The declaration doesn't mention the trinity, the resurrection, Christ's divinity, or other essential Christian tenets. But that hardly makes it secular. The declaration remains a powerfully theological document. It sees our common creation by God as the basis of our equality and rights. Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. L.S. By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political The National Archives and Records Administration’s webpage on the Declaration of Independence includes a detailed history of the document and a high resolution version of the most frequently reproduced engraving. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the first major draft of the Declaration of Independence, penned a letter years later to Samuel Adams on March 29, 1801. He said that as he approached matters of state, he would ask himself: “ [I]s this in keeping with the words of Sam Adams, the patriarch of liberty?” Although many people today try to minimize the role of God in our nation’s founding, the Immediately preceding the thirty-nine famous signatures at the bottom of the 1787 parchment, we find the following words: “done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of 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. Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, G. Washington-Presidt. and deputy from Virginia On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress. The document announced the separation of the 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. The vote actually took place on July 2 and was approved by 12 colonies (with New York abstaining). The final version of the Declaration of Independence was formally approved on July 4, which became the Our regular participants here at Common Sense Civics and Citizenship know that the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution comprise our Founding American Documents. So, rather than the filtered, watered-down opinions of “the politician, press, or professor,” let’s refute this assertion using facts. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 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 Dating documents to “the Year of our Lord” had become more unusual; the Declaration of Independence, for instance, simply states “In Congress, July 4, 1776.” year of grace (or the “Year of our Lord”), the Attestation Clause declares our nation’s great founding document to have been executed “in the Year . . . of the Independance of the United States of America the Twelfth.”2 Alluding to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence eleven years earlier, the Attestation The Declaration of Independence states the principles on which our government, and our identity as Americans, are based. Unlike the other founding documents, the Declaration of Independence is not legally binding, but it is powerful. Emancipation Proclamation. January 1, 1863. Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: 1 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 has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. The Declaration of Independence contains a number of references to God, but most of these were not in Thomas Jefferson’s original draft; they were added either as Jefferson revised the Declaration with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin or as the Continental Congress edited Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson’s handiwork. A comprehensive collection of resources about the Declaration of Independence, including biographies of all the signers, comparisons of different drafts of the document, detailed historical context, expert analysis and commentary, and much more A look at the events leading up to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and how news of it spread in the weeks, months, and years after. Nearly every printed or manuscript edition of the Declaration of Independence has slight differences in punctuation, capitalization, and even wording. To find out more about the diverse textual tradition of the Declaration, check out our Which Version is This, and Why Does it Matter? resource.
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