There is accordingly no alternative to independence for America."Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation.The blood of the slain,the weepingvoice of nature criestis time to part.Arms,the last resort,must decide the contest;the appeal was the choice of the king and the continent hath accepted the challenge....The sun never shone on a cause of greater worth.'Tis not the affair of a city,a county,a province or a kingdom,but of a continent....'Tis not the concern of a day,a year or an age;posterity is involved in the contest and will be more or less affected to the end of time by the proceedings now.Now is the seedtime of Continental union,faith,and honor....O!ye that love mankind!Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny,but the tyrant,stand forth....Let names of Whig and Tory be extinct.Let none other be heard among us than those of a good citizen,an open and resolute friend,and a virtuous supporter of the rights of mankind and of the free and independent states of America."As more than 100,000copies were scattered broadcast over the country,patriots exclaimed with Washington:"Sound doctrine and unanswerable reason!"
The Drift of Events toward Independence.Official support for the idea of independence began to come from many quarters.On the tenth of February,1776,Gadsden,in the provincial convention of South Carolina,advocated a new constitution for the colony and absolute independence for all America.The convention balked at the latter but went half way by abolishing the system of royal administration and establishing a complete plan of selfgovernment.A month later,on April 12,the neighboring state of North Carolina uttered the daring phrase from which others shrank.It empowered its representatives in the Congress to concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring independence.Rhode Island,Massachusetts,and Virginia quickly responded to the challenge.The convention of the Old Dominion,on May 15,instructed its delegates at Philadelphia to propose the independence of the United Colonies and to give the assent of Virginia to the act of separation.When the resolution was carried the British flag on the state house was lowered for all time.
Meanwhile the Continental Congress was alive to the course of events outside.The subject of independence was constantly being raised."Are we rebels?"exclaimed Wyeth of Virginia during a debate in February."No:we must declare ourselves a free people."Others hesitated and spoke of waiting for the arrival of commissioners of conciliation."Is not America already independent?"asked Samuel Adams a few weeks later."Why not then declare it?"Still there was uncertainty and delegates avoided the direct word.A few more weeks elapsed.At last,on May 10,Congress declared that the authority of the British crown in America must be suppressed and advised the colonies to set up governments of their own.
Independence Declared.The way was fully prepared,therefore,when,on June 7,the Virginia delegation in the Congress moved that "these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states."A committee was immediately appointed to draft a formal document setting forth the reasons for the act,and on July 2all the states save New York went on record in favor of severing their political connection with Great Britain.Two days later,July 4,Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence,changed in some slight particulars,was adopted.The old bell in Independence Hall,as it is now known,rang out the glad tidings;couriers swiftly carried the news to the uttermost hamlet and farm.A new nation announced its will to have a place among the powers of the world.
To some documents is given immortality.The Declaration of Independence is one of them.American patriotism is forever associated with it;but patriotism alone does not make it immortal.Neither does the vigor of its language or the severity of its indictment give it a secure place in the records of time.The secret of its greatness lies in the ****** fact that it is one of the memorable landmarks in the history of a political ideal which for three centuries has been taking form and spreading throughout the earth,challenging kings and potentates,shaking down thrones and aristocracies,breaking the armies of irresponsible power on battle fields as far apart as Marston Moor and teauThierry.That ideal,now so familiar,then so novel,is summed up in the ****** sentence:"Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Written in a "decent respect for the opinions of mankind,"to set forth the causes which impelled the American colonists to separate from Britain,the Declaration contained a long list of "abuses and usurpations"which had induced them to throw off the government of King George.That section of the Declaration has passed into "ancient"history and is seldom read.It is the part laying down a new basis for government and giving a new dignity to the common man that has become a household phrase in the Old World as in the New.