The Declaration of Independence: Its Debt to History and Meaning

Thomas Jefferson reads the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence to Benjamin Franklin; reproduction of painting by Clyde Deland. Library of Congress, Public Domain

This is the last installment in a five-essay series on the Declaration of Independence, written in honor of its 250th anniversary. Read part I here, part II here, part III here, and part IV here.

Commentary

The Declaration’s Debt to History

In his book, Inventing America, the liberal scholar Garry Wills argued that the Declaration owed much to previous Anglo-American history. This is correct.