. Dun- the new American state constitutions.[141] The inspira- lap printed about 200 broadsides, of which 26 are known tion and content of the French Declaration of the Rights to survive. The 26th copy was discovered in The National of Man and Citizen (1789) emerged largely from the Archives in England in 2009.[129] In 1777, Congress com- ideals of the American Revolution.[142] Its key drafts missioned Mary Katherine Goddard to print a new broad- were prepared by Lafayette, working closely in Paris side that, unlike the Dunlap broadside, listed the signers with his friend, Thomas Jefferson. It also borrowed of the Declaration.[126][130] Nine copies of the Goddard language from George Mason's Virginia Declaration of broadside are known to still exist.[130] A variety of broad- Rights.[143][144] sides printed by the states are also extant.[130] According to historian David Armitage, the Declaration Several early handwritten copies and drafts of the Dec- of Independence did prove to be internationally influen- laration have also been preserved. Jefferson kept a four- tial, but not as a statement of human rights. Armitage page draft that late in life he called the “original Rough argued that the Declaration was the first in a new genre draught”.[131] How many drafts Jefferson wrote prior to of declarations of independence that announced the cre- this one, and how much of the text was contributed by ation of new states. other committee members, is unknown. In 1947, Boyd Other French leaders were directly influenced by the text discovered a fragment of an earlier draft in Jefferson’s of the Declaration of Independence itself. The Man- handwriting.[132] Jefferson and Adams sent copies of the ifesto of the Province of Flanders (1790) was the first rough draft, with slight variations, to friends. foreign derivation of the Declaration;[145] others include During the writing process, Jefferson showed the rough the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence (1811), the draft to Adams and Franklin, and perhaps other mem- Liberian Declaration of Independence (1847), the decla- bers of the drafting committee,[131] who made a few rations of secession by the Confederate States of Amer- more changes. Franklin, for example, may have been ica (1860–61), and the Vietnamese Proclamation of In- responsible for changing Jefferson’s original phrase “We dependence (1945).[146] These declarations echoed the hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable” to “We United States Declaration of Independence in announc- hold these truths to be self-evident”.[133] Jefferson in- ing the independence of a new state, without necessarily corporated these changes into a copy that was submit- endorsing the political philosophy of the original.[147] ted to Congress in the name of the committee.[131] The Some other countries that used the Declaration as inspi- copy that was submitted to Congress on June 28 has ration or directly copied sections from it is the Haitian been lost, and was perhaps destroyed in the printing declaration of 1 January 1804 from the Haitian Revo- process,[134] or destroyed during the debates in accor- lution, the United Provinces of New Granada in 1811, dance with Congress’s secrecy rule.[135] the Argentine Declaration of Independence in 1816, the Chilean Declaration of Independence in 1818, Costa Rica in 1821, El Salvador in 1821, Guatemala in 1821, 9 Legacy Honduras in (1821), Mexico in 1821, Nicaragua in 1821, Peru in 1821, Bolivian War of Independence in 1825, Having served its original purpose in announcing the Uruguay in 1825, Ecuador in 1830, Colombia in 1831, independence of the United States, the Declaration Paraguay in 1842, Dominican Republic in 1844, Texas was initially neglected in the years immediately follow- Declaration of Independence in March 1836, California ing the American Revolution.[136] Early celebrations of Republic in November 1836, Hungarian Declaration of Independence Day, like early histories of the Revolu- Independence in 1849, Declaration of the Independence tion, largely ignored the Declaration. Although the act of New Zealand in 1835, and the Czechoslovak dec- of declaring independence was considered important, laration of independence from 1918 drafted in Wash- the text announcing that act attracted little attention.[137] ington D.C. with Gutzon Borglum among the drafters. The Declaration was rarely mentioned during the debates The Rhodesian declaration of independence, ratified in about the United States Constitution, and its language was November 1965, is based on the American one as well, not incorporated into that document.[138] George Mason’s however, it omits the phrase "all men are created equal", [117][148][149][150] draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights was more in- along with "the consent of the governed". fluential, and its language was echoed in state constitu- tions and state bills of rights more often than Jefferson’s words.[139] “In none of these documents”, wrote Pauline 9.2 Revival of interest Maier, “is there any evidence whatsoever that the Decla- ration of Independence lived in men’s minds as a classic In the United States, interest in the Declaration was re- statement of American political principles.”[140] vived in the 1790s with the emergence of America’s first 9.3 Slavery and the Declaration 11

political parties.[151] Throughout the 1780s, few Ameri- variations of the Declaration were issued to proclaim the cans knew, or cared, who wrote the Declaration.[152] But rights of workers, farmers, women, and others.[163] In in the next decade, Jeffersonian Republicans sought po- 1848, for example, the Seneca Falls Convention, a meet- litical advantage over their rival Federalists by promoting ing of women’s rights advocates, declared that “all men both the importance of the Declaration and Jefferson as and women are created equal”.[164] its author.[153] Federalists responded by casting doubt on Jefferson’s authorship or originality, and by emphasizing that independence was declared by the whole Congress, 9.3 Slavery and the Declaration with Jefferson as just one member of the drafting com- mittee. Federalists insisted that Congress’s act of declar- Further information: Slavery in the colonial United States ing independence, in which Federalist John Adams had played a major role, was more important than the docu- ment announcing that act.[154] But this view, like the Fed- The contradiction between the claim that “all men are eralist Party, would fade away, and before long the act of created equal” and the existence of American slavery declaring independence would become synonymous with attracted comment when the Declaration was first pub- the document. lished. As mentioned above, although Jefferson had in- cluded a paragraph in his initial draft that strongly in- dicted Britain’s role in the slave trade, this was deleted from the final version.[77] Jefferson himself was a promi- nent Virginia slave holder having owned hundreds of slaves.[165] Referring to this seeming contradiction, En- glish abolitionist Thomas Day wrote in a 1776 letter, “If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves.”[166] In the 19th century, the Declaration took on a special significance for the abolitionist movement. Historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown wrote that “abolitionists tended to interpret the Declara- tion of Independence as a theological as well as a political John Trumbull's famous painting is often identified as a depiction document”.[167] Abolitionist leaders Benjamin Lundy and of the signing of the Declaration, but it actually shows the drafting committee presenting its work to the Congress.[155] William Lloyd Garrison adopted the “twin rocks” of “the Bible and the Declaration of Independence” as the basis A less partisan appreciation for the Declaration emerged for their philosophies. “As long as there remains a single copy of the Declaration of Independence, or of the Bible, in the years following the War of 1812, thanks to a grow- [168] ing American nationalism and a renewed interest in the in our land,” wrote Garrison, “we will not despair.” history of the Revolution.[156] In 1817, Congress com- For radical abolitionists like Garrison, the most impor- tant part of the Declaration was its assertion of the right of missioned John Trumbull's famous painting of the sign- ers, which was exhibited to large crowds before being revolution: Garrison called for the destruction of the gov- [157] ernment under the Constitution, and the creation of a new installed in the Capitol. The earliest commemora- [169] tive printings of the Declaration also appeared at this state dedicated to the principles of the Declaration. time, offering many Americans their first view of the The controversial question of whether to add additional signed document.[158] Collective biographies of the sign- slave states to the United States coincided with the grow- ers were first published in the 1820s,[159] giving birth to ing stature of the Declaration. The first major public de- what Garry Wills called the “cult of the signers”.[160] In bate about slavery and the Declaration took place during the years that followed, many stories about the writing the Missouri controversy of 1819 to 1821.[170] Antislav- and signing of the document would be published for the ery Congressmen argued that the language of the Decla- first time. ration indicated that the Founding Fathers of the United States had been opposed to slavery in principle, and so When interest in the Declaration was revived, the sec- [171] tions that were most important in 1776—the announce- new slave states should not be added to the country. ment of the independence of the United States and the Proslavery Congressmen, led by Senator Nathaniel Ma- grievances against King George—were no longer rele- con of North Carolina, argued that since the Declaration was not a part of the Constitution, it had no relevance to vant. But the second paragraph, with its talk of self- [172] evident truths and unalienable rights, were applicable long the question. after the war had ended.[161] Because the Constitution and With the antislavery movement gaining momentum, de- the Bill of Rights lacked sweeping statements about rights fenders of slavery such as John Randolph and John C. and equality, advocates of marginalized groups turned to Calhoun found it necessary to argue that the Declaration’s the Declaration for support.[162] Starting in the 1820s, assertion that “all men are created equal” was false, or 12 9 LEGACY at least that it did not apply to black people.[173] During and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. ... Let the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1853, for us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, example, Senator John Pettit of Indiana argued that “all and with it, the practices, and policy, which men are created equal”, rather than a “self-evident truth”, harmonize with it. ... If we do this, we shall was a “self-evident lie”.[174] Opponents of the Kansas– not only have saved the Union: but we shall Nebraska Act, including Salmon P. Chase and Benjamin have saved it, as to make, and keep it, forever Wade, defended the Declaration and what they saw as its worthy of the saving.[177] antislavery principles.[175] The meaning of the Declaration was a recurring topic in 9.4 Lincoln and the Declaration the famed debates between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858. Douglas argued that “all men are created equal” in the Declaration referred to white men only. The pur- pose of the Declaration, he said, had simply been to jus- tify the independence of the United States, and not to pro- claim the equality of any “inferior or degraded race”.[178] Lincoln, however, thought that the language of the Dec- laration was deliberately universal, setting a high moral standard for which the American republic should aspire. “I had thought the Declaration contemplated the pro- gressive improvement in the condition of all men every- where”, he said.[179] During the seventh and last joint de- bate with Steven Douglas at Alton, Illinois on 15 October 1858 Lincoln said about the declaration:

I think the authors of that notable instru- ment intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all re- spects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral develop- ment, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal — equal in “certain in- alienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to as- sert the obvious untruth that all were then ac- Congressman Abraham Lincoln tually enjoying that equality, or yet that they Shepherd, 1845–1846 were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a The Declaration’s relationship to slavery was taken up in boon. They meant simply to declare the right, 1854 by Abraham Lincoln, a little-known former Con- so that the enforcement of it might follow as gressman who idolized the Founding Fathers.[176] Lincoln fast as circumstances should permit. They thought that the Declaration of Independence expressed meant to set up a standard maxim for free soci- the highest principles of the American Revolution, and ety which should be familiar to all, constantly that the Founding Fathers had tolerated slavery with the looked to, constantly labored for, and even, expectation that it would ultimately wither away.[9] For though never perfectly attained, constantly ap- the United States to legitimize the expansion of slavery proximated, and thereby constantly spreading in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, thought Lincoln, was to re- and deepening its influence, and augmenting pudiate the principles of the Revolution. In his October the happiness and value of life to all people, [180] 1854 Peoria speech, Lincoln said: of all colors, everywhere.

Nearly eighty years ago we began by According to Pauline Maier, Douglas’s interpretation was declaring that all men are created equal; but more historically accurate, but Lincoln’s view ultimately now from that beginning we have run down prevailed. “In Lincoln’s hands”, wrote Maier, “the Dec- to the other declaration, that for some men laration of Independence became first and foremost a liv- to enslave others is a “sacred right of self- ing document” with “a set of goals to be realized over government. ... Our republican robe is soiled time”.[181] 9.5 Women’s suffrage and the Declaration 13

[T]here is no reason in the world why the negro is not 9.5 Women’s suffrage and the Declaration entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Decla- ration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the In July 1848, the first Woman’s Rights Convention, the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to Seneca Falls Convention, was held in Seneca Falls, New these as the white man. York. The convention was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane Abraham Lincoln, 1858[182] Hunt. In their "Declaration of Sentiments", patterned on the Declaration of Independence, the convention mem- Like Daniel Webster, James Wilson, and Joseph Story be- bers demanded social and political equality for women. fore him, Lincoln argued that the Declaration of Indepen- Their motto was that “All men and women are created dence was a founding document of the United States, and equal” and the convention demanded suffrage for women. that this had important implications for interpreting the The suffrage movement was supported by William Lloyd Constitution, which had been ratified more than a decade Garrison and Frederick Douglass.[187][188] after the Declaration.[183] Although the Constitution did not use the word “equality”, Lincoln believed that “all men are created equal” remained a part of the nation’s 9.6 Legacy founding principles.[184] He famously expressed this be- lief in the opening sentence of his 1863 Gettysburg Ad- dress: “Four score and seven years ago [i.e. in 1776] our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, con- ceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Lincoln’s view of the Declaration as a moral guide to in- terpreting the Constitution became influential. “For most people now,” wrote Garry Wills in 1992, “the Declaration means what Lincoln told us it means, as a way of correct- ing the Constitution itself without overthrowing it.”[185] Admirers of Lincoln, such as Harry V. Jaffa, praised this development. Critics of Lincoln, notably Willmoore Kendall and Mel Bradford, argued that Lincoln danger- ously expanded the scope of the national government, and violated states’ rights, by reading the Declaration into the Constitution.[186]

Presentation of the Declaration depicted on a United States postal issue of 1869

The adoption of the Declaration of Independence was dramatized in the 1969 Tony Award-winning musical play 1776, and the 1972 movie of the same name, as well as in the 2008 television miniseries John Adams. The engrossed copy of the Declaration is central to the 2004 Hollywood film National Treasure, in which the main character steals the document because he believes it has secret clues to a treasure hidden by some of the Founding Fathers. The Declaration is featured in The Probability Broach (1980), an alternative history novel, when one word is added to the document, to read that governments “derive their just power from the unanimous consent of the gov- erned”. In 1984 the Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence was dedicated in Constitution Gardens on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where the sig- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her two sons. 1848. natures of all the original signers are carved in stone with their names, places of residences and occupations. 14 10 REFERENCES

The Declaration document is at risk in Honour Among [18] Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 241–42. The writings in Thieves (1993), a novel by Jeffrey Archer in which question include Wilson’s Considerations on the Author- Saddam Hussein tries to steal the Declaration to burn it ity of Parliament and Jefferson’s A Summary View of the publicly on July 4. Rights of British America (both 1774), as well as Samuel Adams’s 1768 Circular Letter.

[19] Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 168; Ferling, Leap in the 10 References Dark, 123–24. [20] Hazelton, Declaration History, 13; Middlekauff, Glorious [1] Becker, Declaration of Independence, 5. Cause, 318.

[2] The thirteen colonies were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, [21] Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 318. New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, [22] Maier, American Scripture, 25. The text of the 1775 New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Prov- king’s speech is online, published by the American Mem- idence Plantations. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- ory project. necticut and New Jersey were formed by mergers of pre- vious colonies. [23] Maier, American Scripture, 25.

[3] “Declaring Independence”, Revolutionary War, Digital [24] Rakove, Beginnings of National Politics, 88–90. History, University of Houston. From Adams’ notes: [25] Christie and Labaree, Empire or Independence, 270; “Why will you not? You ought to do it.” “I will not.” Maier, American Scripture, 31–32. “Why?" “Reasons enough.” “What can be your reasons?" “Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought [26] Jensen, Founding, 667. to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very [27] Rakove, Beginnings of National Politics, 89; Maier, Amer- much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times ican Scripture, 33. better than I can.” “Well,” said Jefferson, “if you are de- [28] Maier, American Scripture, 33–34. cided, I will do as well as I can.” “Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting.” [29] Hazelton, Declaration History, 209; Maier, American Scripture, 25–27. [4] Boyd (1976), The Declaration of Independence: The Mys- tery of the Lost Original, pg. 438 [30] Friedenwald, Interpretation, 67.

[5] “Did You Know...Independence Day Should Actually Be [31] Friedenwald, Interpretation, 77. July 2?" (Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. June 1, 2005. Retrieved July 4, 2012. [32] Maier, American Scripture, 30.

[6] The Declaration of Independence: A History, The U.S. [33] Maier, American Scripture, 59. National Archives and Records Administration [34] Jensen, Founding, 671; Friedenwald, Interpretation, 78. [7] Stephen E. Lucas, “Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document”, in Thomas [35] Maier, American Scripture, 48, and Appendix A, which W. Benson, ed., American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism, lists the state and local declarations. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, [36] Jensen, Founding, 678–79. 1989, p. 85 [37] Jensen, Founding, 679; Friedenwald, Interpretation, 92– [8] Ellis, American Creation, 55–56. 93.

[9] McPherson, Second American Revolution, 126. [38] Maier, American Scripture, 69–72, quote on 72.

[10] David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A [39] Maier, American Scripture, 48. The modern scholarly Global History (Harvard University Press, 2007) pp. 103– consensus is that the best-known and earliest of the lo- 4 cal declarations, the Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde- pendence, allegedly adopted in May 1775 (a full year be- [11] Hazelton, Declaration History, 19. fore other local declarations), is most likely inauthentic; [12] Christie and Labaree, Empire or Independence, 31. Maier, American Scripture, 174.

[13] Bailyn, Ideological Origins, 162. [40] Jensen, Founding, 682.

[14] Bailyn, Ideological Origins, 200–02. [41] Jensen, Founding, 683.

[15] Bailyn, Ideological Origins, 180–82. [42] Jensen, Founding, 684; Maier, American Scripture, 37. For the full text of the May 10 resolve see the Journals [16] Middlekauff, Glorious Cause, 241. of the Continental Congress.

[17] Bailyn, Ideological Origins, 224–25. [43] Jensen, Founding, 684. 15

[44] Burnett, Continental Congress, 159. The text of Adams’s [71] Jensen, Founding, 699. letter is online. [72] Burnett, Continental Congress, 182; Jensen, Founding, [45] Maier, American Scripture, 37; Jensen, Founding, 684. 700. For the full text of the May 15 preamble see the Journals [73] Maier, American Scripture, 45. of the Continental Congress. [74] Boyd, Evolution, 19. [46] Rakove, National Politics, 96; Jensen, Founding, 684; Friedenwald, Interpretation, 94. [75] Jensen, Founding, 703–04.

[47] Rakove, National Politics, 97; Jensen, Founding, 685. [76] Maier, American Scripture, 160–61.

[48] Maier, American Scripture, 38. [77] Maier, American Scripture, 146–50.

[49] Boyd, Evolution, 18; Maier, American Scripture, 63. The [78] Julian P. Boyd, “The Declaration of Independence: The text of the May 15 Virginia resolution is online at Yale Mystery of the Lost Original”. Pennsylvania Magazine Law School’s Avalon Project. of History and Biography 100, number 4 (October 1976), page 456 [50] Jefferson, Thomas (1776-07-04). “Declaration of Inde- pendence. In Congress, July 4, 1776, a Declaration by [79] Lucas, Stephen E. “The Stylistic Artistry of the Declara- the Representatives of the United States of America, in tion of Independence”. National Archives and Records General Congress Assembled.”. World Digital Library. Administration. Retrieved July 4, 2012. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Retrieved 1 July 2013. [80] “Index of Signers by State”. ushistory.org – Independence [51] Maier, American Scripture, 41; Boyd, Evolution, 19. Hall Association in Philadelphia. Retrieved October 12, 2006. [52] Jensen, Founding, 689–90; Maier, American Scripture, 42. [81] “TO HENRY LEE — Thomas Jefferson The Works, vol. [53] Jensen, Founding, 689; Armitage, Global History, 33–34. 12 (Correspondence and Papers 1816–1826; 1905)". The The quote is from Jefferson’s notes; Boyd, Papers of Jef- Online Library of Liberty. May 8, 1825. Retrieved ferson, 1:311. March 8, 2008.

[54] Maier, American Scripture, 42–43; Friedenwald, Interpre- [82] Malone, Jefferson the Virginian, 221; Maier, American tation, 106. Scripture, 125–26.

[55] Jensen, Founding, 691–92. [83] Maier, American Scripture, 126–28.

[56] Friedenwald, Interpretation, 106–07; Jensen, Founding, [84] Maier, American Scripture, 53–57. 691. [85] Maier found no evidence that the Dutch Act of Abjuration [57] Jensen, Founding, 692. served as a model for the Declaration and considers the ar- gument “unpersuasive” (American Scripture, p. 264). Ar- [58] Jensen, Founding, 693. mitage discounts the influence of the Scottish and Dutch acts, and writes that neither was called “declarations of in- [59] Jensen, Founding, 694. dependence” until fairly recently (Global History, pp. 42– [60] Jensen, Founding, 694–96; Friedenwald, Interpretation, 44). For the argument in favor of the influence of the 96; Maier, American Scripture, 68. Dutch act, see Stephen E. Lucas, “The 'Plakkaat van Ver- latinge': A Neglected Model for the American Declara- [61] Friedenwald, Interpretation, 118; Jensen, Founding, 698. tion of Independence”, in Rosemarijn Hofte and Johanna C. Kardux, eds., Connecting Cultures: The Netherlands [62] Friedenwald, Interpretation, 119–20. in Five Centuries of Transatlantic Exchange (Amsterdam, 1994), 189–207, and Barbara Wolff, “Was the Declara- [63] Dupont and Onuf, 3. tion of Independence Inspired by the Dutch?" Univer- [64] Maier, American Scripture, 97–105; Boyd, Evolution, 21. sity of Wisconsin Madison News, June 29, 1988, http: //www.news.wisc.edu/3049 Accessed July 3, 2013 [65] Boyd, Evolution, 22. [86] Boyd, Evolution, 16–17. [66] Maier, American Scripture, 104. [87] “The Three Greatest Men”. Retrieved June 13, 2009. Jef- [67] Becker, Declaration of Independence, 4. ferson identified Bacon, Locke, and Newton as “the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception”. [68] Jensen, Founding, 701. Their works in the physical and moral sciences were in- strumental in Jefferson’s education and world view. [69] John E. Ferling, Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution, Oxford [88] Becker, Declaration of Independence, 27. University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-513409-4. OCLC 468591593, pp. 131–137 [89] Ray Forrest Harvey, Jean Jacques Burlamaqui: A Lib- eral Tradition in American Constitutionalism (Chapel Hill, [70] Burnett, Continental Congress, 181. North Carolina, 1937), 120. 16 10 REFERENCES

[90] A brief, online overview of the classical liberalism vs. re- [103] Warren, “Fourth of July Myths”, 245–46; Hazelton, Dec- publicanism debate is Alec Ewald, “The American Re- laration History, 208–19; Wills, Inventing America, 341. public: 1760–1870” (2004). In a similar vein, historian Robert Middlekauff argues that the political ideas of the [104] Ritz, “Authentication”, 179–200. independence movement took their origins mainly from [105] Ritz, “Authentication”, 194. the “eighteenth-century commonwealthmen, the radical Whig ideology”, which in turn drew on the political [106] Hazelton, Declaration History, 208–19. thought of John Milton, James Harrington, and John Locke. See Robert Middlekauff (2005), The Glorious [107] Hazelton, Declaration History, 209. Cause, pp. 3–6, 51–52, 136 [108] Merriam-Webster online; Dictionary.com. [91] Wills, Inventing America, especially chs. 11–13. Wills concludes (p. 315) that “the air of enlightened America [109] “TeachAmericanHistory.org: John Hancock” (PDF). Re- was full of Hutcheson’s politics, not Locke’s”. trieved October 6, 2014.

[92] Hamowy, “Jefferson and the Scottish Enlightenment”, ar- [110] Malone, Story of the Declaration, 91. gues that Wills gets much wrong (p. 523), that the Dec- laration seems to be influenced by Hutcheson because [111] Maier, American Scripture, 156. Hutcheson was, like Jefferson, influenced by Locke (pp. [112] Armitage, Global History, 72. 508–09), and that Jefferson often wrote of Locke’s influ- ence, but never mentioned Hutcheson in any of his writ- [113] Maier, American Scripture, 155. ings (p. 514). See also Kenneth S. Lynn, “Falsifying Jefferson”, Commentary 66 (Oct. 1978), 66–71. Ralph [114] Maier, American Scripture, 156–57. Luker, in “Garry Wills and the New Debate Over the Declaration of Independence” (The Virginia Quarterly Re- [115] Armitage, Global History, 73. view, Spring 1980, 244–61) agreed that Wills overstated [116] “The Declaration of Independence in World Context”. Hutcheson’s influence to provide a communitarian reading Retrieved October 6, 2014. of the Declaration, but he also argued that Wills’s critics similarly read their own views into the document. [117] The Contagion of Sovereignty: Declarations of Indepen- dence since 1776 [93] John Phillip Reid, “The Irrelevance of the Declaration”, in Hendrik Hartog, ed., Law in the American Revolution [118] Armitage, Global History, 75. Retrieved October 6, 2014. and the Revolution in the Law (New York University Press, 1981), 46–89. [119] Jessup, John J. (September 20, 1943). “America and the Future”. Life: 105. Retrieved March 9, 2011. [94] Mahoney, Declaration of Independence. [120] Hutchinson, Thomas (1776). Eicholz, Hans, ed. [95] Benjamin Franklin to Charles F.W. Dumas, December “Strictures upon the Declaration of the Congress at 19, 1775, in The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Al- Philadelphia in a Letter to a Noble Lord, &c.”. London: bert Henry Smyth (New York: 1970), 6:432. Liberty Fund. Retrieved November 7, 2012.

[96] Armitage, Global History, 21, 38–40. [121] Armitage, Global History, 74.

[97] Gulf, C. & SFR Co. v. Ellis, 165 US 150 (1897): “While [122] Bailyn, Ideological Origins, 155–56. such declaration of principles may not have the force of organic law, or be made the basis of judicial decision as [123] Armitage, Global History, 79-80. Retrieved October 6, to the limits of right and duty.... it is always safe to read the 2014. letter of the Constitution in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.” [124] Armitage, Global History, 76-77. Retrieved October 6, 2014. [98] Wills, Gary. Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declara- tion of Independence, p. 25 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [125] Peter Kolchin, American Slavery, 1619–1877 (1993), pp. 2002): “the Declaration is not a legal instrument, like the 77–79, 81 Constitution”. [126] “The Declaration of Independence: A History”. Charters [99] Cuomo, Mario. Why Lincoln Matters: Now More Than of Freedom. National Archives and Records Administra- Ever, p. 137 (Harcourt Press 2004) (it “is not a law and tion. Retrieved July 1, 2011. therefore is not subjected to rigorous interpretation and enforcement”). [127] Malone, Story of the Declaration, 263.

[100] Warren, “Fourth of July Myths”, 242–43. [128] “Charters of Freedom Re-encasement Project”. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 1, [101] Hazelton, Declaration History, 299–302; Burnett, Conti- 2011. nental Congress, 192. [129] “Rare copy of United States Declaration of Independence [102] The U.S. State Department (1911), The Declaration of found in Kew”. The Daily Telegraph. July 3, 2009. Re- Independence, 1776, pp. 10, 11. trieved July 1, 2011. 17

[130] Ann Marie Dube (May 1996). “The Declaration of Inde- [151] McDonald, “Jefferson’s Reputation”, 172. pendence”. A Multitude of Amendments, Alterations and Additions: The Writing and Publicizing of the Declaration [152] McDonald, “Jefferson’s Reputation”, 172, 179. of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the [153] McDonald, “Jefferson’s Reputation”, 179; Maier, Ameri- Constitution of the United States. National Park Service. can Scripture, 168–71. Retrieved July 1, 2011. [154] McDonald, “Jefferson’s Reputation”, 180–84; Maier, [131] Boyd, “Lost Original”, 446. American Scripture, 171. [132] Boyd, Papers of Jefferson, 1:421. [155] Wills, Inventing America, 348. [133] Becker, Declaration of Independence, 142 note 1. Boyd (Papers of Jefferson, 1:427–28) casts doubt on Becker’s [156] Detweiler, “Changing Reputation”, 571–72; Maier, belief that the change was made by Franklin. American Scripture, 175–78.

[134] Boyd, “Lost Original”, 448–50. Boyd argued that if a doc- [157] Detweiler, “Changing Reputation”, 572; Maier, American ument was signed on July 4—which he thought unlikely— Scripture, 175. it would have been the Fair Copy, and probably would [158] Detweiler, “Changing Reputation”, 572; Maier, American have been signed only by Hancock and Thomson. Scripture, 175–76; Wills, Inventing America, 324. See [135] Ritz, “From the Here", speculates that the Fair Copy was also John C. Fitzpatrick, Spirit of the Revolution (Boston immediately sent to the printer so that copies could be 1924). made for each member of Congress to consult during the [159] Maier, American Scripture, 176. debate. All of these copies were then destroyed, theorizes Ritz, to preserve secrecy. [160] Wills, Inventing America, 90.

[136] Armitage, Global History, 87–88; Maier, American Scrip- [161] Armitage, “Global History”, 93. ture, 162, 168–69. [162] Maier, American Scripture, 196–97. [137] McDonald, “Jefferson’s Reputation”, 178–79; Maier, American Scripture, 160. [163] Maier, American Scripture, 197. See also Philip S. Foner, ed., We, the Other People: Alternative Declarations of In- [138] Armitage, Global History, 92. dependence by Labor Groups, Farmers, Woman’s Rights [139] Armitage, Global History, 90; Maier, American Scripture, Advocates, Socialists, and Blacks, 1829–1975 (Urbana 165–67. 1976).

[140] Maier, American Scripture, 167. [164] Maier, American Scripture, 197; Armitage, Global His- tory, 95. [141] Armitage, Global History, 82. [165] Cohen (1969), Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Slav- [142] Georges Lefebvre (2005). The Coming of the French Rev- ery olution. Princeton UP. p. 212. [166] (1) Armitage, Global History, 77. [143] George Athan Billias, ed. (2009). American Constitution- (2) Day, Thomas. Fragment of an original letter on the alism Heard Round the World, 1776-1989: A Global Per- Slavery of the Negroes, written in the year 1776. London: spective. NYU Press. p. 92. Printed for John Stockdale (1784). Boston: Re-printed [144] Susan Dunn, Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, Ameri- by Garrison and Knapp, at the office of "The Liberator" can Light (1999) pp 143-45 (1831). p. 10. Retrieved February 26, 2014. If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American [145] Armitage, Global History, 113. patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his af- [146] Armitage, Global History, 120–35. frighted slaves. At: Internet Archive: The Johns Hopkins [147] Armitage, Global History, 104, 113. University Sheridan Libraries: James Birney Collection of Antislavery Pamphlets. [148] Palley, Claire (1966). The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia 1888–1965, with Special Reference [167] Wyatt-Brown, Lewis Tappan, 287. to Imperial Control (First ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 750. OCLC 406157. [168] Mayer, All on Fire, 53, 115.

[149] Hillier, Tim (1998). Sourcebook on Public International [169] Maier, American Scripture, 198–99. Law (First ed.). London & Sydney: Cavendish Publish- [170] Detweiler, “Congressional Debate”, 598. ing. p. 207. ISBN 1-85941-050-2. [171] Detweiler, “Congressional Debate”, 604. [150] Gowlland-Debbas, Vera (1990). Collective Responses to Illegal Acts in International Law: United Nations action in [172] Detweiler, “Congressional Debate”, 605. the question of Southern Rhodesia (First ed.). Leiden and New York: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 71. ISBN [173] Maier, American Scripture, 199; Bailyn, Ideological Ori- 0-7923-0811-5. gins, 246. 18 11 BIBLIOGRAPHY

[174] Maier, American Scripture, 200. • Boyd, Julian P. The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text. Originally published [175] Maier, American Scripture, 200–01. 1945. Revised edition edited by Gerard W. Gawalt. University Press of New England, 1999. ISBN 0- [176] Maier, American Scripture, 201–02. 8444-0980-4. [177] McPherson, Second American Revolution, 126–27. • Boyd, Julian P., ed. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1. Princeton University Press, 1950. [178] Maier, American Scripture, 204. • Boyd, Julian P. “The Declaration of Independence: [179] Maier, American Scripture, 204–05. The Mystery of the Lost Original”. Pennsylvania [180] “Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865): Political Debates Be- Magazine of History and Biography 100, number 4 tween Lincoln and Douglas 1897, p. 415.”. Bartleby. Re- (October 1976), 438–67. trieved January 26, 2013. • Burnett, Edward Cody. The Continental Congress. [181] Maier, American Scripture, 207. New York: Norton, 1941. • [182] Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, 100. Christie, Ian R. and Benjamin W. Labaree. Empire or Independence, 1760–1776: A British-American [183] Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, 129–31. Dialogue on the Coming of the American Revolution. New York: Norton, 1976. [184] Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, 145. • Detweiler, Philip F. “Congressional Debate on Slav- [185] Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, 147. ery and the Declaration of Independence, 1819– 1821”, American Historical Review 63 (April 1958): [186] Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, 39, 145–46. See also Harry 598–616. in JSTOR V. Jaffa, Crisis of the House Divided (1959) and A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of • Detweiler, Philip F. “The Changing Reputation of the Civil War (2000); Willmoore Kendall and George W. the Declaration of Independence: The First Fifty Carey, The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tra- Years”. William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 19 dition (1970); and M.E. Bradford, “The Heresy of Equal- (1962): 557–74. in JSTOR ity: A Reply to Harry Jaffa” (1976), reprinted in A Bet- ter Guide than Reason (1979) and Modern Age, the First • Dumbauld, Edward. The Declaration of Indepen- Twenty-five Years (1988). dence And What It Means Today. Norman: Univer- sity of Oklahoma Press, 1950. [187] Norton, et al (2010), p. 301. • Ellis, Joseph. American Creation: Triumphs and [188] “Modern History Sourcebook: Seneca Falls: The Decla- Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic. New ration of Sentiments, 1848”. Retrieved October 6, 2014. York: Knopf, 2007. ISBN 978-0-307-26369-8. • Dupont, Christian Y. and Peter S. Onuf, eds. 11 Bibliography Declaring Independence: The Origina and Influence of America’s Founding Document. Revised edition. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Li- Main article: Bibliography of Thomas Jefferson brary, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9799997-1-0. • Ferling, John E. A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to • Armitage, David. The Declaration Of Inde- Create the American Republic. New York: Oxford pendence: A Global History, Cambridge, Mas- University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-515924-1. sachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2007. ISBN • Friedenwald, Herbert. The Declaration of Indepen- 978-0-674-02282-9. dence: An Interpretation and an Analysis. New York: Macmillan, 1904. Accessed via the Internet • Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the Archive. American Revolution. Enlarged edition. Originally published 1967. Harvard University Press, 1992. • Gustafson, Milton. “Travels of the Charters of Free- ISBN 0-674-44302-0. dom”. Prologue Magazine 34, no 4. (Winter 2002). • Becker, Carl. The Declaration of Independence: A • Hamowy, Ronald. “Jefferson and the Scottish En- Study in the History of Political Ideas. 1922. Avail- lightenment: A Critique of Garry Wills’s Inventing able online from The Online Library of Liberty and America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence". Google Book Search. Revised edition New York: William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 36 (Octo- Vintage Books, 1970. ISBN 0-394-70060-0. ber 1979), 503–23. 19

• Hazelton, John H. The Declaration of Independence: • Ritz, Wilfred J. “The Authentication of the En- Its History. Originally published 1906. New York: grossed Declaration of Independence on July 4, Da Capo Press, 1970. ISBN 0-306-71987-8. 1906 1776”. Law and History Review 4, no. 1 (Spring edition available on Google Book Search 1986): 179–204.

• Journals of the Continental Congress,1774–1789, • Ritz, Wilfred J. “From the Here of Jefferson’s Hand- Vol. 5 ( Library of Congress, 1904–1937) written Rough Draft of the Declaration of Indepen- dence to the There of the Printed Dunlap Broad- • Jensen, Merrill. The Founding of a Nation: A His- side”. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biog- tory of the American Revolution, 1763–1776. New raphy 116, no. 4 (October 1992): 499–512. York: Oxford University Press, 1968. • Tsesis, Alexander. For Liberty and Equality: The • Mahoney, D. J. (1986). “Declaration Life and Times of the Declaration of Independence of independence”. Society 24: 46–48. (Oxford University Press; 2012) 397 pages; explores doi:10.1007/BF02695936. the impact on American politics, law, and society • Lucas, Stephen E., “Justifying America: The Decla- since its drafting. ration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document”, • Warren, Charles. “Fourth of July Myths”. The in Thomas W. Benson, ed., American Rhetoric: William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, vol. 2, Context and Criticism, Carbondale, Illinois: South- no. 3 (July 1945): 238–72. JSTOR 1921451. ern Illinois University Press, 1989 • United States Department of State, "The Declara- • Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the tion of Independence, 1776, 1911. Declaration of Independence. New York: Knopf, 1997. ISBN 0-679-45492-6. • Wills, Garry. Inventing America: Jefferson’s Dec- laration of Independence. Garden City, New York: • Malone, Dumas. Jefferson the Virginian. Volume 1 Doubleday, 1978. ISBN 0-385-08976-7. of Jefferson and His Time. Boston: Little Brown, 1948. • Wills, Garry. Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Rewrote America. New York: Simon & Schus- • Mayer, David (2008). “Declaration of Indepen- ter, 1992. ISBN 0-671-76956-1. dence”. In Hamowy, Ronald. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE; Cato • Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. Lewis Tappan and the Institute. pp. 113–5. ISBN 978-1-4129-6580-4. Evangelical War Against Slavery. Cleveland: Press LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024. of Case Western Reserve University, 1969. ISBN 0-8295-0146-0. • Mayer, Henry. All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. New York: St. Mar- tin’s Press, 1998. ISBN 0-312-18740-8. 12 External links • McDonald, Robert M. S. “Thomas Jefferson’s Changing Reputation as Author of the Declaration • “Declare the Causes: The Declaration of Indepen- of Independence: The First Fifty Years”. Journal of dence” lesson plan for grades 9–12 from National the Early Republic 19, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 169– Endowment for the Humanities 95. • Declaration of Independence at the National • McPherson, James. Abraham Lincoln and the Sec- Archives ond American Revolution. New York: Oxford Uni- versity Press, 1991. ISBN 0-19-505542-X. • Declaration of Independence at the Library of Congress • Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789. Revised and ex- • “The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Inde- panded edition. New York: Oxford University pendence” by Stephen E. Lucas Press, 2005. • Short film released in 2002 with actors reading the • Norton, Mary Beth, et al., A People and a Nation, Declaration, with an introduction by Morgan Free- Eighth Edition, Boston, Wadsworth, 2010. ISBN 0- man 547-17558-2. • Mobile-Friendly Declaration of Independence • Rakove, Jack N. The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress. • Various editions of the Declaration of Independence New York: Knopf, 1979. ISBN 0-8018-2864-3. at the Online Books Page 20 12 EXTERNAL LINKS

Loyalist Responses to the Declaration of Independence

• Strictures upon the Declaration of the Congress at Philadelphia (London 1776), Thomas Hutchinson’s reaction to the Declaration • The Loyalist Declaration of Independence pub- lished in The Royal Gazette, (New York) on Novem- ber 17, 1781 (Transcription provided by Bruce Wal- lace and posted on The On-Line Institute for Ad- vanced Loyalist Studies.) 21

13 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

13.1 Text

• United States Declaration of Independence Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence?oldid= 669975735 Contributors: Magnus Manske, RjLesch, Brion VIBBER, Mav, Bryan Derksen, Szopen, Koyaanis Qatsi, Jeronimo, Ed Poor, BenBaker, Andre Engels, XJaM, Rmhermen, SimonP, DavidLevinson, Ellmist, Apollia, Mintguy, Isis~enwiki, Montrealais, Youandme, Hephaestos, Someone else, Rickyrab, Renata, Kchishol1970, Oliver Pereira, Liftarn, Gabbe, SGBailey, Ixfd64, Kalki, (, Minesweeper, Tregoweth, Ahoerstemeier, Stan Shebs, Docu, Abou Ben Adhem, Kevin Baas, LouI, Jiang, Samuel~enwiki, Mxn, Jengod, Etherialem- peror, Agtx, Alex S, Fuzheado, Wik, Timc, DJ Clayworth, Tpbradbury, VeryVerily, Thomasedavis, Thue, HarryHenryGebel, Oaktree b, Bcorr, Eugene van der Pijll, Pollinator, Lumos3, Gentgeen, AlexPlank, Robbot, El Caudillo, Phil R, Naddy, Modulatum, Calmypal, Low- ellian, Mirv, Postdlf, Meelar, LGagnon, Andrew Levine, Hadal, Aetheling, Mushroom, Mattflaschen, Somercet, Matt Gies, DocWatson42, Christopher Parham, Nat Krause, Inter, Nunh-huh, BenFrantzDale, Netoholic, Tom harrison, Wwoods, Everyking, Bkonrad, No Guru, Hans Zarkov, Michael Devore, Gamaliel, Abqwildcat, Cantus, Rick Block, Radius, Pascal666, ElfMage, Bobblewik, Edcolins, Erekrose, Wmahan, MSTCrow, Stevietheman, Xavierlafleur, SoWhy, Andycjp, Alexf, Zeimusu, Quadell, Antandrus, Margana, Piotrus, Elembis, Slartoff, Rdsmith4, JimWae, Anythingyouwant, OwenBlacker, DragonflySixtyseven, Ellsworth, Ganymead, Pmanderson, SimonLyall, Goh wz, Commodore Sloat, Neutrality, Achilles, Willhsmit, Expatkiwi, Wasabe3543, MakeRocketGoNow, Ratiocinate, Adashiel, Trevor MacInnis, Flyhighplato, Rickvaughn, Canterbury Tail, Oskar Sigvardsson, D6, Freakofnurture, Lord Bodak, Ulflarsen, Dcfleck, Moverton, Naryathegreat, Discospinster, Rich Farmbrough, KillerChihuahua, Rhobite, Calion, David Schaich, Stbalbach, Bender235, Gsgeorge, Bom- bcar, Closeapple, Kaisershatner, Ht1848, Kaszeta, Mr. Billion, Fenevad, Cap'n Refsmmat, Easyer, Mwanner, Phoenix Hacker, RoyBoy, Leif, Adambro, Bobo192, Cmdrjameson, Kevin Myers, JW1805, SpeedyGonsales, Joshlmay, MPLX, Kbir1, Runner1928, Patsw, Dan- ski14, Alansohn, Jordan117, Atlant, Rd232, Egil530, Andrewpmk, Ricky81682, Andrew Gray, Calton, Gaytan, SlimVirgin, SonPraises, Hu, Bart133, Kevjudge, Wtmitchell, Cburnett, Stephan Leeds, KapilTagore, Amorymeltzer, Jon Cates, RainbowOfLight, Randy John- ston, Deathphoenix, Cmrabb, GabrielF, LordAmeth, Zereshk, Dan East, Kleinheero, TerminalPreppie, TimMartin, Tom.k, Jef-Infojef, Thryduulf, Hoziron, Joriki, Simetrical, LeeCoursey, Mel Etitis, Woohookitty, Ben Liblit, Jason Palpatine, Sesmith, Guy M, Kosher Fan, Brentdax, Damicatz, Bluemoose, OCNative, Deirdre Golash, Zzyzx11, Marudubshinki, Paxsimius, Plushpuffin, Magister Mathematicae, GoldRingChip, BD2412, Kbdank71, JIP, Canderson7, Crzrussian, Teque5, Stmoose, Rjwilmsi, Tim!, Coemgenus, Ponsard, Koavf, Jake Wartenberg, Wikibofh, Commander, Becket Bowes, Vary, BlueMoonlet, Cuenca, Wahkeenah, Authr, TheRingess, Tawker, Voretus, Jef- frey Henning, Vegaswikian, Chekaz, Tdowling, Ems57fcva, Revenant Lord, The wub, Sango123, Yamamoto Ichiro, Titoxd, Wikiliki, RobertG, Michaelschmatz, Trivial, Nivix, Isotope23, Andy85719, RexNL, Gurch, Leslie Mateus, Wars, Tijuana Brass, Valermos, Roby- Wayne, Czar, Jrtayloriv, TeaDrinker, Fsguitarist, Bmicomp, Themissinglint, Zotel, Utahredrock, BradBeattie, AnnE, Chobot, Tarfu92, Xtine66, Gdrbot, I Use Dial, VolatileChemical, Bgwhite, Shardsofmetal, Manscher, WriterHound, Tone, UkPaolo, Gap, The Rambling Man, YurikBot, Wavelength, Brandmeister (old), Soltras, Epolk, SpuriousQ, Assawyer, Lord Voldemort, Abarry, Morphh, Wimt, Nawl- inWiki, JohnFlaherty, Thepinterpause, Wiki alf, DarthBinky, Jaxl, Megapixie, Rjensen, Taco325i, Howcheng, Seegoon, Retired user- name, Blindwaves, Zephram Stark, El Pollo Diablo, Nick C, Semperf, Bucketsofg, JPMcGrath, Deucalionite, Aaron Schulz, Acerimus- dux, ColdFusion650, Nescio, Tachyon01, BusterD, Gordon J. 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George415, Hoolie21, TomCat4680, RoadRuler33, Codered14, Thedeadlypython, Katalaveno, Incani, Routlej1, Dskluz, Ryan Postleth- waite, Gmchambless1, Trvsdrlng, Gurchzilla, JayJasper, AntiSpamBot, (jarbarf), Vanished User 4517, TomasBat, NewEnglandYankee, Urzadek, Blueshifter, Threeball, SmilesALot, Gothnic, Mufka, Blubber848, Dickrichards, Metallicaguy10, Macdude92, Juliancolton, Cometstyles, WJBscribe, Treisijs, WinterSpw, SkyBoxx, Andy Marchbanks, Useight, Martial75, Scewing, Xiahou, Mentat Tir, RJASE1, Secret lover, Lights, VolkovBot, Hce1132, DagnyB, Fbifriday, DSRH, Science4sail, Hersfold, Jeff G., Indubitably, HeckXX, Tomer T, Station1, Kameyama, Chitrapa, Epson291, Philip Trueman, RPlunk2853, Rhaluska, TXiKiBoT, Buddmar, Jerseysurfer99, Tennis- player556677, Rklahn, Vipinhari, A4bot, Newell Post, Anonymous Dissident, Captain Wikify, Qxz, Someguy1221, Mynameiswill, Re- tiono Virginian, Cloudswrest, Sintaku, Seraphim, Grainey, Yilloslime, Corvus cornix, JhsBot, Mitth'raw'nuruodo, KProkop, LeaveSleaves, UnitedStatesian, Bob f it, Cremepuff222, Gibson Flying V, Esmehwp, Pishogue, 7ladybug15, Maxim, RiverStyx23, Mwilso24, Huzzah for the Shopkeep, Doug, Pious7, Lalahehe123321, Cantiorix, Clintville, Falcon8765, Wystly, Burntsauce, Sylent, Grsz11, Rob Pommer, Suioius, Donnymo, Brianga, Ace1991ace1991, Zarek, Masterofpsi, Supermunchor, EmxBot, Laloks, CMBJ, Guardianangel071, Daa- man23, SortaSean, Goosebumpsadair, SieBot, StAnselm, TCO, 666ninja, Alessgrimal, TJRC, TYLER, Calliopejen1, Spartan, Tiddly Tom, Moonriddengirl, Chad Gerson, Sonyack, Altopher321, Parhamr, Dawn Bard, Caltas, New England, Matttrusselle, Something9162, Lucas- bfrbot, Snake4556, Strongbadman, Mothmolevna, Aleedo, Alannaiscool, Bene26, Tiptoety, Xkfusionxk, Jjbarea, Zounds456, Arbor to SJ, Flibberpash, Trs21219, Coolmaninsan, Baltovacs, Aruton, Oxymoron83, Henry Delforn (old), Baseball Bugs, KPH2293, Lightmouse, Boychild08, 5un555hine, Alobander, ElrondPA, RSStockdale, Orangemike123, Brandonm0720, OKBot, Demlock, Spitfire19, Hotrods 04, Arpitt, Spartan-James, Hubertfarnsworth, Wuhwuzdat, BradMajors, Mygerardromance, Sarahstohr, Tweekedkenny, Pem56, Galactic Explorer, Pika250, Bluz2u, Into The Fray, Randy Kryn, Crazz bug 5, ImageRemovalBot, WikipedianMarlith, Atif.t2, VanishedUser 23as- dsalkaka, Twinsday, Loren.wilton, Ej1225, ClueBot, Avenged Eightfold, RisingSunWiki, The Thing That Should Not Be, EoGuy, Buspar, B. van der Wee, Hult041956, Tanglewood4, Star Garnet, CasualObserver'48, VQuakr, Hailfiredroid, Ironmanxsl, Fitzgettys, Parkwells, Skald1, P. 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