Francis Samuel Philbrick

“ The rights of man lend dignity to the rights of Englishmen, and the broad outlook of a world-wide appeal, and the elevation of noble principles, relieve minute criticisms of an administrative system.
Jefferson’s political theory was that of Locke, whose words the Declaration echoes. Uncritical critics have repeated John Adams’s assertion that its arguments were hackneyed: so they undoubtedly were—in Congress, and probably little less so without,—but that is certainly pre-eminent among its great merits. ”

“ Others have echoed Rufus Choate’s phrase, that the Declaration is made up of “glittering and sounding generalities of natural right.” In truth, its long array of “facts . . . submitted to a candid world” had its basis in the whole development of the relations between England and the colonies; every charge had point in a definite reference to historical events, and appealed primarily to men’s reason; but the history is to-day forgotten, while the fanciful basis of the “compact” theory does not appeal to a later age. ”

“ Congress adopted the resolution of independence; and on the 4th, Jefferson’s “Declaration.” The 4th has always been the day celebrated; [1] the decisive act of the 2nd being quite forgotten in the memory of the day on which that act was published to the world. It should also be noted that as Congress had already, on the 6th of December 1775, formally disavowed allegiance to parliament, the Declaration recites its array of grievances against the crown, and breaks allegiance to the crown. ”