Declarations about the Declaration
The meaning and promise of the Declaration of Independence has been a topic of discussion since 1776.
“ Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.”
In his reply to a question from Henry Lee IV on the source documents and inspiration for his authorship of The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson gave the American people the credit for the content of the Declaration.
“ The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a Theatrical Show. Jefferson ran away with all the Stage Effect of that, i.e. all the Glory of it.”
In his reply to a letter from Dr. Benjamin Rush that touched on many subjects, John Adams' response included upcoming Fourth of July celebrations being used for political ends with an assessment that The Declaration of Independence was an act of political theater.
“ I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the RINGBOLT to the chain of your nation's destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.”
In an address delivered to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, Frederick Douglass praised the principles of the Declaration of Independence while noting the paradox of slavery in America as a betrayal of those principles and expressing hope that Americans might one day extend those principles to all mankind.
“ All honor to Jefferson--to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.”
When Abraham Lincoln declined an invitation to speak in Boston at a birthday celebration honoring Jefferson, his reply captured the enduring inspiration of the Declaration of Independence.
“ In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men—yes, black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, directly quotes the Declaration of Independence and the quest to see its promise fulfilled.
Read the transcript of Dr. King's speech