Writing and Reading the Declaration of Independence ― An Eighteenth Century View

In 1825, near the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson looked back on the hot Philadelphia summer of 1776 and said this about the essence of his Declaration of Independence: “Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion. All its authority rests then on the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters, printed essays, or the elementary books of public right . . .”“Writing and Reading the Declaration of Independence” visits each paragraph of the Declaration from draft to final version, carefully and enthusiastically explaining what each means and what in the writings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries may have given rise to it. What was original in this foundation of American society? Where did the thoughts and words come from? What influence did familiar figures like George Mason, John Locke, and Tom Paine have on it? What other less familiar writers in England and the colonies played a role in it?This book meets the Declaration of Independence on its own terms, with as little intrusion of hindsight as possible. Looking at the original draft of the Declaration shows that its editors, the entire Second Continental Congress as a committee of the whole, made some small changes that were definitely improvements. They also removed some large sections, one on the practice of slavery, that are rarely mentioned by those who study and comment on this document. “Writing and Reading the Declaration of Independence” is a preservation and invigoration of the American past.