![]() Jefferson echoed that language in his draft document, which declared that “all men are created equal” and had an inalienable right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” He presented his draft to his fellow committee members and they made extensive edits before submitting it to the Continental Congress on June 28. ![]() Another, Mason’s 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, affirmed that men had the right to “the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” One, the Fairfax County Resolves, cowritten by George Washington and George Mason, claimed that the colonists’ constitutional rights had been violated by the British Parliament. In little more than two weeks, Jefferson churned out a draft that drew on a variety of other documents, including some of the up to 100 similar declarations that had been circulating in the buildup to the Lee Resolution. ( Here are nine common myths about the American Revolution.) They nominated Jefferson to pen the first draft of what is now known as the Declaration of Independence. The Committee of Five, as it became known, was a political dream team: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Roger Livingston. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Īs delegates lobbied their home states to support the resolution, five men got to work on an accompanying document that laid out the reasons colonists wanted to sever ties with Britain. Although most delegates supported independence, the proposal was not guaranteed to pass unanimously, so members held off on voting. Just 80 words long, the Lee Resolution proposed the dissolution of any political connection between Great Britain and the colonies. ![]() The process of declaring independence didn’t get underway until June 7, 1776, when Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution in the Second Continental Congress. War had begun to look inevitable and so, in September, delegates from the colonies met to discuss their grievances in what they called the Continental Congress. In 1774, after years of unfair taxation and imperial control, complaints against the British crown had reached a fever pitch in the 13 American colonies. And the revolutionaries who founded the nation didn’t guarantee all of its residents “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The anniversary of American independence is July 2, not July 4. Fireworks, flags, and hot dogs: The Fourth of July is steeped in patriotism and tradition, and celebrated as the day disgruntled American colonists broke ties with Great Britain and declared their intention to found a democratic nation of their own.īut the history behind the holiday isn’t so clear-cut.
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