The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence with Short Biographies of its Signers

"To secure these rights, governments are instituted among …

The Declaration of Independence with Short Biographies of its Signers

"To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it --From the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776. This may be the most famous angry letter in history. Written by Thomas Jefferson and addressed to King George III of England, it lays out the grievances of the King's Thirteen Colonies in North America and announces that those colonies were now free of English rule. By 1783, after a long, bloody, and expensive war, that freedom became reality.

This handy edition includes brief biographies of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence, including the Committee of Five, a group of five members--John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston--who drafted and presented to Congress what would become the Declaration of Independence.