Declaration of Independence

Paper Summary:

The paper relates that the US Declaration of Independence can be considered the first statement of the values and legal structure for the new nation. The paper discusses the ideas the document is based on and the events that led up to the actual writing of the Declaration.

From the Paper:

"The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1776 and can be considered the first statement of the values and legal structure for the new nation. The first draft was written by Thomas Jefferson, after which ideas were incorporated from John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. The document was adopted on July 4 to usher in a new political age. The document was written at the request of the Second Continental Congress and expressed several political ideas than current in the colonies. These ideas had been expressed by others in a different form, but they were now brought together by Jefferson in a final statement of independence from England. Garry Wills in the title of his book Inventing America characterizes the nature of this process, a process of invention that helped produce the mechanism of the new government."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Buckman, P. (1977). Lafayette. New York: Paddington Press.
• Darnton, Robert. "The Pursuit of Happiness." The Wilson Quarterly 19(4)(1995, Autumn), 42.
• Gross, Robert A., Alan M. Taylor, and Robert Gross. The Minutemen and Their World. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001.
• Kramnick, Isaac. "Introduction." In Common Sense, Thomas Paine. New York: Penguin Classics, 1986.
• Maier, Pauline. American Scripture. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

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