The Moral Authority for Our Independence Day

J. Michael Sharman

Two and a half months after the colonists had exchanged gunfire with British troops in the village at Lexington, Massachusetts, and one year before the Declaration of Independence set off the first Fourth of July, the Continental Congress appointed a committee to write a “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms” for General Washington to read to his troops at Boston explaining to the colonists their moral authority to forcibly resist the King.

An impressive committee was appointed to draw up this declaration: John Jay of New York; John Rutledge of South Carolina; William Livingston of New Jersey; Thomas Johnson of Maryland; Thomas Jefferson of Virginia; and from Pennsylvania,  Benjamin Franklin and John Dickinson.  Though the whole committee had to approve it, the final draft, dated July 6, 1775, is believed to be primarily the work of Dickinson and Jefferson. 

The quoted excerpts below reveal Dickinson and Jefferson’s reasoning that the Colonies’ primary justification for taking up arms was because King George had taken away their colonial rights contrary to the laws of man and of God.

            If it was possible for men who exercise their reason to believe that the divine Author of our existence intended a part of the human race to hold an absolute property in, and an unbounded power over others, marked out by His infinite goodness and wisdom, as the objects of a legal domination never rightfully resistible, however severe and oppressive, the inhabitants of these colonies might at least require from the parliament of Great Britain some evidence, that this dreadful authority over them, has been granted to that body.  But a reverence for our great Creator, principles of humanity, and the dictates of common sense, must convince all those who reflect upon the subject, that government was instituted to promote the welfare of mankind, and ought to be administered for the attainment of that end. 

…Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great-Britain, left their native land, to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom.  At the expense of their blood, at the hazard of their fortunes, without the least charge to the country from which they removed, by unceasing labour, and an unconquerable spirit, they effected settlements in the distant and inhospitable wilds of America, then filled with numerous and warlike nations of barbarians.---Societies or governments, vested with perfect legislatures, were formed under charters from the crown, and an harmonious intercourse was established between the colonies and the kingdom from which they derived their origin.  The mutual benefits of this union became in a short time so extraordinary, as to excite astonishment. 

… Our cause is just.  Our union is perfect.  Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable.---We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that His Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves.  With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.

   …   With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore His divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.

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By J. Michael Sharman Click here for bio and archived articles