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The Declaration of Independence
CALIFORNIA STANDARDS
8.1.2 Analyze the philosophy
of government expressed in
the Declaration of
Independence, with an
emphasis on government as a
means of securing individual
rights (e.g., key phrases such
as “all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights").
Reading 2.2 Analyze text
that uses proposition and
support patterns.
Setting the Stage On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted
what became one of America’s most cherished documents. Written by Thomas
Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence voiced the reasons for separating
from Britain and provided the principles of government upon which
the United States would be built. See Primary Source Explorer
[Preamble]
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and
to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to
which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect
to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation.
[The Right of the People to Control Their Government]
A CLOSER LOOK
RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE
The ideas in this passage reflect
the views of John Locke. Locke was
an English philosopher who
believed that the natural rights of
individuals came from God, but
that a government’s power comes
from the consent of the governed.
This belief is the foundation of
modern democracy.
1. In what way can American
voters bring about changes in
their government?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
1
2
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; that, to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed; that whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
3
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce
4
them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of
Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of
repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be
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submitted to a candid world.
1. endowed: provided.
2. unalienable: unable to
be taken away.
3. usurpations: unjust
seizures of power.
4. Despotism: rule by a
tyrant with absolute
power.
5. candid: fair, impartial.
182
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[Tyrannical Acts of the British King]
A CLOSER LOOK
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be
obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts
6
of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation
in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable,
and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose
of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with
manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be
elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have
returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the
mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without, and
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convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that pur8
pose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass
others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new
Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to
Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
9
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of
10
Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies, without the
Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the
Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent
to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
11
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States;
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world;
6. relinquish: give up.
7. convulsions: violent
disturbances.
8. Naturalization: process
of becoming a citizen.
10. eat out their substance:
drain their resources.
9. tenure: term.
11. quartering: housing or
giving lodging to.
GRIEVANCES AGAINST BRITAIN
The list contains 27 offenses by
the British king and others against
the colonies. Many offenses violate
protections agreed to in 1215 in
the Magna Carta. The list helps
explain why it became necessary to
seek independence.
2. Which offense do you think
was the worst? Why?
A CLOSER LOOK
LOSS OF REPRESENTATIVE
GOVERNMENT
One of the Intolerable Acts of
1774 stripped the Massachusetts
Legislature of many powers
and gave them to the colony’s
British governor.
3. Why was this action
so “intolerable”?
A CLOSER LOOK
QUARTERING TROOPS
WITHOUT CONSENT
The Quartering Act of 1765
required colonists to provide
housing and supplies for British
troops in America.
4. Why did colonists object to
this act?
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A CLOSER LOOK
TAXATION WITHOUT
REPRESENTATION
The colonists believed in the
long-standing British tradition
that Parliament could tax only
those citizens it represented—
and the colonists claimed to have
no representation in Parliament.
5. How do persons today give
consent to taxation?
A CLOSER LOOK
PETITIONING THE KING
The colonists sent many petitions to
King George III. In the Olive Branch
Petition of 1775, the colonists
expressed their desire to achieve “a
happy and permanent reconciliation.” The king rejected the petition.
6. Why did the colonists at first
attempt to solve the dispute
and remain loyal?
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent;
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury;
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses;
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province,
12
establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries
so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the
same absolute rule into these Colonies;
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments;
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
13
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection
and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.
14
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to
compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with cir15
cumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous
ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas, to
bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends
and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
16
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured
to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian Savages,
whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages,
sexes and conditions.
[Efforts of the Colonies to Avoid Separation]
17
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the
most humble terms; Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by
repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which
may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have
warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an
unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their
18
native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of
our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably
interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to
12. Arbitrary: not limited
by law.
15. perfidy: dishonesty,
disloyalty.
13. abdicated: given up.
16. domestic insurrections:
rebellions at home.
14. foreign Mercenaries:
professional soldiers
hired to serve in a
foreign army.
184
17. Petitioned for Redress:
asked for the correction
of wrongs.
18. magnanimity:
generosity, forgiveness.
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19
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the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce
in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold
the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
[The Colonies Are Declared Free and Independent]
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General
Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the
21
rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the Authority of the good
People of these Colonies solemnly publish and declare, That these United
Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they
are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political
connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be,
totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power
to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and do
all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. [Signed by]
John Hancock President, from Massachusetts
[Georgia] Button Gwinnett; Lyman Hall;
George Walton
[Rhode Island] Stephen Hopkins;
William Ellery
[Connecticut] Roger Sherman;
Samuel Huntington; William Williams;
Oliver Wolcott
[North Carolina] William Hooper;
Joseph Hewes; John Penn
[South Carolina] Edward Rutledge;
Thomas Heyward, Jr.; Thomas Lynch, Jr.;
Arthur Middleton
[Maryland] Samuel Chase; William Paca;
Thomas Stone; Charles Carroll
[Virginia] George Wythe;
Richard Henry Lee; Thomas Jefferson;
19. consanguinity:
relationship by a
common ancestor;
close connection.
Benjamin Harrison; Thomas Nelson, Jr.;
Francis Lightfoot Lee; Carter Braxton
[Pennsylvania] Robert Morris;
Benjamin Rush; Benjamin Franklin;
John Morton; George Clymer; James Smith;
George Taylor; James Wilson; George Ross
[Delaware] Caesar Rodney; George Read;
Thomas McKean
[New York] William Floyd; Philip Livingston;
Francis Lewis; Lewis Morris
[New Jersey] Richard Stockton; John
Witherspoon; Francis Hopkinson; John
Hart; Abraham Clark
[New Hampshire] Josiah Bartlett; William
Whipple; Matthew Thornton
[Massachusetts] Samuel Adams; John
Adams; Robert Treat Paine; Elbridge Gerry
20. acquiesce: accept
without protest.
A CLOSER LOOK
POWERS OF AN
INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT
The colonists identified the ability
to wage war and agree to peace;
to make alliances with other
nations; and to set up an economic
system as powers of a free and
independent government.
7. What other powers are held
by an independent government?
A CLOSER LOOK
DECLARATION SIGNERS
The Declaration was signed by
56 representatives from the
13 original states.
8. Which signers do you
recognize? Write one line
about each of those signers.
21. rectitude: moral
uprightness.
Interactive Primary Source Assessment
1. Main Ideas
2. Critical Thinking
a. What is the purpose of the Declaration of
Independence as stated in the Preamble? (8.1.2)
Drawing Conclusions Why did the colonies feel that
b. What are the five main parts of the Declaration?
(8.1.2)
THINK ABOUT
• colonial grievances against Britain
• Britain’s response to these grievances
c. What are three rights that all people have? (8.1.2)
they had to declare their independence? (REP4)
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VISUAL
SUMMARY
The Road to
Revolution (CST2)
1767
Townshend
Acts;
Suspension
of New York
Assembly
1764
Sugar Act
1. USING YOUR NOTES:
SEQUENCING EVENTS
1. Stamp Act
Proclamation of 1763
6. militia
8. Loyalist
9. Declaration of Independence
1766
Repeal of
Stamp Act;
Declaratory Act
Using your completed chart,
answer the questions below. (CST2)
a. What city was the site of early
protest activity?
REVIEW QUESTIONS
2. ANALYZING LEADERSHIP
1. How did relations between
Britain and the colonies change
after the Seven Years’ War? (HI2)
3. Why did the colonists cry,
“No taxation without
representation”? (HI1)
Colonial Resistance Grows
(pages 163–169)
4. How did the colonists protest
the Townshend Acts? (HI2)
5. How was the Boston Massacre
used for propaganda
purposes? (HI1)
6. How did the committees of
correspondence help keep
people informed? (HI2)
The Road to Lexington and
Concord (pages 170–175)
1775
Battles of Lexington
and Concord; Second
Continental Congress;
Appointment of
Washington as
commander of
Continental Army;
Battle of Bunker Hill;
Olive Branch Petition
Declaration of
Independence, 1776
b. What event happened after the
Tea Act?
2. Why did Britain try to tax the
colonies? (HI1)
1773
Tea Act;
Boston Tea Party
First Continental
Congress, 1774
10. Thomas Jefferson
Tighter British Control
(pages 159–162)
1772
Committees of
Correspondence
Intolerable Acts, 1774
5. Boston Tea Party
7. Lexington and Concord
1770
Boston Massacre;
Repeal of all
Townshend
Acts except tea tax
186
Briefly explain the significance
of each of the following.
4. Samuel Adams
1769
Daughters
of Liberty
1776
Common
Sense;
Declaration of
Independence
CRITICAL THINKING
3. writs of assistance
1768
Occupation of Boston
by British troops
1774
Intolerable
Acts; First
Continental
Congress;
Boycott of
British goods
TERMS & NAMES
2. Sons of Liberty
1763
Proclamation
of 1763
1765
Quartering
Act; Stamp
Act; Sons of
Liberty;
Stamp Act
Congress
Chapter 6 ASSESSMENT
7. Why was the First Continental
Congress held? (HI2)
8. What was the Midnight Ride?
(HI1)
Declaring Independence
(pages 176–185)
9. What was the Battle of
Bunker Hill? (HI1)
10. What was the core idea of the
Declaration of Independence?
(REP4)
How did colonial leaders differ in
their methods of defending and
securing basic rights for the
colonies? (HI1)
3. APPLYING CITIZENSHIP SKILLS
Did colonial leaders have a responsibility to include women, African
Americans, and other groups in
the Declaration of Independence?
Explain. (REP4)
4. THEME: IMPACT OF THE
INDIVIDUAL
How did John Adams’s role as
lawyer for the British soldiers
involved in the Boston Massacre
help set a tone for the
Revolutionary cause? (HI1)
5. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
What factors and events led the
colonies to seek independence? (HI2)
6. SUPPORTING OPINIONS
Do you think the American
Revolution would have occurred if
Britain had not taxed the colonies?
Why or why not? (HI4)
Interact with History
Now that you have read about the
road to revolution, do you consider your decision made at the
beginning of the chapter to join or
not join the protest a wise choice
or a poor choice? Explain.
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STANDARDS-BASED ASSESSMENT
Use the map and your knowledge of U.S. history to
answer questions 1 and 2.
2. What is the approximate distance between the
northernmost colony and Great Britain? (7.11.1)
A. 1,000 miles
Additional Test Practice, pp. S1–S33.
B. 2,000 kilometers
C. 3,000 miles
United States and Britain, 1776
D. 5,000 kilometers
GREAT
BRITAIN
This quotation from James Otis is about the use of
search warrants by the British. Use the quotation and
your knowledge of U.S. history to answer question 3.
NORTH
AMERICA
P R I M A RY S O U R C E
40°N
13 original
states
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
AFRICA
1,000 Miles
0
2,000 Kilometers
James Otis, Jr., quoted in James Otis: The PreRevolutionist by J. C. Ridpath
40°W
80°W
0
It appears to me the worst instrument of arbitrary
power, the most destructive of English liberty and the
fundamental principles of law, that was ever found in
an English law-book.
0°
0°
1. What does the yellow shaded area on the map
represent? (7.11.1)
3. What conclusion can you draw about Otis’s point
of view? (8.1.2)
A. Otis believed that the searches would benefit
the colonists.
B. Otis realized that British searches were more
important than colonial liberties.
B. Great Britain
C. Otis believed that colonists were entitled to
certain liberties.
C. North America
D. Otis thought the searches were right.
A. the original colonies
D. the United States
TEST PRACTICE
CL ASSZONE .COM
ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT
1.
WRITING ABOUT HISTORY
INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY ACTIVITY
PARTICIPATING IN A NET SIMULATION
Colonists had divided opinions about the Boston Tea
Party. Suppose you are a pollster, attempting to gather
data about public opinion. Write quotations from five
colonists who support the Tea Party and another five
quotes from people who condemn the act. (REP5)
Go to NetSimulations: Boston Massacre at classzone.com
to participate in the jury trial of Captain Thomas Preston.
He and the soldiers of the 29th British Regiment have
been arrested for the murder of five citizens. (REP4)
• You can write your quotations based on information
tion to review the events surrounding the Boston
Massacre. Use the Juror’s Journal to take notes.
found in books or on the Internet.
• Using a word processor, you can use different type
sizes and fonts to emphasize the question you pose
and the two opposing responses.
2. COOPERATIVE LEARNING
Participate in a class debate modeled after the discussions held by members of the Continental Congress
concerning independence and the slave trade. (REP5)
• Use the information in this chapter and the simula-
• Read Captain Preston’s statement, then begin ques-
tioning the prosecution and defense witnesses.
Answer the questions in the Juror’s Journal to record
the evidence you hear.
• Listen to each attorney’s closing arguments, then
enter your verdict.
NET SIMULATION
CL ASSZONE .COM
The Road to Revolution 187