What is America? How to Read the Declaration

The Lead-up to the Declaration

Read the Declaration HERE.

On July 2nd, 1776 the states' deligates in the Continental Congress voted in the affirmative to become independent from Great Britain. On July 4th, the Congress voted to adopt and issue The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America explaining the reason for this separation.

But long before Congress's votes on July 2nd and July 4th, America had been at war with Great Britain. As both the Declaration of Causes (1775) and the Declaration of Independence (1776) describe, the King had impressed American sailors (merchants, primarily) into his navy, quartered troops in the homes of British subjects in America, plundered "our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns," and hired mercenaries to complete the works of "death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun..."

The war against Great Britain had begun more than a year earlier on April 19th, 1775 with the battle at Lexington and Concord. Suffolk County, Massachusetts had nullified the Massachusetts Government Act (May, 1774) with the passage of their own Suffolk Resolves (September, 1774)––Resolves later gaining the approval of the First Continental Congress.

In February, 1775 the King declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion and sent some 700 Regulars to put down the rebellion. But after a seeming British victory at Concord, the 700 British troops found themselves routed and harassed by gunfire all the way back to Boston, and surrounded by 15,000 American militiamen.

A petty rebellion had sparked a total war.

On June 14th, 1775 the Second Congress created the Continental Army and made Washington its commander-in-chief. Between the battle of Lexington and Concord and the approval of the Declaration on July 4th, 1776, Americans had engaged in more than 30 military conflicts with British forces.

So the grievances listed in the Declaration not only recount the King's civil offenses over the last two decades, but the very recent military offenses that had occurred over the last year. The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (1775) passed by the Second Congress––and also authored by Jefferson––is proof of that. As the Declaration of Causes explains:

His [General Gage] troops have butchered our countrymen; have wantonly burnt Charlestown, besides a considerable number of houses in other places; our ships and vessels are seized; the necessary supplies of provisions are intercepted, and he is exerting his utmost power to spread destruction and devastation around him.

Despite the devastation described in the Declaration of Causes in 1775, Americans still weren't ready to secede. They had declared a state of war with Great Britain, but still sought a peaceful resolution...

Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and fellow-subjects in any part of the Empire, we assure them that we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored.

As the war raged on, Americans realized a peaceful resolution was impossible, and that they would need to win the war outright. But such an outcome would require more than unity among the states––it would require outside help...

The Structure of the Declaration

Read the Declaration HERE.

After a year of war with Great Britain, America desperately needed foreign aid. Who better to petition, then, than Britain's greatest enemy, France?

To gain the support of France, the Americans understood that while a few colonies had already ratified their own constitutions and issued their own declarations of independence (Virginia and Maryland), America would need to present a united front. France was only interested in aiding a military conflict against Great Britain if the Americans had a fighting chance––meaning every state would need to declare its independence.

After the states' delegates voted to declare independence on July 2nd, 1776, a Five Man Committee was assembled to draft a document explaining this new legal situation. Those five men were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson. The committee voted unanimously to delegate the task of drafting a declaration to Jefferson.

Below is the Declaration in its final form. It is organized clearly into five parts: the preamble, the premises, the evidence, the defense, and the legal declaration.

The Declaration begins with a statement on why the Declaration is necessary. This is the preamble.

The second paragraph––for which the Declaration is most well-known––declares the Rights of the People, and emphasizes their right to alter or abolish a government when a long train of abuses makes the proper ends of government unattainable. This paragraph contains the premises that justify the colonies' and states' separation from Great Britain.

The third paragraph lists the long train of abuses. Eighteen, in fact (or twenty-eight, depending on how you count them). Indeed, most of the Declaration is an account of the King's "repeated injuries and usurpations." Blame is cast upon him, specifically, because he is the chief representative of the government, and because he did nothing to veto Parliament's abuses when he could have, and actively engaged in oppressing the colonies through both his decrees and foreign policy. This paragraph presents the evidence that Great Britain has violated (or satisfied) the premises set forth in paragraph two.

The fourth paragraph defends Americans' actions by explaining that they had petitioned their king and countrymen repeatedly, but were given no course for redress. Its point is to demonstrate that America had dutifully pursued all possible avenues of recourse, and that this was their last resort. The Americans conclude that they have been abandoned by not only their King, but also their countrymen in Britain. These facts, therefore, justify what Americans will do next...

The final paragraph declares that the colonies "are, and by Right ought to be Free and Independent States..." That they are absolved from "all Allegiance to the British Crown," and all political connection with the "State of Great Britain." This is where the legal force of the document comes from. It creates the legal situation that all the previous paragraphs attempt to justify. As the only legally operative part of the document, it is the most important for understanding what the Declaration is actually trying to do.

Thus, with the publication and signing of this document, it is said that America was born; that July 4th marks the beginning of the United States, and the birth of a nation; that America announced to the world a revolutionary new way of governing.

All––and I mean all––of that is wrong and un-American.

How to Read the Declaration: The Founding of the United States?

Why doesn't the Declaration mark the founding of the United States?

Our first clue is the title. Here it is in the original, with all the capitalization preserved:

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

As was fashionable at the time, nouns were capitalized (although mistakes in the application of this rule were frequent). 'Declaration', 'States' and 'America' are all capitalized according to this rule. However, note that 'united' is lowercase. 'United' is an adjective, so had it been capitalized, the 'united States of America' would be a proper noun referring to a definite thing. But it doesn't refer to a definite thing––not yet, anyway.

What 'united' actually does here is describe a state of affairs: the States of America are "in agreement" on this Declaration, and "joined" together in a common cause. That cause was the cause of actively defending the colonies' declaration that they were now free and independent states separate from Great Britain.

Contrast this use of 'united' with America's first federal constitution, the Articles of Confederation, which reads:

The Stile of this confederacy shall