![]() ![]() The last paragraph loudly and defiantly trumpeted to the world “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.” In the last sentence the signers of the Declaration mutually pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor in support of the act of treason that they were committing: In 1776, the easily overlooked concluding paragraph of the Declaration had more immediate importance. Most Americans are very familiar with the aspirational “truths” that the founders held to be “self-evident,” including the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Of course, it would take over a century and the bloodiest war in American history for Jefferson’s rhetoric that “all men are created equal” to be grudgingly recognized as a matter of law. The preamble of the Declaration of Independence contains Jefferson’s bold description of natural rights which is arguably the most famous part of the Declaration. “Constitution Day” (also known as “Citizenship Day”) is celebrated on September 17, the date that the Constitution was signed in Philadelphia in 1787, when a free and independent “nation” was ready to finally emerge. For this reason, many historians consider the adoption of American’s Constitution as the second American Revolution. Rather, as used in the signed copy of the Declaration the term “united” was a lower case, adjective, describing the plural, “united States of America.” It would take over a decade before a collective national identity would emerge, leading to the ratification of the Constitution in 1789. While it is clear that the colonies were asserting their independence from Britain on July 4, 1776, it is less clear that the colonies considered themselves a single unified nation. When was the “United States” created? When did the former colonies consider themselves to be a “nation”? According to the first words in the title of the Declaration of Independence, the document was the result of a “unanimous Declaration of thirteen united States of America.” Similarly, in the body of the Declaration, the colonies declared themselves “Free and Independent States.” ![]()
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