Toward IndependenceĪs spring 1776 ended and summer began, the pro-independence forces were gaining the upper hand. Others-especially Pennsylvania, which was large and centrally located-were reluctant and sought to postpone a decision for independence. Some colonies, Massachusetts and Virginia among them, were more disposed to independence. Thomas Paine's publication in January 1776 of Common Sense, a pamphlet openly calling for separation, changed many minds. This conciliatory gesture was rejected outright by the king in August he declared the colonies in “open rebellion.” Nevertheless, colonial opinion still remained divided about independence. The Congress first sought reconciliation by means of its Olive Branch Petition of July 1775. Complete independence from Britain was not initially on this body's agenda, but subsequent events led to a dramatic shift within a year. In the context of the intense conflicts of early 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened in May of that year. The first armed conflict occurred at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. The events that were immediate background were those set off by the Tea Party of December 1773, which drew harsh retaliation by the British. Particularly important had been the attempts by the British Parliament to tax the Americans in measures like the Stamp Act of 1765. The background to the Declaration reaches far into the previous decade and the ever-escalating conflicts over British policy toward America. It has since come to have the position of an American creed. For the generation that made the Revolution and drafted the Constitution, it was the statement of the principles of political right on which they acted. Those causes amount to a general theory of legitimate government thus this document has a place in American (and world) history far greater than the mere announcement of the reasons for the American Revolution. The Declaration of Independence, issued by the Second Continental Congress in July 1776, announced to the “candid world” the “causes” that “impelled” the Americans to separate themselves from, that is, to rebel against, Great Britain.
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