Annotations are notes that explain the meaning of certain words or phrases in a document. They provide historical background, helping you understand what the writers of the Declaration meant when they wrote it, and how other people interpreted their ideas.
Image: Declaration of Independence, printed by John Dunlap in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1776. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
The Declaration’s conclusion goes to the heart of the matter: The United States is now an independent nation.
Members of Congress who signed the Declaration put themselves at great risk. Criticizing the king was a criminal offense under British law.
Publishers printed the Declaration on broadsides and in newspapers. On the steps of statehouses and in corner taverns, Americans read the text out loud so that everyone could learn about it.
The Declaration’s authors had shared their Grievances. They reminded British people that they had tried to solve problems peacefully. Now, Congress reluctantly concluded that their good intentions had been treated by the British government, and even the British people, with contempt. Enough was enough.
Image: The Bloody Massacre by Paul Revere, 1770. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC01868)
Perhaps someday Americans and the British people could again be friends, even family. For now, Congress would advance American interests independently. As a new nation, they would be empowered to form alliances, build their military, seek new trading partners, and even enact democratic governance. There would be no more kings.
Image: Edward Savage, Liberty: In the Form of the Goddess of Youth, Giving Support to the Bald Eagle, Philadelphia, 1796. (Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)
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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.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. 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. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
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Eric Slauter is Deputy Dean of the Humanities Division and Master of the Humanities Collegiate Division Associate Professor at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The State as a Work of Art: The Cultural Origins of the Constitution and the forthcoming The Promises of the Declaration of Independence.