<\/p>\n
We hear frequent references to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the U.S., yet few of us have ever read either document in its entirety. Almost everyone knows that the Declaration declared the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but very few know the reasons given in that document for declaring those rights at all.<\/p>\n
This program now offers an opportunity to spread some information about these precious documents in our nation’s history. So let us first note the events that led up to the declaration of July 4, 1776. By’1765 the American colonies, especially Massachusetts and Virginia, were complaining bitterly about oppressive acts of the British government under King George III. The first act to meet intense opposition was the Quartering Act of 1764, declaring British right to house troops in the home of any colonist. Then came,the Townsend Act of 1770, declaring the right of Parliament to pass any laws it pleased concerning the colonies, and to impose colonial taxes and import duties at its discretion. Then came the tax on tea, favorite beverage of all Britishers on both sides of the Atlantic. That led to an open act of violence, the Boston Tea Party. That occurred in 1773, but three years earlier in 1770 the posting of British troops in Boston had led to the Boston Massacre resulting in the death of four Americans. Soon afterward came the Stamp Act, requiring payment of a fee to place a legal stamp on deeds, wills, and similar documents. Most distressing of all were the Coercion Acts, the most notorious of which was closing the port of Boston to all colonial commerce.<\/p>\n
Resistance to these actions of Parliament had become public as early as 1769 when the Virginia House of Burgesses declared that only its colonial legislature had authority to levy taxes in that colony. A resolution was passed against further importation of British goods. By the summer of 1770, eight other colonies had passed similar non-importation acts. There was no confederation, no concerted action. Each separate colony acted on its own.<\/p>\n
In 1770 Massachusetts set up a plan called Committees of Correspondence, whereby each town in the province was asked to appoint such a local committee to keep in touch with the central government in Boston on matters of British oppression. Among Maine towns quick to respond was the town of Winslow, in which Waterville was then included. The first call for concerted action came from Rhode Island, asking for a meeting of representatives from all the colonies to deal with the situation. That resulted in the First Continental Congress, held late in 1774 in Philadelphia. All the colonies except Georgia sent representatives. That Congress declared a number of parliamentary acts to be in violation of inherent British rights to which the colonists as true Britishers laid equal claim with people living in England, and the Congress imposed sanctions on British goods until the offensive acts should be repealed.<\/p>\n
Then in April, 1775, came the fighting at Lexington and Concord. British officers quartered in Boston learned that the provincial militia companies were gathering and storing arms at various points in the province, some of them at Concord. Decision to send the British troops to seize the Concord munitions caused the midnight ride of Paul Revere,assembling the colonial Minutemen, and bringing on the subsequent fighting.<\/p>\n
Within a month of that fatal 19th of April the Second Continental Congress had assembled, again in Philadelphia. and at once voted to put the new confederated colonies in a state of defense. By June 1775, the militiamen gathered at Cambridge had been formed into a Continental Army under George Washington. The Congress set up a plan of army organization and ordered six infantry companies from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to proceed at once to Cambridge and join Washington’s command.<\/p>\n
Before the spring of 1776 all aC.ts of the Continental Congress had been made with the intent of securing rights as loyal British subjects, with no mention of becoming independent from Britain. But by that spring, Massachusetts was so thoroughly aroused that Samuel Adams had gained the support of Patrick Henry of Virginia to urge the Congress to declare colonial independence.<\/p>\n
On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee. a delegate from Virginia, introduced into the Continental Congress a resolution declaring the colonies to be free and independent states. The resolution contained the words “united colonies,” the first time that phrase had ever been included in a public document. A committee was appointed to draft a declaration. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman. These five selected Jefferson to write the initial draft.<\/p>\n
On July 1, 1776, the Congress, sitting as a committee of the whole, voted, not on the declaration, but on the Lee resolution to declare independence. ” Georgia was not represented. The result was ten votes for independence, Pennsylvania and South Carolina were opposed, and New York abstained. The next day Pennsylvania and South Carolina changed their votes to Yes, putting 12 of the 13 colonies on record for independence.<\/p>\n
On July 3 the draft prepared by Jefferson came before the Congress. Lengthy discussion resulted in several changes in the text, the most memorable of which was changing the words in the preamble “life, liberty and property” to “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” The next day, July 4, 1776, saw the vote on the declaration. It was approved by twelve colonies, New York abstaining again; but later that colony also gave its approval.<\/p>\n
Now let us see what the Declaration of Independence actually said and did. It did not establish the United States of America. It declared the 13 colonies to be separate free and independent states. In effect that declared those colonies to be 13 separate” nations. That does not mean that some kind of union was not in the minds of the congressional delegates, but they were not yet ready to express it in form of a public declaration.<\/p>\n
Now in 1982, when there is such lively controversy concerning the separation of church and state, it is worth noting that the Declaration of Independence was firmly based on religious conviction. It declared that the self-evident rights of life,liberty and pursuit of happiness had been given to all mankind by their Creator, and thus used the phrase “the Nation and the Nation’s God.”<\/p>\n
Between its preamble and its conclusion the Declaration sets forth in long detail the reasons why independence from Britain is declared. It cited many oppressive acts by the British government. Those acts had actually been made by Parliament on recommendation of the Prime Minister, but since the acts required royal approval, and parliament was considered as acting in the name of the King, the Declaration declared the
\ncolonial grievances to be against King George III. The King had not allowed the colonies to levy their own taxes; he had placed troops in certain colonial towns; he had plundered colonial goods; ravished the coast; burned towns; and destroyed lives of citizens. Worst of all, the King had denied to colonists their God-given rights.<\/p>\n
It is often said that the American Revolution was waged on the issue of “Taxation without representation,” yet the only reference to taxation in the Declaration is a single clause in a long paragraph listing a dozen offenses.<\/p>\n
Most people have never known that the Declaration contained a statement about the Indians. It said: “The King has endeavored to bring against us the merciless Indian savages, whose rule of warfare makes no distinction among all ages and sexes.” Just once does the Declaration refer to anyone in Britain except the King. It says: “Nor have we been wanting in appeal to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of repeated attempts of their legislature to extend unwarranted jurisdiction over us. They have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must therefore declare them to be enemies in war, but in peace friends.”<\/p>\n
Now let us examine that phrase “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” When making the original draft, Jefferson was never quite content with the addition of “property” to “life and liberty,” insisted upon by John Adams, but for the sake of harmony he consented to its inclusion in the draft submitted to the Continental Congress. In the congressional discussion there arose much opposition to that word “property,” especially from the Virginia delegation. Several substitutes were suggested, none of which met with sufficient approval. James Madison finally suggested the words, “pursuit of happiness”as a compromise. To some people happiness might mean possession of property, thus satisfying Adams’ supporters; while to others it might have a less mundane and more spiritual meaning. Thus the Congress voted to strike out the word “property” and put in its place “pursuit of happiness.”<\/p>\n
For more than 200 years arguments have been battered around as to what the Declaration means by “happiness.” Of course it did not declare happiness as a right. The inherent right was the pursuit of it, the right to strive for it. But what was it that people had a right to strive for?<\/p>\n
Regardless of the intended inclusion of possession of worldly goods as a kind of happiness, high-minded idealists among the founding fathers insisted that its fundamental meaning was the possession of a clear conscience, free from pangs of guilt and remorse. Can we not agree today that to pursue that goal is every person’s inalienable right?<\/p>\n
The closing paragraph of the Declaration does indeed mention the possibility of some kind of united nation, despite the whole document’s insistence on separate, independent states. The statement says: ‘We, therefore. representatives of the united states of America, in Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies. solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states.<\/p>\n
That concludes our remarks on the Declaration of Independence. Next week we shall turn to the document that made those thirteen colonies a united nation: the Constitution of the United States of America.<\/p>\n
Year: 1982<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1310, Broadcast on April 18, 1982<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35294,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}