The Declaration of Independence | A250 Mini Documentary
The fight for American independence didn't begin with the Declaration of Independence. Even after the first battles of the Revolutionary War, many colonists still hoped to remain part of the British Empire. But as the war intensified and support for independence grew, the question facing the colonies became impossible to ignore: Should America remain under British rule or become its own nation?
Fueled by the ideas of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the leadership of figures like John Adams and Richard Henry Lee, the Second Continental Congress took the first steps toward independence. A committee led by Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, and on July 4, 1776, Congress adopted the document that announced the birth of a new nation. Its principles of equality, natural rights, and self-government would go on to inspire generations of Americans and continue shaping debates about freedom today.
This A250 Mini Documentary is part of a video series presented by the Bill of Rights Institute in honor of America’s 250th anniversary. From the founding moments to movements that shaped our national identity, the A250 series highlights the pivotal people, ideas, and events that have defined the American experiment over the past two and a half centuries.
0:06 In the
0:06 mid 1830s, two conflicting resolutions were introduced in the Congress.
0:11 One was bent on freedom.
0:14 The other sought to protect the institution of slavery.
0:18 The resolutions represented the sectional divide
0:21 over slavery and its expansion in the West.
0:25 They also demonstrated that the contradiction of slavery
0:28 and freedom in America had not yet been resolved.
0:33 One unlikely representative, former President
0:36 John Quincy Adams, was about to confront slavery directly.
0:41 In December 1835.
0:43 Massachusetts Representative William Jackson
0:46 introduced a petition from citizens to end slavery
0:50 and the slave trade in the Federal District of Columbia.
0:53 South Carolinian James Henry Hammond protested
0:57 that Southerners would not sit there and see their rights
1:01 of the southern people assaulted day after day.
1:05 To that end, in February 1836,
1:09 fellow South Carolinian Henry Laurens Pinckney
1:12 introduced a resolution into the House that would table
1:16 any petition mentioning slavery and banned any discussion of it.
1:22 In effect, it was a gag rule, silencing
1:25 those who opposed the institution
1:28 when it passed the House in May.
1:30 Adams rose to speak in protest,
1:33 but the speaker of the House refused to recognize him.
1:36 Am I gagged?
1:37 He demanded to know what the shout.
1:40 The gag rule, he asserted, was a violation of the Constitution.
1:45 The rules of this House and the rights of my constituents.
1:49 Adams thought that slavery was wrong
1:51 because it violated the principles of the Declaration of Independence.
1:55 He also thought freedom of speech and petition were essential rights
2:00 for self-governance and the consent of the governed.
2:04 Congress renewed the gag rule in 1837,
2:07 and Adams renewed his objections.
2:10 He provocatively introduced hundreds of anti-slavery petitions
2:14 from women, enslaved people, and free blacks.
2:18 The House moved to censure or discipline him, but the vote failed.
2:23 In early 1838, the House voted for the gag rule yet again.
2:27 Adams courageously continued to fight it.
2:30 He introduced hundreds more petitions and attempted a parliamentary trick,
2:35 arguing that petition is prayer, and prayed
2:38 that all would enjoy their God given rights.
2:42 Still, the house rejected his pleas and tried to silence him.
2:48 Adams felt the weight of the battle on his shoulders.
2:51 He confided to his diary,
2:54 I walk on the edge of a precipice,
2:56 and every step that I take.
3:00 Over the next two years, Adam
3:02 introduced thousands of anti-slavery petitions.
3:06 Every single one was tabled
3:08 without debate and ignored.
3:12 He tried to have the clerk introduce one
3:14 with the reading of the Declaration of Independence.
3:17 Even that was rejected.
3:20 His persistence, however, was paying off.
3:23 On December 3rd, 1844,
3:26 the House voted to abolish the gag rule.
3:28 Adams had fought and won a long battle
3:31 for constitutionalism and the rights of all.
3:34 Even his southern foes acknowledged his diligence in the cause of justice.
3:40 Henry Wise of Virginia said he was the cutest
3:44 the a student, the arch enemy of Southern slavery that ever existed.
3:52 John Quincy Adams
3:53 fought to preserve American democratic ideals
3:56 and the natural rights of enslaved people based upon the principles
4:00 of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
