Today is the Fourth of July, the 232nd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the day when America officially renounced King George III and England, claiming the United States of America was no longer subject to British rule. Simply put, July 4 became America’s birthday.

The making of the Declaration, though, its creation, its promises, and its ramifications have been anything but simple. They are quite complex on numerous levels. A revolutionary manifesto to renounce a king has become an ideal of the American Dream. It promises that everyone has a chance, even though the Declaration was written by a man who still owned slaves at the time of his death 50 years later.

The Declaration is complicated, yet glorious, in its lines, “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 ...”

DECLARING A MOVE

In June 1776, the American colonies were already at war with England. British lawmakers had imposed new taxes and laws on the Americans while denying the colonies representation in Parliament, leading to colonial cries of “taxation without representation.” The Boston Tea Party had occurred a few years earlier; Paul Revere had made his famous, mythical ride warning that the British were coming. The Continental Congress representing the 13 colonies had already formed and appointed Gen. George Washington as the commander of America’s army. Several battles had already been fought. Yet, the Continental Congress and America had not officially severed ties with England. The colonies were still subjects of the far-flung British Empire.

During the warming days of spring 1776, in Philadelphia, some Continental Congressmen still hoped to reconcile with England, believing that the American colonies could repatriate themselves within the British Empire. Meanwhile, several others pushed hard for an official break with England as Thomas Paine had insisted in his wildly popular pamphlet, “Common Sense.”

Still, on June 7, 1776, when Richard Henry Lee of Virginia stood on the floor of Congress and announced that “all political connection between (the united colonies) and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved,” anti-independence and moderate members of the Continental Congress denounced him and the idea of independence. Lee’s statement and the subsequent attacks against him led to a raging debate between representatives for and against independence.

To calm the arguments, the Continental Congress agreed to table the discussion for three weeks, and “both sides agreed it might be a good idea to prepare a declaration of independence,” just in case, according to historian Thomas Fleming’s “Liberty: The American Revolution.”

A five-member committee was appointed to draft a declaration. On the committee were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman.

JEFFERSON’S TASK

The story goes that John Adams felt he was too unpopular within the Continental Congress to write the Declaration. Livingston was an anti-independence man. Sherman had no visible writing skills. Though Franklin was the world’s most famous American and a successful writer and publisher, he felt his son’s loyalty to the king would prejudice congressmen against any document he might write.

Which left Jefferson.

As a Southerner from Virginia and as a talented writer, Thomas Jefferson was the obvious choice to pen the declaration. Adams later claimed to have urged Jefferson to accept the task.