Need help 65 points The Declaration of Independence
As Congress set to work, the independence movement was rapidly growing. Thomas Paine influenced this growth with his pamphlet Common Sense. It argued that monarchy was a corrupt form of government. Many colonists agreed with Paine. Samuel Adams, for example, urged Americans to declare their independence. In June 1776, Virginian Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution in the Continental Congress that the “United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.” Congress promptly appointed a committee to prepare a written declaration of independence. The committee asked Thomas Jefferson, a Virginia planter, to write the draft. On July 2, 1776, the Congress approved Lee’s resolution. The colonies had officially broken with Great Britain. On July 4 Congress approved the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. John Hancock, the president of the Congress, was the first to sign the document, which eventually held the signatures of all 56 delegates. The Declaration is one of the most famous documents in history. Jefferson drew on the ideas of Locke and other thinkers to set out the colonies’ reasons for proclaiming their freedom. The purpose of the Declaration was to justify the American Revolution and to put forth the founding principles of the new nation. No government at the time had been founded on the principles of human liberty and consent of the governed. The Declaration officially recognized the changes that were taking place in the colonies. One of the most important changes were that the colonies began thinking of themselves as states, subject to no higher authority. By the end of 1776, 10 states had adopted written constitutions. Most of the constitutions included a bill of rights defining the personal liberties of citizens. All recognized the people as the sole source of government’s power, and all provided for limited government.

Why is the Declaration of Independence so famous?