What was the Declaration of Independence and who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
The Declaration, put forth by the First Continental Congress, declared the United States to be independent from Great Britain. Most of it was written by Thomas Jefferson, though many other members of the congress had a great deal of input, also. It declared that when people are treated unfairly, they have the right to throw off the bonds of the government that rules them and create their own. Because of the extra taxes Great Britain had imposed, the requirement that they stand trial in England, not the U.S., and other “intolerable acts,” they declared that the United States had the right to stand as an independent nation.
Ugh… seriously I can’t believe people don’t know this… Thomas Jefferson wrote it. Not George Washington… seriously. It was basically a letter sent by the second Continental Congress to King George III to tell him why we seceded. Jefferson drew largely from John Locke’s ideas and many of the Declaration of Independence’s most famous lines are drawn from Locke’s works.
