Changes

==Public opinion==

==Public opinion==

[[Image:Commonsense.jpg|thumb|left|120px|[[Common Sense]]]]

[[Image:Commonsense.jpg|thumb|left|120px|[[Common Sense]]]]

Sentiment for independence was crystallized by ''[[Common Sense]]'', the astonishingly successful pamphlet by [[Thomas Paine]]. It sold over 150,000 copies in spring 1776; copies were passed from hand to hand and read aloud at taverns in every colony. General [[George Washington]] was especially impressed and he had it read aloud to his soldiers. Paine's forceful argument convinced the majority that that the Empire was a dead weight on American aspirations, and the time was now to become independent. The Loyalists were left almost speechless.  Support for the King, which had been fast dwindling away, evaporated after Americans digested Paine's philippic. Not only was liberty at risk under monarchy, Paine said, but so was peace, as monarchs had little else to do but lay "the world in blood and ashes."  His key argument was an attack on the possibility of reconciliation. Paine convinced his readers that independence was more likely to bring peace and prosperity than continued subservience to the empire. But Paine drove ahead adding a millennial quality to the colonists' struggle. This was not a revolt over taxation. The survival of liberty and republicanism was at stake, he argued and if the American Revolution succeeded, generations yet unborn would owe a debt of gratitude to their forebearers who struggled to defend—-and expand-—freedom. Paine foresaw an America that would become "an asylum for mankind."  Not only would America offer refuge to the world's oppressed, but like a shining beacon, revolutionary America would herald "the birth-day of a new world," the beginning of an epoch in which humankind across the earth could "begin the world over again."<ref>John Ferling, ''Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution.'' (2002) p. 130</ref>

Sentiment for independence was crystallized by ''[[Common Sense]]'', the astonishingly successful pamphlet by [[Thomas Paine]]. It sold over 150,000 copies in spring 1776; copies were passed from hand to hand and read aloud at taverns in every colony. General [[George Washington]] was especially impressed and he had it read aloud to his soldiers. Paine's forceful argument convinced the majority that that the Empire was a dead weight on American aspirations, and the time was now to become independent. The Loyalists were left almost speechless.  Support for the King, which had been fast dwindling away, evaporated after Americans digested Paine's philippic. Not only was liberty at risk under monarchy, Paine said, but so was peace, as monarchs had little else to do but lay "the world in blood and ashes."  His key argument was an attack on the possibility of reconciliation.

 

Paine convinced his readers that independence was more likely to bring peace and prosperity than continued subservience to the empire. But Paine drove ahead adding a millennial quality to the colonists' struggle. This was not a revolt over taxation. The survival of liberty and republicanism was at stake, he argued and if the American Revolution succeeded, generations yet unborn would owe a debt of gratitude to their forebearers who struggled to defend—-and expand-—freedom. Paine foresaw an America that would become "an asylum for mankind."  Not only would America offer refuge to the world's oppressed, but like a shining beacon, revolutionary America would herald "the birth-day of a new world," the beginning of an epoch in which humankind across the earth could "begin the world over again."<ref>John Ferling, ''Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution.'' (2002) p. 130</ref>

 

On May 15th, [[John Adams]] wrote a preamble stating that because of the king's continued efforts to reject all efforts at reconciliation, independence from the crown was inevitable.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9TZfDs_yJPYC&pg=PA551 The United States Declaration of Independence (Revisited)]</ref>

==Writing the Declaration==

==Writing the Declaration==

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

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The hire of [[Hessian (soldier)|Hessian Soldiers]] as mercenaries for use against the [[Thirteen Colonies]].

The hire of [[Hessian (soldier)|Hessian Soldiers]] as mercenaries for use against the [[Thirteen Colonies]], see the May 15th preamble.<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28dg003624%29%29:: Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume: 3 January 1, 1776 - May 15, 1776 - John Adams to James Warren, May 15th, 1776]</ref>

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