The Patriot Post® · 'Ought to Be Free'

I like to imagine that every family spends July 4th watching my favorite Independence Day movie — “1776” — followed by a sing-along with James Cagney and “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” (Here’s hoping you’ve viewed one or both!) Both prepare me for that stirring of patriotic passion that occurs when I envision the votes that were cast during the summer of 1776. When we consider the work of the Second Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence is absolutely the crowning jewel of its often-contentious deliberations.

Why did Congress decide to create a written document regarding independence?

Each day the threat of arrest for treason hung above the heads of the delegates. Secrecy was critical to their work. No C-Span televised the debates, and while newspapers carried a mention of the gathering of the delegates, there were no stories about the daily work of Congress. Instead, the debates occurred in a room where, even in an unusually hot spring, the windows remained shut to discourage eavesdroppers. When the day’s work ended and the delegates adjourned for dinner and drinks, they avoided discussion of their work for fear others might hear and their work would be undone before it was done.

If Congress agreed to sever ties with England — only possible through armed conflicts — would the citizens of the 13 colonies support that decision? Only John Adams and John Hancock were confident that the answer was “Yes.” While eight of the colonies seemed to support independence, five were in opposition.

And yet, on June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented a resolution that forced additional debate, stating 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, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”

The delegates believed a concise, written explanation justifying the separation was required — a document similar to the Magna Carta or the English Bill of Rights — and would focus the debate. If Congress could unite for independence, such a document might also sway colonists and garner foreign support for the cause. Some delegates were already envisioning that document being read on village greens and in town squares from New Hampshire to Georgia.

And while they still debated if independence was the most viable option for settling the differences, they choose a committee to solidify their position.

A committee of five delegates was created — John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman, and Thomas Jefferson. After much discussion and more debate, Jefferson was charged with drafting the document. The others reminded him that he had already begun the document two years earlier when he authored a pamphlet entitled A Summary View of the Rights of British America. When Jefferson hesitated, Franklin and Adams agreed to edit the draft. Once the document was introduced, Sherman and Livingston’s quiet and respected leadership could help move the “uncertains” to the “yes” column.

Drawing upon his knowledge of John Locke and other Enlightenment-era writers, Jefferson used political philosophy to advance the colonists’ inherent rights, including a justification for revolution when those rights are in peril. Who among us does not feel a heart twitch when reading, “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”? I certainly do!

He continued, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” The concise statement justifying revolution was beautifully constructed, but Jefferson was not finished.

Anticipating that some colonists and, equally important, representatives of foreign nations might feel that the grievances were not significant to precipitate independence, Jefferson enumerated over 25 ways in which George III had violated the colonists’ rights, including “imposing Taxes on us without our Consent — depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury — taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.”

What then was the closing statement? Jefferson, writing for the committee, slammed his argument home with, “We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States,” harking back to Lee’s resolution.

Within days, a decision would be required.