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Declaration of Independence (view source)
Revision as of 21:40, July 14, 2019
, 21:40, July 14, 2019→Immediate impact: Britain's rebuttals to the Declaration - Lind, Bentham, Hutchinson
When the Declaration was signed, the 13 colonies now became the 13 states. The new nation created a national army under [[George Washington]], and sent diplomats to secure recognition in Europe. Most successful was [[Benjamin Franklin]], who won support in France and in 1778 secured a treaty of military alliance with France, by which the entire military and naval forces of France joined in the war against Britain. King [[George III]] refused to give up and of "his" possessions, so the war dragged on until the final American victory at Yorktown in 1781 caused Parliament to change the government in London and sue for peace.
When the Declaration was signed, the 13 colonies now became the 13 states. The new nation created a national army under [[George Washington]], and sent diplomats to secure recognition in Europe. Most successful was [[Benjamin Franklin]], who won support in France and in 1778 secured a treaty of military alliance with France, by which the entire military and naval forces of France joined in the war against Britain. King [[George III]] refused to give up and of "his" possessions, so the war dragged on until the final American victory at Yorktown in 1781 caused Parliament to change the government in London and sue for peace.
[[Image:Rough draft declaration.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The first page of the Declaration of Independence as it began under Thomas Jefferson, with several strikeouts as he formulated his ideas.]]
[[Image:Rough draft declaration.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The first page of the Declaration of Independence as it began under Thomas Jefferson, with several strikeouts as he formulated his ideas.]]
After the publication of the Declaration, several British rebuttals to it were published. John Lind published the ''Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress'', which was commissioned by the administration of [[Lord North]]. John Lind worked together with philosopher [[Jeremy Bentham]] in its authorship, in which Bentham wrote a scathing criticism of the concept of [[Natural Rights]]: "simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense, — nonsense upon stilts". Another rebuttal was published by colonial governor Thomas Hutchinson. Both pamphlets mock the concept "all men are equal" noting that America did not free every slave - even though it was Britain who brought all the slaves here in the first place.
==Long-term impact on U.S.==
==Long-term impact on U.S.==
Americans celebrated the Fourth of July and often read the Declaration at that event, but paid little attention to it other days of the year.<ref>Len Travers, ''Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic'' (1999)</ref> That changed when [[Abraham Lincoln]] in the [[Gettysburg Address]] of 1863 stressed its priority over the Constitution. Since then the statement 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" has resounded strongly in the American psyche, though it is not echoed much in other countries.
Americans celebrated the Fourth of July and often read the Declaration at that event, but paid little attention to it other days of the year.<ref>Len Travers, ''Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic'' (1999)</ref> That changed when [[Abraham Lincoln]] in the [[Gettysburg Address]] of 1863 stressed its priority over the Constitution. Since then the statement 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" has resounded strongly in the American psyche, though it is not echoed much in other countries.