The Road to Independence

Common Sense (1776)

Thomas Paine had arrived from England only in late 1774. He published Common Sense as an anonymous pamphlet in January 1776. It was written in plain, forceful language for ordinary readers, and it spread through the colonies in huge numbers, read aloud in taverns and camps. Many colonists still hoped to reconcile with Britain. Paine argued for immediate independence and a republican government.

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one."

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

"There is something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island."

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Main arguments

• Monarchy and hereditary succession are unnatural and unjustified.
• It is absurd for a distant island to govern a continent. America's interests lie in independence and free trade.
• Reconciliation is impossible after bloodshed. The time for independence is now.
• Americans should create a republic in which "the law is king."

Significance: Common Sense moved public opinion toward independence months before the Declaration. It shows the power of the press and of persuasive writing in a free society.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

Drafted mainly by George Mason and adopted by the Virginia Convention on June 12, 1776, it was the first American state bill of rights adopted by an elected convention. It stated natural rights and principles of government:

"That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

Virginia Declaration of Rights, Section 1

It also declared that power is derived from the people and that magistrates are their "trustees and servants." It affirmed the right to reform or abolish a bad government and the separation of powers. It protected jury trials, barred excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishments, condemned general warrants, called freedom of the press "one of the great bulwarks of liberty," and endorsed the "free exercise of religion."

Influence: Jefferson drew on it for the Declaration of Independence, which followed weeks later. Madison used it as a key model for the U.S. Bill of Rights. It also influenced other state constitutions and France's 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man.

The Declaration of Independence (1776)

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." Congress appointed a Committee of Five to draft a declaration: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson wrote the draft. Congress voted for independence on July 2 and adopted the edited Declaration on July 4, 1776.

Its four parts

1. Introduction: "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind" requires explaining the causes of separation.
2. Statement of principles (the philosophical core):

   "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."

3. List of grievances against King George III (27 in all). Examples: "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent"; "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury"; keeping "Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures"; "quartering large bodies of armed troops among us." The king is called "a Tyrant … unfit to be the ruler of a free people."
4. Conclusion: the colonies "are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States," and the signers "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Influences

• Enlightenment philosophy, especially John Locke: natural rights, consent of the governed, the right of revolution.
• English tradition: the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights (lists of grievances against a monarch).
• The Virginia Declaration of Rights and Common Sense.

What it did and did not do

The Declaration announced independence and justified it. It did not create a government; that came with the Articles of Confederation. Its principles of natural rights, equality, and consent are the foundation that the Constitution was built to secure.

The Declaration and the Expansion of Civil Rights

"All men are created equal" was not true in law in 1776. Over time, however, Americans excluded from its promise used its words to demand inclusion:

• Abolitionists cited it against slavery. In "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" (1852), Frederick Douglass praised the Declaration's principles and condemned the hypocrisy of slavery.
• Seneca Falls (1848): the Declaration of Sentiments, drafted largely by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, copied the Declaration's form: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal."
• Abraham Lincoln called the Declaration's equality principle central to the nation. The Gettysburg Address (1863) begins "Four score and seven years ago," dating the nation's birth to 1776, and describes a nation "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
• Martin Luther King Jr. in "I Have a Dream" (1963) called the Declaration and Constitution a "promissory note" and quoted "all men are created equal."

The Declaration is thus both a founding document and a continuing standard by which Americans judge their laws.