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Declaration
of Independence
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Thomas Jefferson wrote most of the Declaration
of Independence in the early summer of 1776. Its purpose was to announce that
the 13 English colonies in North America had decided to become
independent of England and start their own, new country.
Jefferson used ideas about people and governments that were new in the
1600s and 1700s. One important idea stated in the Declaration of Independence is that "all men are created equal."
Jefferson wrote that God gave rights to people--"Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness"-- and that no one or no government should be able to take those rights
away.
Another idea is that a government gets its power from the
people. This principle is called popular sovereignty. The Declaration of Independence states
that a government gets or derives its power from the people it
rules. If the government
misuses its power, the people have the right to form a new
government.
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Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
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By
the middle of the
1700s, English colonists living in America had set up their own governments
in towns and colonies. They usually made their own laws and chose
the people they wanted to represent them. In 1760, King George III
became the ruler of Great Britain and decided to take more control of the
colonies. King George and the English Parliament passed taxes
and laws that the colonists hated and felt were unfair. |
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In 1774, a group
of colonial leaders met (the First Continental
Congress) and wrote a letter to the king declaring they were
loyal subjects and asking him to let them elect their own leaders and make
their own laws. King George ignored the colonists' complaints
and said the colonies were in rebellion.
The
colonists felt that England and the king had abused their power. And
as the Declaration of Independence states, when this happens to people,
"It is their right, their duty, to throw off such
Government."
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The signing of the Declaration of Independence
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Each of the 13
colonies sent representatives to a meeting in Philadelphia, called the
Second Continental Congress. On July 4, 1776, these 56 delegates
signed and adopted the Declaration of Independence. |
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