h the events at Runnymede, and
the grant of the Great Charter to the nobles and people of England in
1215, which is itself based upon the concessions of Edward the
Confessor, and the affirmation of the Saxon laws in the eleventh
century. Our Independence is, then, one logical fact or event in a long
succession, to the enumeration of which we may yet add the confederation
of 1778, the constitution of 1787, the French Revolution of 1789, the
rapid increase of American territory and States, the revolutionary
spirit of continental Europe, the reforms in the British government at
home, the wise modifications of its colonial policy, and for us a long
career of prosperity based upon the cardinal doctrine of the equality of
all men before the law.

Nor can any reader of the Declaration itself assume that it contains one
statement, proposition, idea, or word, not carefully considered, and
carefully expressed. It was not the production of hasty, thoughtless, or
reckless men. The country had been gradually prepared for the great
event. States, counties, and towns, had made the most distinct
expressions of opinion upon the relations of the colonies to the mother
country. On the 7th of June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia,
moved, in the Congress of the United Colonies, a resolution declaring,
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. The
subject was considered on the tenth; and, on the eleventh instant, the
committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Dr. Franklin,
Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, was appointed. On the
twenty-fifth of June, a Declaration of the Deputies of Pennsylvania, in
favor of Independence, was read. On the twenty-eighth, the credentials
of the delegates from New Jersey, in which they were instructed to favor
Independence, were presented; and on the first of July similar
instructions to the Maryland delegates were laid before Congress. At
this time Congress proceeded to consider the Declaration and resolution
reported by the committee. The Declaration was carefully considered, and
materially amended in committee of the whole, on the first, second,
third, and fourth, when it was finally adopted. It was then signed by
the president and secretary, and copies were tra