We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - US Declaration of Independence
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring monument. Here, in exalted and unforgettable phrases, Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people. The political philosophy of the Declaration was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed by John Locke and the Continental philosophers. What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in "self-evident truths" and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country. - US National Archives
Y/M/D | Association | Description | Place | Locale | Food | Event | |
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1776/06/07 | Benjamin Harrison V | Signer, Representing Virginia | Benjamin Harrison introduces Richard Henry Lee's resolution calling for independence from England. | Independence Hall | Philadelphia, PA | ||
1776/06/28 | Thomas Jefferson | Author | Thomas Jefferson writes the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, June 11 - 28 | The Declaration House | Philadelphia, PA | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |
1776/07/01 | Benjamin Harrison V | Signer, Representing Virginia | Benjamin Harrison reads Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence to the assembled delegates. | Independence Hall | Philadelphia, PA | ||
1776/07/02 | Benjamin Harrison V | Signer, Representing Virginia | Benjamin Harrison serves as Chairman of the Whole during the debate over independence. | Independence Hall | Philadelphia, PA | ||
1776/07/02 | Richard Henry Lee | Author | Congress votes in favor of Richard Henry Lee's motion for independence from Britain | Independence Hall | Philadelphia, PA | Second Continental Congress | |
1776/07/02 | John Rogers | Represented Maryland | Congress votes in favor of Richard Henry Lee's motion for independence from Britain | Independence Hall | Philadelphia, PA | Second Continental Congress | |
1776/07/04 | Late morning of July 4, the Declaration is adopted, and the "Committee of Five" take the manuscript copy of the document to John Dunlap, official printer to the Congress | Independence Hall | Philadelphia, PA | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/07/09 | Declaration of Independence is read from the foot of the steeple tower of Christ Episcopal Church | Christ Episcopal Church | New Brunswick, NJ | ||||
1776/07/09 | Capt Oliver Brown | Patriot Officer | After the Declaration of Independence is read on the Common, Sons of Liberty move to Bowling Green where Capt Brown's men tear down the statue of King George III. Fence post finials still retain saw marks were the cast-iron crowns were cut off. | Bowling Green Fence and Park | New York City | ||
1776/07/18 | John Quincy Adams | Witness | Two boys, John Q Adams and William Cranch, about ages 8 and 10, wish to see Sheriff William Greenleaf read the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the State House. Much to their delight, two gentlemen raise them on their shoulders. | Old State House | Boston | ||
1776/07/18 | William Greenleaf | Work | Sheriff William Greenleaf proclaims the Declaration of Independence to Bostonians from the balcony of the State House which is received with great joy, expressed by three huzzas from the great concourse of people assembled for the occasion. | Old State House | Boston | ||
1776/07/18 | Joseph Winter | Secretary, Committee for the City of New-York | Joseph Winter reads the Declaration of Independence to the people of New York City while the Kings Arms are torn from the front of the City Hall. | Federal Hall National Memorial | New York City | ||
1776/07/20 | Robert Morris | Patriot | I have uniformly voted against and opposed the Declaration of Independence, because, in my poor opinion, it was an improper time, and will neither promote the interest nor redound to the honour of America.... Robert Morris letter to Joseph Reed | Lemon Hill | Philadelphia, PA | ||
1776/08/02 | Robert Treat Paine | Signer, Representing Massachusetts | Massachusetts Representative Robert Treat Paine signs the American Declaration of Independence. | Independence Hall | Philadelphia, PA | ||
1776/08/02 | Dr Benjamin Rush | Signer, Represented Pennsylvania | Rush signs the Declaration of Independence: awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress, to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants? | ||||
1776/08/02 | Elbridge Gerry | Signer, Representing Massachusetts | Mr Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes..., but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead. - BH to Elbridge Gerry | Independence Hall | Philadelphia, PA | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |
1776/08/02 | Robert Morris | Signer, Representing Pennsylvania | Although originally opposed to separating from Great Britain, Robert Morris signs the Declaration of Independence. | Independence Hall | Philadelphia, PA | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |
1776/08/02 | Benjamin Harrison V | Signer, Representing Virginia | Mr Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes..., but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead. - BH to Elbridge Gerry | Independence Hall | Philadelphia, PA | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |
1776/08/02 | Thomas Jefferson | Signer, representing Virginia | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Roger Sherman | Signer, representing Connecticut | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Lewis Morris, Patriot | Signer, Representing New York | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Thomas Heyward Jr | Signer, Representing South Carolina | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | William Ellery | Signer, Representing Rhode Island | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Abraham Clark | Signer, Representing New Jersey | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | George Wythe | Signer, Representing Virginia | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Arthur Middleton | Signer, representing South Carolina | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Button Gwinnett | Signer, representing Georgia | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Charles Carroll of Carrollton | Signer, Representing Maryland | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Philip Livingston | Signer, representing New York | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Edward Rutledge | Signer, representing South Carolina | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | William A Floyd | Delegate from New York | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | William Williams | Signer, representing Connecticut | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Lyman Hall | Signer, representing Georgia | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Richard Stockton I | Represented New Jersey | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | George Read | Signer, representing Delaware | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Samuel Chase | Signer, Representing Maryland | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Thomas Stone | Signer, Representing Maryland | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | William Whipple | Signer, representing New Hampshire | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Oliver Wolcott | Signer, representing Connecticut | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | George Clymer | Signer, Representing Pennsylvania | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | George Walton | Signer, representing Georgia | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Samuel Huntington, Patriot | Signer Representing Connecticut | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | John Witherspoon | Signer, Representing New Jersey | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Francis Lightfoot Lee | Signer, representing Virginia | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | William Paca | Signer representing Maryland | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Francis Hopkinson | Signers, Representing New Jersey | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/08/02 | Thomas Nelson Jr | Signer, Representing Virginia | Most delegates sign the Declaration of Independence | American Colonies Declare Independence from Great Britain | |||
1776/09/04 | Richard Henry Lee | Signer, representing Virginia | Richard Henry Lee and Oliver Wilcott sign the Declaration of Independence | ||||
1776/11/15 | Matthew Thornton | Signer, Representing New Hampshire | Matthew Thornton signs the Declaration of Independence | ||||
1781/00/00 | Thomas McKean signs the Declaration of Independence | ||||||
1826/07/04 | Thomas Jefferson | Died | Thomas Jefferson dies at Monticello on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, just a few hours before John Adams. | Monticello | Charlottesville, VA | 50th Anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence | |
1852/07/05 | Frederick Douglass | Speaker | I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation's destiny - so, indeed, I regard it.... Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. FD | ||||
1962/09/12 | Martin Luther King Jr | Speaker | If our nation had done nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its contribution to civilization would be imperishable. The first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence - MLK, Emancipation Proclamation Centennial | Park Central Hotel NYC | New York City | ||
1962/09/12 | Martin Luther King Jr | Speaker | We seldom take note or give adequate significance to the fact that Thomas Jeffersons text of the Declaration of Independence was revised by the Continental Congress to eliminate a justifiable attack on King George for encouraging slave trade - MLK, EPC | Park Central Hotel NYC | New York City |
By
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. 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 refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of 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 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 that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. 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.
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