cticut, Robert Livingston of New York, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, and after several revisions and drafts, Congress adopts it on July 4. (Congress actually votes on independence on July 2so thats a good trivia question). The Declaration of Independence is important for a number of reasons, but of all the things we can say about the Declaration of Independence, we cant say that it was really original. There were two main inspirations for Jefferson. The first was the ideas of John Lockethat figure of the Enlightenment that we talked about earlier. Many of the phrases and wording of the Declaration come directly from Locke, and the idea that it is legitimate to dissolve a government when it becomes tyrannical or arbitrary comes directly from Locke. The second inspiration is from a political ideology long established in Britain practiced by folks known as Real Whigs or Country Whigs. If we look at the Declaration, we see a really strong emphasis upon corruption and conspiracy. Jefferson drew this from the Whigs, a political faction in England that tried to keep the British crown in check. Colonists drew upon Whig writings for inspiration and justification, and Jefferson incorporated it into the Declaration. So by the time Congress passed the document, its members were very familiar with the reasoning. In fact, John Adams wrote that there is not an idea in it but what had been hackneyed in Congress for two years before.So, in a sense, the Declaration is old wine in a new bottlebut what a bottle. Like Paine, Jefferson wrote that The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, and went on to list them [go through list on Bibliobase]. He argued that the actions were not the result of incompetence or misunderstanding, but instead were the product of a malicious and conscious design that had...
