Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence,formal proclamation of the 13 colonies, announcing their separation from Great Britain, was adopted July 4, 1776. In the second Continental Congress on June 7, Richard Henry Lee, a Virginia delegate, proposed a resolution of independence, and four days later Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston were appointed as a committee to draft the declaration. The actual writing was done by Jefferson, although corrections were made by Franklin, Adams, and the Congress at large. The document is based on the natural-rights theory of government, derived from Locke and 18th-century French philosophers, and proclaims that the function of government is to guarantee the inalienable rights with which men are endowed. These include “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The declaration contended that, since George III had willfully violated these rights, revolution was justifiable and necessary. The document was...
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