Casts. Next on American History tv Richard Belle talks about the declaration of independence. The Smithsonian Associates hosted this event. Dr. Bell presented many outstanding programs for us on topics relating to early American History and the American Revolutionary period in the course of the past several years. He got his degree from the university of cambridge. He is an associate professor of history in college park where he specializes in early American History. The American Society of 18th century studies be stowed thash course design award on the under graduate course. And his book, stolen, it is a true story about five boys kidnapped in the north and smuggled into slavery in the deep south and their daring attempt to escape and bring their captors to justice being published in october. So thank you again for joining us, and help many welcome dr. Rick bell. Thanks to heather and cspan for covering this. Many of you will not be surprised to hear my strange accent which is not a maryland natives accent. I was born and raised in england and i find myself teaching about the American Revolution as part of my job right now which is a blessing and a curse. On occasions like this i like to have a giant british flag that i might drape around the scenery for c span to drink in. I was a naturalized citizen a few years ago. It wonderful to be part of it. Downside of c span being here, unfortunately is i dont get to swear, it also means i dont get to show you any cute videos of my kids or anything from hamilton the musical for copyright reasons. But that still leaves us with a lot. There is a lot of microphones here. Okay. Folks the document on display that we call the declaration of independence. It has only been on display in that massive bombproof building since 1952. Before that it was in the library of congress. E and previous to that it hunkered down. But during the centennial back in 1876 it did briefly return to philadelphia, the city of its birth. There a grandson of one of the original signers read it publicly as part of this countrys 100th birthday celebrations. And reports tell us that the massive crowd of people that day burst into cheers at the sight of it. In the first 50 years it traveled more freakily. When the british burned down washington dc, the document we think of as the declaration of inden independence it was not there, it was hiding. It spent the second half of the American Revolution years earlier rolled up and stuffed in a linen bag and it escorted congress from one temporary capitol city to another. I have shocking news. The document that we have gone to such lengths to preserve is not the actual declaration of independence on or at least its not the first or the last, and it is far from being the only declaration of independence. The one he is looking at is a special commemorative edition to memorialize the independence that the delegates actually declared in a simple vote weeks earlier. It is really a souvenir, a beautiful souvenir made after the fact. It was engrossed on parchment. It was signed by 56 delegates. And at least one who goats against the declaration of independence. This is all Cocktail Party trivia so far, but all of what i said so far is just my preamble. It is not about this parchment. It is all about the next declaration of independence. So i think thinking now of his own draft. And of the final version approved by congress on july 4th, the one disseminated in print across america and across the world. I am also thinking of several more. Some written here, others far away. Some written by elite men like jefferson. But putting all of these into conversation with one another, i hope it will give us fresh perspective on the parchment that peeks out from behind bullet proof glass. We can be reminded that for all of its being, it is the creation, adoption, and desemination of a 1310 word statement that forged the American People in union, justified their rebellion, asserted their independence, and announced this countrys appearance on the world stage. That famous statement, it is now our promise to ourselves. There is much to admire and to discuss. As the founding moment in our history, delairing independ from Great Britain can seem to us like the first date with destiny. But it didnt seem like that at the time. But the decision to do it was a long, long time coming. Open rebellion was treason, remember. And in april 1775 when new england militias took shots at the british army at lexington and concord, the number of americans contemplating unam biggous revolution could have been sounded on one hand. A month after these events in may, the delegates to that congress were under instructions from their colonial legislatures to find a way to patch things up with britain. Thats what they have been september to philadelphia to do. Reconciliation and redress were the order of the day. Few at that point were thinking that congress was using its insurrection against the monarc monarchy. And it was actually king george iii that first declared the cko l colonists for them. The king issues a proclamation saying the colonists were now outside of his protection. That is august 1775. And the British Parliament declared roll on the colonists commerce. Beginning stop and serge raids on american merchant shipping. Another thing that nudged them in that direction was the appearance of a new pamphlet in 1776. It is the work of a outcast englishman that came to philadelphia to start again. And it told readers that it was common sense for the colonists to respond to georges bullying by walking away and starting afresh. It sold like hot cakes and quickly made its way into the pockets, homes, and minds of perhaps millions. And it worked to bind people throughout the clonnys and it gave them all a common enemy, too. Laying the blame of all of the chaos and the trauma of the past ten years at one feet. The feet of king george the iii. In a few ways then this flimsy brochure was the American Peoples declaration. That the redders across the colonies made. And towns, counties, and legislatur legislatures. Issuing their own, miniature deck la declarations of independence claiming their separate nation hood and sum mar imarizing the of events. They were much longer and there was one in your hand that runs from buckingham county. They came back to the threats posed by the fleets and the armies he sent to repress and divide them. He came back again and again to the now escalating rumors and the government recently dispatched a large invading force to the colonies. 90 state and local have been there. They were written to put pressure on the often cautious delegates of the Second Continental Congress so they might find the courage to embrace the cause of independence. And they soon started to see. Every post and every day rolls in upon us. Independence like a torrent. And it wasnt just john adams. Others were also starting to get this message from their own constituents. And a man of the virginia delegation introduced the first formal, a revolution to declare that these United Colonies ought to be free and independent states. But them and the state of Great Britain and they ought to be finally dissolved. Two days of intense debate but the outcome of that debate may not be the result that youre expecting. Others in favor of independence didnt have the votes to carry the day, at least not yet. So the members did what congress has always done best, they kicked the can down the road. They declared a final vote and they agreed instead to set up a committee to study the issue. Resolved that the first revolution be postponed, and in the meantime, lest any time should be lost, in case the congress does agree, a committee to be apounced to prepare a declaration to the revolution. This is hardly the rousing nation birthing moment that patriots miegtt have been ho have been hoping for. John adams simms socievoted to the next few weeks there. And he agreed to serve on this new committee. A five person team tasked to draft a declaration of independence that congress could quickly roll out in case the revolutionary revolution would later pass. We better get cracking on it. So a committee of five. The other delegates assigned to this committee that was not a plum assignment, there was probably arm twisting involved we were ben Benjamin Franklin. Thomas jefferson, they were all busy with other committee assignments. It made sense for just one of them to take the lead. Drafting the document they have been tasked to prepare. A supporter of independence by this time might seem to us like the obvious choice to be the lead drafts man. But he was also plagued by gout and exhausted. Robert livingstone was on the committee as a token conservative. He had been urging reconciliation, patching things off, not independence, and he there was to make sure things didnt get too crazy and run out of hand. Roger sherman, too, the guy in the middle, was largely window dressing. He was a good man, described as shonest eses eses esest hon. That left john adams, the tall sandy haired planter who had a reputation as a writer, but who had barely said a word. And they argued about which one of them should not do the work. And who the other person should be that is drafting. Were going to do theater live on cspan. Two randomly selected volunteers, chuck and katherine, can you come up, please . Adams later wrote a reconstruction of the conversation. Say hello, Thomas Jefferson. You were right the first time. The conversation between Thomas Jefferson and john adams and if, if i am remembers correctly, the conversation began like this will you write. I will not. You should write it. Why not . You ought to do it. I will not. Why . Reasons enough. What dcan be your reasons. Reason one, youre a virginian and a virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason two, im obnoxious, suspect, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason three. You can write ten times better than i can. Well if you are decided, i will do as well as i can. Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting. Thank you. That took 30 minutes of rehearsal that is the conversation according to john amends about the bickering, when john adams was asked if that is how it happened he said absolutely not. They met for the next few days to outline what exactly this document should contain but they left it to jefferson to write it up on his own. And he did as he was told. He wrote quickly, he used a portable writing desk that he brought with him from virginia. And he had a first draft done in as few as two days. He lent on no other sources, but jefferson was already deeply versed in enlightened political philosophy and that is evident in the draft that he came up with. It ohs a considering death to many dexs. Including the second treaties of civil government publishes that same year, and his own 1774 pamphlet, a summary view of the rights of the independence of america. And george masons virginia declaration of rights. An early copy he received just days earlier. The powerful opening lines drew dire directly from this wellspring of ideas and language. As you see on screen, jeffersons language, jeffersons language was simple. So let me give you two examples here. Now look for the influence in jeffersons writing but when a long train of abuses and use of patience invinces a design to reduce them and you seep a sort of borrowing of language and ideas there here he is borrowing from george mason. He wrote that all men are created equally free and independent and they have certain inherent natural rights. Among which are the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the means of acquiring or possessing property. And they said we hold these truths to be sacred and self evident, and from that equal creation that have rights that are inalienable among the creation of life, liberty, and happiness. Thats all i will say for the moment about the opening paragraphs, and for the fill lot if is that form those two famous seasons, i would recommend these wonderfully learned and sophisticated books if you want to learn more. I want to keep going because ininstei instead i want us to think about the declarations long middle section. The least quotable bit. The photograaragraphs that ever skips over. Im talking about his list of grievances. Theyre hugely important. Without the grievances, there is no motive. So lets take a look. There was more than two dozen grievances in jeffersons draft and 27 end up in the final version by the way. The first roughly 12 assail, the next ten or so describe georges conspiracies with parliament to use legislative powers to inflight even more damage over that same 12 year period. Then come the final group of grievances. He has been wanging this war against his own people over the previous 12 months. Now the tone of this long list of charges grows more and more urgent, beligerant as it goes on and on like he was making a Closing Argument as an attorney in a murder trial. He uses verks like dissolves, effected, but the verks become more e voc tiative. They say he plundered our seas. Burned our towns. Another raises the speck tar of those arriving sold juries dispatched he says to come preet the works of death, desolation, and tyranny. One of those final charges deserves our particular attention. And he is encouraging them to make war against the patriots. In the same charge, he condemns king george for the actions taken and he promised freedom by patriot masters. And in these lines jefferson was channelling many patriots anxieties about the threats posed to their security by run away slaves and by warning, but there is still something distasteful here. How angry it makes jefferson, and there is of course something willful about his refusal to acknowledge that decades of colonial incursions are the true source of tension between patriots and natives. Rather than acknowledge that truth, jeffersons and im about to quote robert maparkins. He says their blood thirsty b barbarians that dont know theyre being duped by a tyrant. That tyrant is not the british people, it is one official monarch that looks like this, king george the iii. Look at the way that most of the crisp brief seasons in the middle section of his draft continue. He has entigcited. He is george. George is rendered here not as a puppet of parliament or as a gaffe prone bungler. He is rendered here as an all powerful villain that enacted an intentional program of harm. This is george as richard the third. He gives readers someone to root against and someone to hate. Given that goal it should not surprise us that his list of grievances is full of hyperbole. He says there are swarms of tax collectors in the clolonys when there was only 50. And that is hardly true. He blames americans slavery and the slave trade on king george. A man that came to the throne 16 years earlier, not 160 years earlier. What im saying is simple and i hope uncontroversial. Dont look to this list of grievances for just the facts. This is not journalism. This is not the lists job. The lists job is to fire up readers and to give them a story in john adams words that shall make their ears to tingle. As a catalog of prosecutable crimes, it is surprisingly vague. A lot of emotion, but not a lot of detail. No places or dates in this list of injuries and use of patience, and he names no other names but the king. As a result if you dont know your revolutionary history inside and out you may not be able to place each of the kings atrocities, but that abstraction is intentional. It is such a way that they can spot general outrage no matter where they are being read and no mat who are is reading them. Following his list of grievances he concludes that despite insisting the extraordinary provocations, the americans have been patient sufferers who have sought peace at every opportunity. At every stage of these oppressions jefferson wrote that our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury it is king georges fault that it has come to this. The clolonists have no other choice. We know he showed his draft to franklin and adams. But he did show it to franklin and amends. They were two members, both mens, adams and franklin led the jefferson draft carefully, but according to jefferson they thought it was genius. They said their alterations were two or three only and merely verbal. He made their changing happily and the committee of five submitted their combined work to congress. This is a portrait by that group of five turning in their home work to the larger congress. It is not the july 4th signing or anything like that that didnt happen, but it is them turning in their home work, and i just want to turn your attention for one hot second. Look at that mans hand on his hip. Once you see it you really cant stop looking at it. He is very proud of his work. And why not . Delegates have three days to read it over. And on july 3rd on july the 1st the debate in Congress Finally began on the original resolution. The resolution was, you recall, that these United Colonies ought to be free and independent states, it had been several weeks since it had been tabled and in the meantime there was lots of arm twisting and lobbying. Several delegates went in Different Directions and they game them permission to vote however they saw fit. Maryland could send along instructions. Most mens minds were made up. And news that a british fleet had just been sited added to the momentum of the independence. I would show you the clip from 1776 now if we had the rights. The delaware delegation, they seemed to vote. John dickenson himself stayed home. But the no votes were massively outnumber outnumbered. And it was how many colonies voted yes or no that matters. He will kweezed it insqueezed t last free shot. Now congress had not yet touched the committee of fives draft of the public declaration. So they took up that task the following morning. They ordered up a batch of printed committees language. All of those printed copies of the committees language must have been destroyed afterwards. None of those printed copies of the committees draft survived today. They added two new appeals to god because they thought the American People might like that but they deleted most of jeffersons conclusion in favor of concluding language from the original resolution. They worked for two days and they made no less than 86 alterations. The more changing they made the more miserable he got. Frankly apparently tried to placate him and told him to cheer up by telling him a story. A hat maker with a great sign to put outside. John thompson, hatter, makes and sells hats for ready money. But the hat maker made the mistake of asking his friends for feed back, and they were not shy in giving it to him. They said it was redundant because who else sells hats but a hatter. And that customers only come into a shop to buy something, not to see thousand how it is made. A third friend thought for ready money was equally unnecessary. So when they were finally finished, they were left with this. That was franklins story, it was supposed to cheer him up. Whether or not it did, jefferson was no fan of the editors he had in congress. He called him his critics and he did not mean that in a nice way. But like that hat makers friends, his editors in congress were doing good work. The changes rained in, focused some of the successed of jeffersons drafts. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of injuries and use of patients. But all have direct pobts for the establishment of a tyranny. The history of the Great Britain all have a direct object and the accomplishment of a direct tierney over these direct states. This is no hack, the delegates that labored over the declaration had splended language. Now a quick question for you, why do you think they were in such a hurry to get a printed proclamation with that vote on july 2nd . As i have written out, why do you think they worked so hard and so quickly to get this written declaration finished, signed off on, and out the door . What is the hurry . Raise your hand and tell me what you think. Yes, sir . They wanted to go to the beach. I love this man. Okay. Yes, they might have their eyes abroad. Thats great. Anyone else . Sure. They were fearful of their necks. Fearful of their necks . So, announcing theyd done something treasonous as quickly as possible is a good move . Make sure it got broadcast. They want enough people at their backs if someones coming for them. Thank you for that. Is there another hand . Common sense, maybe they wanted to do it while the getting was good, so to speak, while the public was with them. Weve got the momentum, the public is with us, we dont know how long the public is going to be with us so lets move this right along. One more hand here. Balcony . I can never see. Theres a giant spotlight in my face. Its hot, and they didnt want to stay anymore. Its hot and they didnt want to stay anymore, theyd rather be at the beach and katherine . There was a vote coming up the british the british are coming, the british are coming. One more hand at the back maybe . They didnt want to give anyone time to have second thoughts about what they had done. They want to get peoples signatures down quickly, perhaps thats a possibility as well. I like that. Ill take many of those. Let me move on and try to answer at least part of this. Because i want to favor one of the arguments weve heard over the others. We tend to assume that the motive for all their hard work on this Public Statement was so that it could be promptly circulated to the American People, to up the stakes in the escalating military conflict, to give soldiers something to fight for, or perhaps it was aimed at king george, a retaliation, a very public retaliation for his previous contempt. Now, those explanations and most, though not all of the explanations you offered, the one about the beach is questionable. Theyre all compelling, but i do not think theyre even half the story. In truth, as one gentleman said, the delegates had their eyes on france. Their new declaration of independence was their hail mary, their best hope of securing foreign assistance. They desperately needed to resume trading with europe. They urgently needed to borrow lots of money. They needed hard currency and boat loads of it. And they needed french soldiers, sailors, and ships to join them in the fight to push the british back into the sea. To earn this critical foreign assistance, the colonies had to prove to the world that they were rebels against the crown, and the best way to do so, tom payne, had argued in the pages of common sense back in january, the best way to prove to the world that they are real rebels was to announce that fact in writing. In a manifesto that the delegates could dispatch this is paine dispatch to foreign courts, setting forth the miseries we have endured and the peaceable methods weve infecttually used for address, declaring at the same time that not being able any longer to live happily or safely under the cruel disposition of the british court. We have been driven to the necessity of breaking off all connections with her. At the same time, assuring all such courts of our peaceable disposition towards them and our desire of entering into trade with them. Every delegate who had voted on july 2nd knew tom paines arguments backwards and forwards. Richard henry lee certainly did, and he wrote that april of 76 that no state in europe will either treat or trade with us so long as we consider ourselves subjects of Great Britain. We wont be able to make treaties or trade with anyone in europe except britain if we are still subjects of Great Britain. Indeed, two months later, when Richard Henry lee wrote his june 7th resolutions, he didnt just propose independence in that resolution, he actually proposed two other things in the larger language. He also proposed to prepare and digest the form of a confederation and offered a third resolution to draw up a plan for forming foreign alliances, so in the same breath that we say, how about independence . Were saying, how about foreign alliances . These two things are the same thought. Seen in that context, then, the declaration itself is a means to an end. And everyone at the time understood this, even if today we sometimes do not. On its own, congresss proclamation could not make the colonies free and independent. But maybe with frances help, it could. This is why the delegates had their declaration translated into french immediately. Its why they sent copies addressed to king louis xvi of france and king carlos ii of spain on the first ship bound for europe four days later on july 8th. Its why they had them published in european newspapers. Its why the congress authorized john adams to draw up a list of talking points for negotiations with france within days. Its why congress dispatched Benjamin Adams Benjamin Adams . Its why congress dispatched Benjamin Franklin to paris later that fall. But before we get to paris, or london, or any other european capital, before we travel with the declaration over the sea, lets pause for a moment longer in the american colonies or should i say now the United States. Congress proclaimed the official text of its declaration on monday, july 8th, 1776. Issuing it as a printed poster known as a broadside, prepared by john dunlap, their official printer. Broadsides were the perfect size to paste up everywhere, and their typeface was just large enough to be legible outdoors and to be easily read aloud in public settings. And so they were read aloud outside, these broadsides, these dunlap declarations, first in philadelphia that same day, july 8th, when colonel john nixon of philadelphias committee of safety read the declaration, read the printed dunlap broadside from a wooden platform outside the state house. When nixon reached its conclusion, the gathered crowd erupted into repeated huzzahs. Then, members of the committee of inspection took down the kings coat of arms from the courtroom inside the state house and threw them on to a bonfire. The celebration continued on for hours afterwards as john adams remembered the citys bells rang all day and almost all night. Congress ordered other copies of dunlaps broadside to be sent far and wide, to committees of safety, counsels, conventions and state assemblies with the request that it be proclaimed in such a mode as that the people may be universally informed of it. Over the following days, these declarations, dozens and dozens of them, were read in churches, in public squares, and to the troops of the Continental Army. When one of these dunlap declarations was read in baltimore just up the road from here, a band of jubilant patriots marked the occasion by dragging a dummy of our late king through the town in a cart and then setting it on fire in front of a large crowd. While only 25 copies of dunlaps broadside still survive today, historians believe that he churned out more than 200 of them in the first july 8 printing and that there were many other later printings and dozens of newspaper transcriptions of the text as well that summer. The london papers the london papers, they printed the text of congresss declaration in the second week of august, and you might expect it to have caused uproar over there. But a calculated shrug might be more accurate. Parliament was on summer recess, by the way. Most ministers were out of town, and there was no immediate official public reaction, not even a press release or the 18th century equivalent thereof. This strategy, i think, was to try to starve the colonists of attention, to deny the legitimacy of their declaration, and in so doing refuse to recognize the rights of britains enemies and france to interfere in the british empires internal business. Clever, right . In london, at least, the document only generated two public rebuttals. One was by thomas hutchinson, the exiled former governor of massachusetts. The other was by a young lawyer named john lind, who it turns out was secretly in the pay of the british government. Lind published a pamphlet taking the american declaration to task, point by point, and as you a ratingu5aread. In the american declaration,fnr r men are created ½gqequal, life liberty, pursuit of happiness.  lind didnt care. Of the preamble, i have taken little or no notice. Does it deserve. E hubris much . I dont know. Qq instead, lind focused his energy on trying to pick apart the list of 27 grievances in the final text, and doing that took lind a while. Congresss declaration was 1,310 words long. John linds rebuttal to it was 130 pages. Which is to say, no one read it. And what about the rest of europe . Copies of the declaration reached ireland, austria, the dutch republic, and spain by the end of august, and then copenhagen, basal, and florence in early september. Ironically, given the delegates focus on france, the declaration turned up there quite belatedly. The dunlap broadsides that congress had sent to silas dean, its representative in paris, theyd been lost in transit. Theyd been lost in transit. And replacements didnt arrive until early november. By then, two french translations had appeared in the paris newspapers, but its not certain if senior members of the french court had yet read them or acknowledged them. What is certain is that when they did, the french were unimpressed. Silas dean was under instructions to obtain, as early as possible, a public acknowledgment of the independentsy of these states from the french king, but no such acknowledgment was forthcoming. Weeks passed. Then months. The french court said nothing. John dickinson, the lawyer from pennsylvania, had predicted this would happen. In his speech against independence, back on july 1st, dickinson had stood up to ridicule the notion that a written declaration would somehow be sufficient, on its own, to convince foreign powers of our strength and unanimity. What rubbish, John Dickinson had said in that speech. Before taking sides, before wading in, the french will the french will surely wait for us to start winning on the battlefield. The event of the military campaign, dickinson said, the event of the military campaign will be the best evidence of our strength, not some piece of paper you guys write today. Now, dismissed at the time, John Dickinson proved to be prescient, as it was only when the Continental Army routed British Forces at the battle of saratoga more than a year later in october of 1777 that france finally began the formal negotiations that would culminate in the treaty of amity and commerce with the United States signed in february 1778. And it was only then, when france finally got off the sidelines, that britains other european rivals agreed to do the same. The dutch republic and spain were the next to sign on to the war effort against the british. In so doing, they recognized the United States as a free and independent country. After britains defeat at yorktown, britain too would have to do the same. And in article i of the treaty of paris, signed in october 1783, to mark the end of the war and the coming of the peace, britains peace commissioners grudgingly endorsed an agreement in which his britannic majesty acknowledges the said United States to be free, sovereign, and independent states. As i start to wrap up, i want to move past the dunlap broadsides and the newspaper transcriptions and the Foreign Language translations and turn now to another set of declarations that have been hiding in plain sight. Im thinking here about all the subsequent declarations of independence, more than 100 of them that rebels, separatists, and state makers have crafted in other parts of the world since 1776 in direct imitation of ours. That practice began quite quickly. By the time Thomas Jefferson and john adams passed away can someone raise their hand and tell me on what date and what year they passed away . July 4, 1826. 50 years to the day since that little since they finished their work. By the time Thomas Jefferson and john adams passed away on july 4, 1826, people in flanders and argentina and chile and el salvador and panama and the Hellenic Republic in brazil, the united provinces, bolivia and uruguay had all written their own declarations of independence. All of them modeled on ours. We know, in fact, that american travelers in chile and mexico actually distributed translations of our declaration there in the years before the chileans and the mexicans liberated themselves. And that multiple translations of our declaration also made their way to colombia, venezuela, and ecuador over the course of the 50year period after 1776. A half century known to scholars as the age of revolutions. So you can call it the age of declarations too. As the harvard historian david a armitage has shown, that age of revolutions was just the first of four great waves of declaration making in global history since 1776. A second wave swept round the world in the immediate aftermath of the first and second first world war. Between 1918 and 1939, declarations of independence were central features of the demands for selfdetermination that marked the destruction of the ottoman empire, the romanov empire and the hapsburg empire and again the debt to our own american declaration was obvious at every turn. For instance, when the czech nationalist signed a declaration of independence of the mideuropean union, in october 1918, he did so with ink from an ink well from philadelphias independence hall. Two more great waves of declaration making have remade our modern world since the end of world war ii. One began immediately at that wars end and maintained momentum for the next 30 years. H historians regard those three decades as the golden age of decolonization, a tumultuous, chaotic period in which some 70 new states, most of them former colonies of the british, french, and portuguese empires in africa and asia, declared their independence. And a fourth wave of declarations crashed ashore much more recently in the early 1990s following the collapse of the soviet union. As one former soviet socialist republic after another regained its independence. Now, in 2019, the majority of the countries on this planet have their own declarations of independence. Among them, bangladesh, belgium, finland, ireland, israel, korea, liberia, may la sha, new zealand, singapore, syria, and taiwan. Some of these declarations, like the republic of vietnam, 1945 declaration, quote our declaration word for word. As you can see on your handout, i have included that one. Others simply express their debt to our declaration with a bit more subtlety. In june of 1826, two weeks before he died, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to a friend in which he called americas 1776 declaration an instrument pregnant with the fate of the world. How right he turned out to be. Over the past two and a half centuries, peoples around the world have used jeffersons declaration, our declaration, as one of their weapons of choice to try to extinguish and obliterate empires. Our declarations pitty, pointed assertion of sovereignty and statehood is its most important global legacy and its significance can hardly be overstated. In our lifetimes, ladies and gentlemen, decolonization movements empowered by the original american declaration, have continued to sweep this globe. Continuing to mark the unmistakable emergence of a world of states from the wreckage of a world of empires. Here in the United States, our declaration has spawned hundreds of american imitations, other declarations devoted to other causes that draw on the 1776 original to advance their own claims to freedom from other types of tyranny. The most famous of these is up on the screen, the declaration of rights and sentiments written by Elizabeth Cady stanton for the 1848 Womens Rights Convention in seneca, new york, a document which holds that all men and women are created equal, and it goes on like that, replicating the language and moderating it and adapting it throughout the entire document. And its not alone. Really, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many more american adaptations. In 1829, the utopian activist robert owen wrote a declaration of mental independence designed to free americans from private property, from organized religion, and the tyranny, ladies and gentlemen, of monogamous marriage. The tyranny, ladies and gentlemen, of monogamous marriage. That same year, 1829, George Henry Evans authored the working mans declaration of independence, which did exactly what you think it did. The list goes on and on. If we skip forward, in 1970, africanamerican Church Leaders published the black declaration of independence. Heres a quick excerpt from it. The history of the treatment of black people in the United States is a history having in direct object the establishment and maintenance of racist tyranny over this people. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. The United States has evaded compliance to laws the most wholesome and necessary for our childrens education. The United States has caused us to be isolated in the most dilapidated and unhealthful sections of all cities. The United States has allowed election districts to be so gerrymandered that black people find the right to representation in the legislatures almost impossible of attainment. There are dozens and dozens of these alternative declarations, and in 1976, the year of the bicentennial, by the way, historian phillip published a wonderful collection of these alternative declarations that i urge you to find and read. Still, counting the number of times that americans have adapted the entire 1776 text, thats hardly the only way we can measure the enduring value of our declaration on these shores. A great many more americans have drawn much more selectively on the text of that declaration, focusing in, of course, on its second paragraph, the one that that british lawyer had dismissively referred to as a worthless preamble. We hold these truths to be selfevident, jefferson and the delegates had written there. That all men are created equal. Now, to be clear, jefferson was referring to equality of peoples, peoples, plural. The American People and the british people. But most readers since then have taken him to mean that all individual people are created equal, a wonderful, powerful misreading that is imparted to our modern world a veritable golden rule for human rights. A credo that activists and rights seekers have invoked in almost every aspirational, progressive advancement in our countrys history. Think about our declarations role in the fight against slavery here in the United States. Black americans, slave and free, heard, in its ringing lines, a call to arms. An invitation to turn its abstract claims about equality into vibrant reality by any means necessary. In 1829, the free black radical david walker concluded his famous appeal to the colored citizens of the world by inviting white americans to compare your own language extracted from your declaration of independence with your behavior, with your cruelties, your murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and by yourselves on our fathers and on us. Frederi Frederick Douglass drove the same point home at a famous speech in rochester, new york, on july 5, 1852. What, to the slave, is the fourth of july, he asked. How can black men and women enjoy that hallowed day or appreciate its significance as the birthday of this countrys Political Freedom when white people hold securely in bondage a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country. What, to the slave, is the fourth of july . Those are free black people ive been quoting. Slave rebels themselves also understood our declarations power. It was the ideals of our declaration, dont forget, that inspired nat turner to plan his 1831 virginia slave revolt for july 4th. White abolitionists too returned to the declaration time and again, finding in its famous lines a corollary to their own consciouses. As virginias john cook put it in 1829, if those words meant that no one man is born with a natural right to control any other man, then a system of slavery in which men were born the subjects and indeed the property of others is profoundly wrong. No one did more to constitute our declaration as a beacon towards which the people of the United States must hew than abraham lincoln. The great emancipator. The declaration was, lincoln said, our manifest destiny, constantly looked to, constantly labored for. The assertion that all men are created equal was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain, lincoln wrote in an 1857 essay denouncing the recent dred scott decision. Those lines were placed in the declaration not for that but for future use. Its authors meant it to be a stumbling block to all those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism. When the war came, the civil war, lincoln stuck to that same line of argument. When he came to gettysburg, pennsylvania, to dedicate the cemetery there for the union dead, the president noted that that decisive 1863 battle at gettysburg had taken place on that field on july 4th. In his gettysburg address, lincoln argues that the Union Triumph was nothing less than a vindication of the proposition that all men are created equal. The union dead, he said, had heeded the declarations challenge, bringing to this nation, under god, a new birth of freedom. We survivors, lincoln said, must finish the work the declaration had started. In lincolns hands, the declaration becomes the living document that i think it remains today. A secular creed, a set of goals to be realized over time. We can hear its echo in almost every call to expand freedom, equality, and civil rights in this country ever since. The declarations promise of equal rights was the touchstone for advocacies of the 13th amendment that abolished slavery and the 14th amendment that guaranteed former slaves both citizenship and equal protection. The declarations language and ideas whoa, what happened there . Lets go back. The declarations language and ideas reverberate through fdrs four freedoms speech about Global Human Rights and the threat of totalitarianism in 1941. During Martin Luther king jr. s march on washington in 1963, king told crowds that our declaration was a promissory note to which every american was to fall heir. Kings famous dream is actually the declarations dream. Kings hopes are rooted in its famous second paragraph. I still have a dream, he said. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed, we hold these truths to be selfevident that all men are created equal. We can find the language of the declaration in the public debate surrounding every single Civil Rights Act ever passed in American History. Heres president Lyndon Johnson. Sorry its such a big quote. Heres president Lyndon Johnson speaking at the signing ceremony for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a ceremony that took place not coincidentally on july 2nd. The anniversary of the date when the Constitutional Congress had declared independence. This is Lyndon Johnson. 188 years ago, a small band of valiant men began a long struggle for freedom. They pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor not only to found a nation but to forge an ideal of freak, not only for political independence but for personal liberty, not only to eliminate foreign rule but to establish the rule of justice in the affairs of men. We believe that all men are created equal. Yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights. Yet still Many Americans do not enjoy those rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. Yet still millions are being deprived of those blessings not because of their own failures but because of the color of their skin. In our own time, numerous Civil Rights Activists, including disability advocates, labor advocates, immigration advocates, and gay marriage advocates have all invoked our declaration, even as theyve sought constitutional remedies, usually via the 14th amendment. While our declaration has never had the full force of law, it has found its purpose as a means for rights seekers to seize the moral high ground. Our declaration is the voice of idealism and humanity. It is what pricks our american conscience and reminds us what is right. It is what shames us and stirs us to lift our heads and do better. It is what pulls us forward. And theres a beautiful paradox in all of this. Isnt there . This declaration of ours is an 18th century document, conceived, written, and authorized by a group of white men of considerable privilege and power that has, over time, become a clarion call for everyone else, for africanamericans, native americans, propertyless white men, and women to claim equality as their birthright. In fact, and this is where ill stop, as the harvard political scientist Danielle Allen has explained, the declaration matters now because it helps us see that we cannot have freedom without equality. Thanks very much indeed. We have time for a few minutes of comments and questions. If i call on you, please wait for the gentleman with the cspan mic to come to you so you can be picked up for posterity, which means forever and ever. So my question is, and there might be a followup depending on your answer, was there not an original calligraphy copy of the declaration sent to england immediately after it had been signed or did it not get there until the dunlap broadsides . Im not aware that theres an original calligraphic copy sent to king george as a fancy f. U. Sorry, cspan. I tried really hard. So, its the dunlap broadside or Something Like it that is on that ship on july 8th. The calligraphic thing that is in the rotunda now is ordered up at the end of july. Its engrossed, which is the word for some dude writing it out in his fancy handwriting, at the end of july, the start of august, and the signing of the name, the famous names at the bottom of the delegates begins on august 2nd, not july 2nd, as it mistakenly says in your handouts. It begins on august 2nd, and the signing does not all happen there arent 56 people waiting to sign. Theres whoevers in the building on august 2nd. John hancock signs first and then there are describe dribs and drabs. It takes them until the early months of 1777 to get all 56 signatures that you see today on to that document because people move around and some people hadnt even been elected to that congress on july 2nd, subsequently signed the c calligraphy. The signatures are sort of grouped by geography. If i have this right, if im the declaration of independence and oh dear if john hancock is my knees, lets say, then the georgia delegation is to your bottom left and then we go from south to north until we end up with New Hampshire in, i think, the bottom right. So theres a little sort of secret there. Theres no secrets on the back of the declaration of independence like nicolas cage would tell you in National Treasure but that is one little thing. I have a feeling you have a followup. With the broadsides, were the signers names put on for, you know no. My understanding, only John Hancocks name was printed, not even he signed it. Thats my understanding. So, nobody knew who the other signers were. The gentleman down here is correcting me. And the secretary. Whose name was . Charles thompson. Im being told thats the name of the secretary and i defer to the expertise of my audience. Gentleman in the back there in the lime shirt. Yes. I have two questions. Number one is, in light of the 1829 1830 statement, i believe you mentioned john locke, i think . I forget the name of the person you mentioned. How said that all men, all people are created equal at that time, how can roger tanny have the audacity to say that slaves are property . And my second question has to do with this. I always was under the impression that king george iii was not really an absolutist as most of us seem to think, but that parliament had a great deal of influence in what was going on. Thank you. Thank you for the two questions. The first one, ill just point out that one of the reasons roger tawny and other members of the Supreme Court can hand down opinions like the famous dred scott opinion from the 1857 is that the declaration of independence has no force of law. It is our constitution, of course, which has the overriding force of law. In fact, interestingly, some judges even today confuse the two. There was a famous case i wont name the judges name, partly because i cant remember in 2013 when a judge in virginia, in her opinion, quoted the constitutions famous line that all men are created equal. Which, of course, is not in the constitution, and as many generations of scholars will tell you, the original 1787 constitution is, at best, ambivalent on the rights and liberties of black people, and many scholars would say you can actually pin down 10 or 12 different proslavery provisions in the constitution, most famously the three fifths compromise. So, thats why tawny can do that in 1857. And the second question was about the characterization of king george iii. I think you know where im going to go with this, which is to say, jefferson has an obvious reason to paint king george in the most diabolical authoritarian allpowerful terms he can. It serves his polemical purpose. The truth is much more nuanced. The role of parliament is much more developed than jefferson allows in his charges. Or to put this another way, but you can see the the enduring effect of the declaration has been to demonize and stigmatize king george iii, who for all his many faults, was just a pretty straightforward random 18th century ruler, no better or worse than any other king of england, no better or worse than many other kings or heads of europe at the time, not the allpowerful, scheming despot you see, but that impression endures. If any of you have seen the fantastic musical, hamilton, king george features in several songs and theyre very funny and i hope you go see the show but hes depicted as a psychopath who, to show his love, in air quotes, to the colonists will send fully armed battalion to slaughter them all. That lingering image in the american imagination of king george as a scheming, allpowerful tyrant is Proof Positive of the enduring influence of jeffersons characterization of him. Well take one more, i think. Lets go to katherine down here. Yes, in the 1990s, there were initiated american democratization groups sponsored by the u. S. Government, the National Democratic institute, the International Republican institute that did training in europe to countries like hungary, et cetera, that were making the transition from dictatorship to democracy, also they were portuguese, et cetera. That was then. Now, what do you see as the direction in which, including in our own country, the particularly in the u. S. Where the declaration does not have the force of law, that there is a trend away from the or is there . Do you see a movement away from the equal rights, et cetera, that the declaration has laid out . Yeah, its hard to answer that with much specificity because its such a broad question about the role of the declaration in our modern era so i would just say very simply that the constitution is not as bad now as ive made it out to be in my previous answer. There are plenty of things we can look to in the constitution for protection of our liberties. After the original 1787 constitution was drafted, to get it ratified required the promise of a bill of rights, which was added to the constitution, ten amendments, and we often look to the bill of rights for modern day guarantees of our liberties and protections and that continues in the american in american political life today. I would also add that in every progressive advancement that bubbles up in 2019, and that will bubble up going forward, we will continue to find activists drawing on that wellspring of ideas that we have a founding document, though it does not bear or carry the force of law, which tells us that equality is important. I draw your attention again to this new book by Danielle Allen called our declaration, came out a couple years ago. It was on the previous slide. There it is. You notice the subtle book plug for my own book there. This book by Danielle Allen, who teaches at harvard, makes that exact point. For every example of people drawing on the declarations promise of equality that weve seen so far, we can hope and expect that there will be just as many people drawing on it as we go forward. So, if we use the declaration of our guide, then i think the future is bright enough and ill stop there. Thank you very much. Coming up on American History tv of cspan3, the great great grandson of theodore roosevelt, kermit roosevelt, whos a constitutional law professor delivers a talk entitled the constitution and the declaration of independence a contrary view. Then we learn about the history of prohibition, a constitutional amendment banning the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors. And later, author and musician Jonathan Rosenberg talks about his book exploring the intersection of politics and music in the first half of the 20th century. Heres a preview. Every saturday night, American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures in history. Why do you all know who lizzy borden is . Raise your hand if you had ever heard of this murder, the gene harris murder trial before this class . The deepest cause where well find the true meaning of the revolution was in this transformation that took place in the minds of the American People. So were going to talk about both of these sides of this story here, right . The tools, the techniques of slave owner power and well also talk about the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions with their students on topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11th. Lectures in history on cspan3 every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv and lectures in history is available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. Kermit roosevelt, a constitutional law professor and the greatgreat grandson of theodore roosevelt, presents a talk titled the constitution and declaration of independence a contrary view. Professor roosevelt argues that the america of today did not emerge ro