Our wonderful country was born in
1776. On July 4th, to be exact. So what exactly happened on that historic
day? Well, that’s when delegates of the thirteen original colonies
approved the Declaration of Independence, which is, along with the United
States Constitution, one of the two founding documents of our nation.
The Declaration of Independence can
be divided into three main parts. The first part is
a statement of individual rights. This part is very famous. You may
have heard or seen this before:
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.
The second part
is a list of grievances against the King of England, George III. This
is basically a list of all the reasons the American colonists were angry
at the British government and King. They didn’t like certain laws
that were passed, such as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Act; they
didn’t like that they had to pay taxes without sending representatives
to the British government; they didn’t like that the King felt
that he could ignore or alter the colonial governments; and they were
really upset that the King was trying to force them, with the help of
hired armies, to obey him.
The final part of the Declaration
comes logically from the first two. It is a formal declaration of Independence.
It separates the colonial governments from the British government and
the colonial people from the British people. It basically says “we
are now our own country and our own people.”
All of this happened in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, where the Continental Congresses met. A “Committee
of Five” was assigned to write the Declaration. These men were
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and
Roger Sherman. Jefferson actually wrote most of it and the others helped
him revise it.
July 4th is special because that’s
when Congress approved the declaration, which means the United States
of America was born. July 4th was not really the day that everyone –
56 delegates from the 13 colonies - signed it. We’re actually
not sure exactly when everyone signed it, but most probably did so in
August. And do you know why we use the expression “John Hancock”
as another word for “signature?” Well, John Hancock was
the President of the Second Continental Congress, and his large and
fancy signature appears on the Declaration.
