Who is declaration of independence written to

In addition to its importance in the fate of the fledgling American nation, it also exerted a tremendous influence outside the United States, most memorably in France during the French Revolution. Together with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights , the Declaration of Independence can be counted as one of the three essential founding documents of the United States government.

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. A member of a committee of five that also included John Adams of The Fourth of July—also known as Independence Day or July 4th—has been a federal holiday in the United States since , but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution.

On July 2nd, , the Continental Congress From to , the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States. The First Continental Congress, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in in reaction to the Coercive Acts, a series of measures Thomas Jefferson , author of the Declaration of Independence and the third U. When the first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War broke out in Massachusetts in April , few people in the American colonies wanted to separate from Great Britain entirely.

But as the war continued, and Britain called out massive armed forces to enforce its will, more and In April , a provocative article appeared in the pages of the Raleigh Register newspaper in North Carolina.

American Revolution leader John Hancock was a signer of the Declaration of Independence in and a governor of Massachusetts. The colonial Massachusetts native was raised by his uncle, a wealthy Boston merchant. FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:. FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever:.

HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

HE has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. HE has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

IN every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence.

They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. There were three main audiences for the Declaration: international, American and British. In writing the Declaration of Independence, albeit with changes made by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and the whole Congress itself, Thomas Jefferson wove the lessons of history into a revolutionary political narrative that all three audiences could readily understand. E-Edition Subscribe Login.

Toggle navigation Menu. Craig: For whom was the Declaration of Independence written? Paul M. Craig Northampton.