"The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, published by the Continental Congress in July 1775, outlines the familiar grievances on taxes, trade, and military aggression that had driven the colonists to violence in Lexington and Concord earlier that year. Soon, the congressmen were logging 12-hour days from their base in Philadelphia, running a military campaign against the world's leading superpower while laying the foundations for an entirely new way of governing."
"David Armitage, Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History, was guiding first-years back to the world of 1776 as part of his Declarations of Independence seminar, which turns a wide-angle lens on the one-page document that revolutionized global politics, starting in the very nation it announced. Armitage, author of The Declaration of Independence: A Global History (2007), situates the document on a continuum of international calls for rebellion, secession, and natural rights."
The Declaration of Independence served as the first public printed document to use the name United States of America and functioned as a birth certificate for the new nation. The document emerged from a long international continuum of calls for rebellion, secession, and natural rights tracing back to the 14th century. Contemporaneous writings such as the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms catalogued grievances over taxes, trade, and military aggression. Continental Congress members conducted military operations while simultaneously drafting governance foundations. The founding moment combined imminent danger with expansive possibility as the nation approached future milestones.
Read at news.harvard.edu
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