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When in course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and
to assume among the powers of the earth, he the separate and equal station
to witch the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle, them a decent
respect to the opinions of man kind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation.
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#1: In United States history, a document proclaiming the independence of the 13 British colonies in America, Adopted by the continental Congress on July4, 1776. The Declaration recounted the grievances of the colonies against the British crown and declared the colonies to be free and independent states. The Proclamation of Independence marked the culmination of a political process that had begun as a protest against oppressive restrictions imposed by the mother country on colonial trade, manufacturing, and political liberty and had developed into a revolutionary struggle resulting in the establishment of a new nation. After the United States was established, the statement of grievances in the declaration ceased to have any but historic significance. The political Philosophy enunciated in the declaration, however, had a continuing influence on political developments in America and Europe for Many years. It served as a source of authority for the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.
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#2: Assembly
of delegates from nine of the American colonies, convened in October 1765
at New York City to protest Against the Stamp Act. Held in response to
an invitation sent to all 13 colonies by Massachusetts, the Congress comprised
representatives of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, and South Carolina. The delegates expressed
the opposition of the colonist to the oppressive Stamp Act in three documents:
a Declaration of Rights and grievances, an address to the king, and a group
of petitions to both houses of the British Parliament. Although the congress
recognize the authority of parliament, its petitions where refused for
formal consideration by the house Commons as
coming from unauthorized body.
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#3: Congress
directed that copies be sent 'to the Assemblies, Conventions, and
committees or
councils of safety, and to the
several commanding officers of the continental troops, that it be proclaimed
in each of the United States and at head of the army." Upon organization
of the National government in 1789, the Declaration of Independence was
assigned for safekeeping to the department of State. It was deposit in
the Patent Office, then a bureau of the Department of state; in 1877 it
was returned to the state Department. Because of the rapid fading of the
text
and the deterioration of the parchment,
the document was withdrawn from exhibition in 1894. With other historic
American documents, it is enshrined in the National Archives Exhibition
Hall, Washington D.C., and is sealed in a glass and bronze case filled
with inert helium gas.
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#4: The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, safeguarding fundamental individual rights against usurpation by the federal government and prohibiting interference with existing rights. The precedents for these stipulations came from three separate English documents: the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the Declaration of Rights. Virginia, in 1776 and Massachusetts, in 1780, had incorporated bills of rights into their original constitution, and these two states, with New York and Pennsylvania, refused to ratify the new federal Constitution unless it was amended to protect the individual. In 1790, submitted 12 amendments, 10 of witch were adopted in 1791 as Articles I through X.
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#5: On July2 Congress approved the Lee resolution. The delegates then began to debate Jefferson's draft. A few passages, including one condemning King George for encouraging the slave trade, were removed. Most other changes dealt with style. On July4, Congress adopted the final draft of the Declaration of Independence.
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#6: Great
Job you have finally reached the end! John Hancock and his Followers
have signed the Declaration of Independence ,which gave America it's freedom!
J.T. Howard & Philip Olson