WASHINGTON — It was a kind of Brexit centuries before Brexit: Nearly 250 years ago, the Declaration of Independence was written, adopted and announced — and a group of breakaway colonies declared themselves the United States of America.
It was bold; it was risky, and the Declaration had to do a lot of things — inspire the colonists who wanted independence, persuade the ones who didn’t and convince the British, and the rest of the world, that this was a new country, not just a bunch of cranks. They needed a great piece of writing to thread all those needles, and that’s what they got.
Adam Rothman, a professor of history at Georgetown University who specializes in the history of the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War, spoke with WTOP recently about the process that led to the Declaration of Independence. He tells a story that’s no less compelling for being complicated.
The war
For one thing, Rothman said, it’s critical to remember that what we now call the American Revolution had already been going on for more than a year when the Continental Congress got together to officially declare the existence of the United States. A lot of goals and scenarios besides independence had been on the table.
“There’s a big debate within the Continental Congress about how to proceed — whether to continue negotiations with the Crown or whether to declare independence,” he said.
All through the winter and spring of 1776, emissaries from the colonies were in London, trying to get King George III “to dial back the use of force in Massachusetts and accede to the colonists’ demands,” Rothman said. There was still hope that the king would rule that “Parliament had overstepped its bounds.” When those failed, it was time to turn to independence.
Up until very near July 4, 1776, “they considered themselves British — fully British,” Rothman said. “And when they’re rejected in that aspiration, they come to the conclusion that they can only really satisfy their desire for equality by being independent.”
A terracotta and plaster bust of George Washington, made by William Rush in 1817, is wrapped in plastic in a shipping container at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
(AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)
\n","caption":"The war\n For one thing, Rothman said, it\u2019s critical to remember that what we now call the American Revolution had already been going on for more than a year when the Continental Congress got together to officially declare the existence of the United States. A lot of goals and scenarios besides independence had been on the table.\n \u201cThere\u2019s a big debate within the Continental Congress about how to proceed \u2014 whether to continue negotiations with the Crown or whether to declare independence,\u201d he said.\n All through the winter and spring of 1776, emissaries from the colonies were in London, trying to get King George III \u201cto dial back the use of force in Massachusetts and accede to the colonists\u2019 demands,\u201d Rothman said. There was still hope that the king would rule that \u201cParliament had overstepped its bounds.\u201d When those failed, it was time to turn to independence.\n Up until very near July 4, 1776, \u201cthey considered themselves British \u2014 fully British,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cAnd when they\u2019re rejected in that aspiration, they come to the conclusion that they can only really satisfy their desire for equality by being independent.\u201d\n \n A terracotta and plaster bust of George Washington, made by William Rush in 1817, is wrapped in plastic in a shipping container at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.\n (AP Photo\/Jacqueline Larma)\n"},{"type":"photo","media":" What? No email?\n The whole process was even more agonizing due to its slowness. \u201cRemember also that this is not an age of instantaneous communication,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta get the instructions to the delegates in London; you\u2019ve gotta get the reports back from London. And this takes weeks, not seconds.\u201d\n \n A detail of an English holster pistol carried by Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg during the American Revolution is seen at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.\n (AP Photo\/Jacqueline Larma)\n"},{"type":"photo","media":" (Gulp) You sure about this?\n So, independence it was, the Congress decided. \u201cBut that\u2019s not a simple thing,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cFor one thing, it hadn\u2019t been done before.\u201d\n For another, the British were \u201ca very successful imperial power,\u201d Rothman said. Not only that, but they were taking a serious leap.\n \u201cThey\u2019re \u2026 going up against a government that many colonists, even those who believed in independence, thought was the best on earth,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cA lot of people feared that they\u2019d be sacrificing this very advantageous form of government, and a lot of colonists feared that they\u2019d be thrown into a hostile world. They\u2019d no longer have the protection of the British Crown against the French, the Indians, the Spanish \u2014 it\u2019s a dangerous world out there.\u201d\n \n Members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment Fife and Drum Corp march during opening ceremonies for the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Wednesday, April 19, 2017.\n (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)\n"},{"type":"photo","media":" All together now\n The colonies were less than a century away from having a civil war over slavery, but they were in it together against the British \u2014 they had to be.\n \u201cThe only way that any of the colonies was going to become independent was in alliance with the other colonies,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cNo colony thought they could go it alone.\u201d\n That dynamic \u2014 the states versus the central government \u2014 makes for \u201cone of the great debates of American history,\u201d Rothman said, and the contrast between declaring independence and actually winning it was a symbol of that.\n \u201cPeople who are ardent advocates of states\u2019 rights, or state sovereignty, might say that independence was an act of individual states. Partisans of a more unified vision of American would say that independence was won by all these states acting together in an alliance.\u201d\n In the final analysis, Rothman said, it was both: \u201cSo from the beginning they were the United States,\u201d he said, with emphasis on both words.\n \n Fireworks explode over the Philadelphia Museum of Art during an Independence Day celebration in Philadelphia on Wednesday, July 4, 2007.\n (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)\n"},{"type":"ad","media":" Let\u2019s take another crack at that\n The old joke is that an elephant is a horse designed by committee. And everybody knows of Thomas Jefferson as the author of the Declaration of Independence \u2014 it\u2019s right on his epitaph. Well, like many things that \u201ceverybody knows,\u201d it\u2019s not that simple.\n \u201cWe don\u2019t think of the soaring rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence as being written by a committee, but it was,\u201d Rothman said. After the Continental Congress decided on independence, the job was delegated to a subcommittee, which in turn delegated the job to Jefferson \u201cbecause he was the best writer.\u201d\n But he was hardly the last person to make his mark on the document.\n \u201cThe architecture, the structure, comes from Jefferson, but various turns of phrase, for instance, were contributed by different people,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cJefferson gives the draft to the committee, and the committee edits it, and the draft goes to the whole Continental Congress, and they edit it.\u201d\n So while literally dozens of passages in the Declaration form the basis of America\u2019s ideals, and sing like biblical passages, in Rothman\u2019s telling there\u2019s no less drama \u2014 and maybe even more \u2014 because the process was \u201cpart of a deliberative political process.\u201d\n \n This Tuesday, April 4, 2017, photo shows a child’s toy stoneware lamb excavated from a British Revolutionary War campsite near New York City, at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. Approximately 10 percent of British soldiers who arrived in New York in 1776 had their wives and children with them. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)\n"},{"type":"photo","media":" Jefferson\n One example of a major edit in Jefferson\u2019s first draft: \u201ca long passage just lambasting the King for conducting the slave trade,\u201d Rothman said, adding that it calls the importation of African slaves \u201cpiracy and war against human nature.\u201d\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very remarkable anti-slavery passage,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cWell, that doesn\u2019t make it into the final Declaration. And it\u2019s interesting to think how we might look at the American Revolution differently if those denunciations of slavery made it into the founding documents.\u201d For one thing, the southern colonies might or might not have signed on, Rothman said.\n Of course, Jefferson himself owned slaves. \u201cPeople see him as a hypocrite,\u201d Rothman said of Jefferson, \u201cand there\u2019s certainly truth to that. But he\u2019s also the author of some of the most remarkable anti-slavery documents in American history,\u201d the passage that didn\u2019t make the cut in the Declaration of Independence being one of them.\n Of course, Rothman points out, a lot of Virginian slaveholders saw a big difference between importing new slaves and simply continuing the enslavement of children and grandchildren of their current slaves. They \u201cdidn\u2019t need the slave trade to maintain their labor force. So they have the luxury of criticizing it.\u201d\n \n This is an undated photo of a portrait of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson by artist Rembrandt Peale. (AP Photo)\n"},{"type":"photo","media":" That escalated quickly\n Rothman points to the National Archives timeline of the process that led to the Declaration, and it\u2019s kind of stunning how quickly it all came together.\n On June 7, 1776, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee read a resolution declaring \u201cthat these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.\u201d On June 11, they appointed a committee of five members \u2014 John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson \u2014 to draft the Declaration.\n On July 2, the Congress voted 12-0, with New York abstaining, in favor of Lee\u2019s resolution, and started to tear into the draft Declaration. They adopted it July 4, but they were still making changes that morning.\n \n This Thursday, April 13, 2017, photo shows a replica of a privateer ship at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. \u00a0(AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)\n"},{"type":"photo","media":" Hold up \u2014 shouldn\u2019t we be celebrating July 2 then?\n That\u2019s what John Adams thought: “The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. \u2026 It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”\n (Shews? Never mind.)\n But July 4 is the day that the Declaration was adopted, and that\u2019s the date that\u2019s shown at the top of the Declaration itself, so July 4 it is. Just goes to shew you.\n \n Fireworks light up the sky over the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and the U.S. Capitol on July 4, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson\/Getty Images)\n"},{"type":"ad","media":" That escalated quickly\n Rothman points to the National Archives timeline of the process that led to the Declaration, and it\u2019s kind of stunning how quickly it all came together.\n On June 7, 1776, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee read a resolution declaring \u201cthat these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.\u201d On June 11, they appointed a committee of five members \u2014 John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Thomas Jefferson \u2014 to draft the Declaration.\n On July 2, the Congress voted 12-0, with New York abstaining, in favor of Lee\u2019s resolution, and started to tear into the draft Declaration. They adopted it July 4, but \u2014 in a scene that will warm the heart of any writer \u2014 they were still making changes that morning.\n \n This undated engraving shows the scene on July 4, 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pa. The document, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Philip Livingston and Roger Sherman, announces the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. The formal signing by 56 members of Congress began on Aug. 2. (AP Photo)\n"},{"type":"photo","media":" Hold up \u2013 shouldn\u2019t we be celebrating July 2 then?\n That\u2019s what John Adams thought: “The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. \u2026 It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”\n (Shews? Never mind.)\n But July 4 is the day that the Declaration was adopted, and that\u2019s the date that\u2019s shown at the top of the Declaration itself, so July 4 it is. Just goes to shew you.\n \n From left to right: Dr. Fred Brenner portrays John Adams, Sen. Fred Thompson portrays John Hancock, and Donald Neal plays Ben Franklin at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall, Feb. 24, 1996. (AP Photo)\n"},{"type":"photo","media":" What does the Declaration of Independence even say?\n A lot of copies were made of the Declaration right after its adoption, and they\u2019re not all the same. Rothman points to Princeton historian Danielle Allen, author of the book \u201cOur Declaration,\u201d who pointed out what she thinks is a big one.\n It comes in the very second paragraph: \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. \u2014 That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed \u2026\u201d\n That\u2019s how it reads in the 1823 stone engraving of the Declaration that\u2019s the basis for the copy that most of us know. But Allen looked hard at the parchment original and says that that period after \u201cHappiness\u201d isn\u2019t there.\n If it\u2019s not there, the role of government in ensuring those rights is just as much a self-evident truth as the three rights. \u201cThe logic of the sentence moves from the value of individual rights to the importance of government as a tool for protecting those rights,\u201d Allen told The New York Times in 2014. \u201cYou lose that connection when the period gets added.\u201d\n \n A 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence, shown in this undated handout photograph, was bought by television producer Norman Lear and Internet entrepreneur David Hayden, who plan to send the document on a national tour under the auspices of Lear’s nonprofit organization, People for the American Way. (AP Photo)\n"},{"type":"photo","media":" Who\u2019s it for?\n One of the things that impresses Rothman most about the Declaration of Independence is the balancing act it pulls off \u2014 specifically, the number of different audiences that it had to influence.\n First, Rothman said, there was the patriot audience \u2014 \u201cpeople who are already committed to independence.\u201d For them, Rothman said, \u201cit\u2019s a rallying cry.\u201d Then there were people on the fence, or even against independence \u2014 for them, it\u2019s trying to be \u201ca persuasive document.\u201d\n The final audience, Rothman said, was the rest of the world \u2014 including the British. It was important to declare independence in a way that the rest of the world would respect. \u201cThe United States is trying to announce their arrival, and hope that they\u2019re recognized.\u201d\n He said one phrase in the beginning does a lot of work to appeal to all these audiences: \u201cWhen in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people \u2026\u201d\n \u201cThat \u2018one people\u2019 is a fiction,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cActually, there are many \u2018people\u2019 in the colonies at that time. But the Declaration is a key moment in trying to forge that sense that there is one people, and that they deserve their independence. \u2026 They\u2019re taking their station among the powers of the earth. They\u2019re entering the world of nations.\u201d\n \n This is an undated drawing of American patriot and statesman John Hancock, who was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. (AP Photo)\n"},{"type":"ad","media":" The post ‘One people’: The story behind the Declaration of Independence appeared first on WTOP.
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