Dbq Declaration Of Independence

The reason for the Declaration, or how it came to be, was a myriad of issues and slights against the colonists by the British government. Delegates from every colony met to decide how to liberate themselves from Mother England. They had already been at war over the “taxation without representation” issue and it continued to escalate. The colonists were convinced that Parliament didn’t care about them, proven by the fact that they were not allowed to represent themselves. As a result the Second Continental congress met and more than a month later the Declaration was proposed.1
Many people believe that July 4th 1776 was the day independence was declared and the Declaration was signed when in reality independence was declared July 2nd 1776, a date John Adams thought would be significant. The declaration wasn’t even signed by most of parties until August 2nd and not everyone signed on that date either. The date we all celebrate is the day they finished the final text and the date that the
One major factor was a lack of communication between the colonies and parliament. This was due to accurate information being difficult to obtain due to the long voyage across the sea and overworked clerks having to rewrite everything when they didn’t have a man to spare. It took many months for something to reach Parliament and by then rumors spread in place of the truth and misunderstandings ran rampant.3
Thomas Jefferson was the main creator of the Declaration but he wasn’t the only one to come up with Ideas. Congress appointed a five person committee to create it, although Jefferson did come up with the first draft. He used his own work and the work of George Mason to bring it to fruition. He was also influenced by Philosopher John Locke “Thomas Jefferson restated Locke’s contract theory of government when he wrote in the Declaration that governments derived “their just Powers from the consent of the people.””