The Declaration of Independence Explained | A Primary Source Close Read w/ BRI
What was the Continental Congress's argument for Independence? Join Kirk Higgins, as he takes a line by line look at the the Declaration of Independence.
0:00 Hello. My name is Kirk Higgins. I’m the Director of Content here at the Bill of Rights Institute. And today we’re going to be taking a look at the argument contained in the Declaration of Independence. Let’s dive in. So whether this is the first time you’ve looked at the Declaration of Independence or the hundredth time you looked at the Declaration of Independence, it’s really great if you can take some time and really unpack what’s going on.
0:21 So that’s what we’re going to do today. And to do that effectively, one of the things that you need to do is set ourselves sort of the historical context. So if you really want to know what led up to the moment of us declaring the United States declaring independence, I encourage you to take a look at our Road to Revolution homework help video. It will give you all the background of everything that led up to 1776.
0:41 But for the purposes of this video, I’m going to go through some really high level notes. So the First Continental Congress had been formed in September of 1074. And at that Congress, in response to certain frustrations they had with the King and Parliament back in Great Britain, the Continental Congress had sent out a petition to the King in hopes of resolving their issues peacefully.
1:03 They then formed a Second Continental Congress in May of 1775 after the battles of Lexington and Concord. And it was during that Continental Congress that the olive branch, what’s known as the Olive Branch Petition, was sent to the King. And also a document called The Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms was also sent to the King. So the Second Continental Congress is the actual Congress that would stay
1:25 in session and eventually pass the Declaration for Independence. Although it passes in July of 1776, debate over whether or not independence should be declared started all the way back in June. And it was during a long and rancorous debate that on June 11, a Committee of 5 was actually established to write and draft the Declaration of Independence.
1:46 Why is this important for what we’re looking at today? Well, it’s really important to remember that it’s not just Thomas Jefferson who’s drafting the Declaration of Independence, it’s both this Committee of Five, which is made up of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, of course, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman, but it’s also that the Congress itself was debating over what the words would say and made extensive edits on the document.
2:07 So it was on July, back in June, as I mentioned, when this was happening, the debate was so rancorous they couldn’t come to any sort of consensus. On June 10, they decided to table the debate for three weeks. And it’s in that intervening time, between June 10 and the end of June, about June 28, that the Declaration is actually drafted. That draft is presented to Congress, given over for lots of edits, actual handwritten edits, before
2:31 the congress is called back into session. The resolution for Independence is passed on July 2 and the actual wording of the document is passed, affirmed by the Congress and sent out as the Declaration on July 4. That’s why we celebrate on July 4. So remembering all this context is important as we dive into the actual argument of the document itself.
2:52 So, taking a look, let’s remember in Congress, July 4, 1776, it’s important because this is a statement by all of the members assembled unanimously here, the Declaration. Of the United States of America. So it’s the Declaration United being lower case. Also interesting, it is not the United States as we know today, but it is the United, coming
3:13 together, states of America that are making this declaration. So they start out with this beautiful opening line which we’re all probably familiar with, but if not, it’s important to read the words. When in the 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 the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitle them,
3:36 a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which compel them to the separation. So basically what they’re saying here is, look, we’re going to be declaring independence, but when that kind of thing happens, it’s important for us all to take a step back and to explain why we’re doing what we’re doing so that the world can see them and justify them.
3:57 So it’s important here to keep in mind who are the audiences are talking to? Well, they’re of course, talking to other colonists living in the 13 colonies. They’re talking to the people of Britain back across the British Empire, letting them know in particular we’re talking about parliament. So those elected officials in Parliament, they’re also communicating directly with the king as it’s his government,
4:18 he is the sovereign, and then finally to other world powers. So when they’re saying when, in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people dissolve, they’re saying, look, we’re going to break away. We’re going to let everyone know our reasons for breaking away, to try to help others understand and hopefully impel support from other world powers, but also so that the world can understand why the cause is what the cause is.
4:42 So they go on and I’ve broken this section out, so it’s actually just listed as a single paragraph on the document. But for sake of clarity here, I’ve broken it out because I think this is the heart of the argument that’s being made. So they’re going to declare what was going on here. They are declaring their cost. We hold these truths to be self evident, right, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
5:03 Among these are life limiting pursuit of happiness. That sentence has been called sometimes the most famous sentence in the English language. It’s certainly a powerful one, but it’s basically saying, hey, let’s go back to the beginning. Central to our argument is this understanding that we are all created equal and we have equal rights. Because of that, they go on to say that secure these rights. So because we are all equal,
5:24 we institute governments in order to maintain that level of equality. And in order to do that, the just powers are from the Conservative government. So we are equal. To maintain that, we create governments to ensure that that equality is maintained. And for those governments to be legitimate, consent has to somehow be given.
5:45 Because we are all again equal, we can’t have people telling us what to do simply because arbitrarily, they have power over us. And so when a government becomes destructive to those ends, to these rights of equality, you can get together and you can alter or abolish it. In fact, they say it’s the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute a new government.
6:08 Laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such a form then shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. So if the government isn’t doing these things and it’s not operating based on their consent, you have a right to revolution, you have a right to come together to abolish these things. But they say, hold on, prudence indeed will dictate that government’s longest established
6:30 should not be charged, changed, sorry for light and transient causes. In other words, just because you can do this and you have a right to do this, doesn’t mean you should do this often, in fact, you should be very careful, that’s the word prudence. You should be very careful and wise when making this choice. It should only be when the next section here, a long train of abuses and usurpations are driving you to do it.
6:52 It shouldn’t just be because you are frustrated or unhappy over small things, it should be big things that are happening over a long period of time that impel you to do this. And so then they come. So we’re, equal governments, are here to maintain that equality based on our consent. If the government is not doing that, you got to get rid of it.
7:15 But you shouldn’t just get rid of it because you think it’s doing it. It really needs to be firmly established. And so that’s when they go on for this last paragraph here to say such has been the patient suffering of these colonies. So in other words, they haven’t wanted to, so their argument goes, they haven’t wanted to break away, but they’ve been suffering patiently, they’ve done what they could to try to get people to understand their cause and yet they have not been successful.
7:38 And so they’re now going to go through and lay out their different grievances. So they say here that to prove this, let fact be submitted to a candid world. So here you can see very clearly they are looking to an external audience and they’re going to lay out subsequent this 27 different grievances that they have with the King and Parliament
8:01 to the writing of the King, but to the King and Parliament about what their problems are and why they’ve been compelled to do this. So going on after those 27 grievances they now recap, they say, all right, we told you our cause, we told you we’ve been suffering patiently. These are the things that continue to happen. And by the way, even though they’ve continued to happen, this first paragraph is really interesting.
8:21 Again, thinking back to our historical context, the petition of the King, the olive branch petition, all of these things that they’ve done, we petition for redress. We’ve tried to get this fixed, but we’ve been unable to do so. And they say here a prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
8:41 Pretty powerful stuff. You have not listened to us, we have not made any headway and so you are unfit to lead us. And they then turn and say not just the King, but our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. In other words, doing things that are
9:04 outside of their consent, doing things that they don’t agree with, they come down and say they too have been deaf to the voice of justice, right? The British are not listening. The British brethren are not listening to them. And so therefore, because of all of this, because of these 27 grievances, because of this foundational understanding of equality that they hold, because they believe that they have
9:24 to have consent of the governed, they get to this point where they say we must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind enemies in war, in peace, friends. And so we get the final paragraph of the Declaration Independence, which in fact is the actual Declaration of Independence.
9:45 We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America and General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, due in the name and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare and here it is that these united colonies are and override ought to be free and independent states, that they are absolved from allegiance
10:09 to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is ought to be totally dissolved. And then, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish conference and to do all other acts and things which independent states may have right due. And for the support of this Declaration,
10:30 with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lies, our fortunes and our sacred honor. Here, it’s them committing to this and saying, we are declaring our independence. We are absorbing ourselves from the legal restrictions that Britain has placed upon us, and we are now saying we are our own independent nation.
10:51 So, of course, going on from here, the war would rage on. The American Revolution would go all the way up until 1783. They, of course, passed the Articles of Confederation in that time to establish the first sort of constitution that establishes what the United States will look like as a governing body in any kind of country. But this is the moment. And again, it’s all predicated
11:11 on that great argument that’s pieced together here. Because we’re equal, we need our representative rights to be recognized as equals. That requires consent. When a government is not seeing that consent or not giving, it not operating in a way that is affirming those natural rights, they must dissolve it. And so therefore, they make this motion to break away from the nation.
11:35 So, again, whether this is your first time looking at the Declaration of Independence or your hundredth time, it’s always important to go back and look through the close worded arguments that are being presented to us. And all of the texts and documents that we look at here at close reads. And the Declaration of Independence in particular is one that’s really interesting when you’re able to pull it apart and look at it, really take a close look at examining what
11:55 that argument is that’s being presented here. So thank you again for joining me. As we step through it, I hope that you’ll enjoy me for more close read sections and especially more of these explain series where I’m going to be looking at different documents for American history and really pulling them apart and taking a look at what are their essential elements, how do they come together and what were they really saying, what do they really mean, and hopefully helping all of us come
12:17 to a better understanding of what the seminal documents are. We also have my colleague Tony Williams has great conversations with scholars that I hope you’ll tune in for. He’s doing all kinds of interesting series this year. And also my colleague Mary Patterson, looking at different visual primary sources, sometimes building, sometimes geography, and really unpacking how it is that we can look at, analyze and understand those as well.
12:39 So thank you so much for joining. I hope you’ll stay tuned. Please don’t forget to like and subscribe the video. And we’ll see you next time.
