Crafting Independence: Founding Fathers Speak
Jefferson, Adams, and Rush debate, draft, and defend the Declaration of Independence in revealing personal letters
"Leaders of the Continental Congress" (Library of Congress) (3/8/1905) by Tholey, AugustusThe Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Beyond the parchment lies a revolution. Join Jefferson, Adams, & Rush as they draft a nation. From radical edits to private fears, explore the friction that forged American liberty.
Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, 8 May 1825
“When forced, therefore, to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification. This was the object of the Declaration of Independence...
HENRY LEE by Charles Willson Peale, from lifeOriginal Source: http://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/revwar/image_gal/indeimg/lhenry.html
Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent...
...and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. 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. All its authority rests then on the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters, printed essays, or in the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney &c. ..."
Benjamin Rush to John Adams, 20 July 1811
“Do you recollect your memorable speech upon the Day on which the Vote was taken? Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up...
Benjamin Rush, M.D. (1836) by Richard W. DodsonSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
...one after another, to the table of the President of Congress, to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants? The Silence & the gloom of the morning were interrupted I well recollect only for a moment by Col:
Harrison of Virginia who said to Mr Gerry at the table, “I shall have a great advantage over you Mr: Gerry when we are all hung for what we are now doing...
From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.” This Speech procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the Solemnity with which the whole business was conducted."
Letter from John Adams to H. Niles, 13 February 1818
“But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced...
John Adams (c. 1815) by Unidentified ArtistSmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations… This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”
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