Declaration Of Independence P1

Last week I ended talking about the Americans sending an Olive Branch Petition to the king, still seeking to settle their differences peacefully but the king flatly rejecting it without even reading it.

In June of 1776, the Continental Congress concluded that a peaceful resolution was not possible. In early July, the delegates spent several days debating whether to become a separate nation and then in finalizing the wording of the Declaration of Independence. On July 4, 1776, the final wording was officially approved, and a few weeks later, 56 Founding Fathers signed the document. From Great Britain’s perspective, those 56 men were all traitors, making them legally subject to the death penalty.

The Declaration reflects many of the key Christian political principles embraced by America’s Founders in its opening pronouncement: When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 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; 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, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness…

More on this next week for another American Moment.

Sourced From The American Story: The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton.