America at 250: Reflecting on the Declaration of Independence

“We must, indeed, all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”— Ben Franklin, 1776

Today, as Americans enjoy BBQs, parades, baseball games and time off from work, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Americans should reflect with pride on the history and sacrifices that were made by our Founding Fathers. Whereas many Americans may believe that there was a unified opposition against the British, the words of Franklin carry a great deal of weight toward independence, as only a third of the colonial population supported breaking away from the King and Parliament. The Loyalists and the Patriots, especially here on Long Island, had conflicting views over disunion that were apparent from 1775-1783.

Thomas Jefferson was a quiet, brilliant and determined leader who presented the written feelings of “resentment” toward the incessant taxation that was absorbed by the colonists from 1763-1775. He captured the feelings of Americans who opposed the British troop presence in colonial homes and daily life, the lack of political representation in London, the use of the Writs of Assistance, and the hostilities surrounding the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre. Not as boisterous as his fellow Virginian Patrick Henry, Jefferson was a brilliant writer who utilized his pen like a “sword” to create the “Declaration of Independence” and strike at the heart of the British Empire. He addressed numerous “grievances” to demonstrate the unwillingness of the British hierarchy to listen to the concerns of their own subjects and its willingness to blindly utilize its power from thousands of miles away in London. Most of these British leaders never observed life in America, where colonists from New York, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia and Richmond had vastly different lives than those of British representatives from Birmingham, Gloucester and Surrey.

It was Jefferson’s task to present American ideals of freedom not only to the British government, but also to sway neutral Americans and Loyalist populations to oppose England. By 1776, Jefferson was highly regarded for his brilliance in expressing his opinion toward the path of independence. From his younger years of being educated at boarding school and the College of William & Mary, Jefferson succeeded in mathematics, philosophy, science and literature. Jefferson also surely learned about the European figures of the Enlightenment who expressed the necessity of establishing government for the people, especially John Locke’s notions of “Natural Rights,” which were utilized in the Declaration of Independence to present the importance of government protecting, rather than exploiting, its own people for financial gain.

Another writer at this time who supported the views of Jefferson was British immigrant Thomas Paine. He quickly observed that the colonies were noticeably different from each other economically, socially, politically and geographically. Paine’s 47-page pamphlet Common Sense struck a chord with many colonists, pushed uncertain ones toward the Patriot cause and created a powerful argument against the British and Loyalists. Americans from all sides of the Revolutionary War read Paine’s work on the necessity of breaking away through the words, “the sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. ’Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent—of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. ’Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.”

During the influx of major taxation from 1763-1775, Jefferson increased his studies of the law, where he connected the consistently “unfair” financial actions to the cause of independence. Jefferson’s father, Peter, died in 1757. He owned 7,000 acres of land in Virginia and, like the later efforts of his son, led the local militia, was a surveyor, and served as a politician within the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1769-1774. He was also a key leader in the “Committee of Correspondence.” At these pressured moments, tragedy struck Jefferson as his mother passed away. Jefferson’s work, A Summary View of the Rights of British America, presented to colonists in 1774, elevated his stature among his peers.

During these trying times, hostilities already existed through fighting in New England between the Patriots and Redcoats. As the Continental Congress and Jefferson debated, British Lieutenant General Thomas Gage, off the shore of Boston, ordered his soldiers, “You will seize and destroy all artillery, ammunition, provisions, tents, small arms, and all military stores whatever. But you will take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property.”

Another Virginian who sought independence was Richard Henry Lee, whose address to the Second Continental Congress came on June 7, 1776. Whereas limited fighting engulfed the colonies, there were still sentiments that every effort should be made to find a peaceful resolution with the King and Parliament. As the New England congressional delegates were labeled the fiercest, the Virginians made their own mark as the dominant Southern colony advocating for freedom.

At this point 250 years ago, the nation was ripe for revolution against the powerful authority of the British Empire. Lee utilized the increasingly harsh feelings against the Crown to express that it was time for Americans to free themselves from the King, gain foreign military and economic aid, and eventually govern their own people. A major proponent of independence, Lee told his congressional peers, “[T]hese 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.” New York briefly abstained, and it was not until July 9 that the colony agreed to separation. Even as they anxiously waited, Congress appointed George Washington as commander of the Continental Army, a position he accepted without pay. Washington was a respected military figure from his service during the French and Indian War, a wealthy colonist, a surveyor, a plantation and slave owner, and an officer with no experience commanding a military endeavor of this scale.

On July 1, Congress met again, and 12 of the 13 colonies agreed with Lee’s beliefs to push for a public declaration of independence that would be read by all the people. These words created enough fervor for Congress to mandate an official directive to the British government that the colonies no longer considered themselves part of the empire. Jefferson headed the committee that included John Adams (Massachusetts), Roger Sherman (Connecticut), Benjamin Franklin (Pennsylvania) and Robert R. Livingston (New York). While Jefferson was the only Southerner, he led the way in creating this legendary document, although alterations were quickly made by members of Congress. Among the most recognizable were the omission of any direct resolution of the rights and future of enslaved people, an issue later addressed only in the Constitution through the Three-Fifths Compromise. A meticulous man, Jefferson watched as about 20 percent of the Declaration of Independence was changed to reflect what Congress believed should be presented to the American people, King George III and Parliament.