Support for Ben Franklin's world and the Doing History to the Revolution series comes from the

Omaha Institute of Early American History and Culture. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another

and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station

to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind

requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are

created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable

rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of

happiness. The Declaration of Independence stands first on a series of documents that

founded the United States. It also stands as an early step in a long

process of establishing a free independent and self-governing nation. Now according to

Thomas Jefferson, the American people had to issue a declaration of independence to convince the world of the

justice of their rebellion. King and Parliament had forced American Whigs to seek redress for

repeated violations of their sacred rights through arms.

And by taking up arms against their sovereign,

American Whigs stood outside the protection of both English

and international law, a fact that King George III proclaimed

in August 1775 when he declared that his subjects in diverse parts of our colonies and plantations in North America have at length proceeded to an open and avowed rebellion.

Americans needed help waging their fight. to an open and avowed rebellion.

Americans needed help waging their fight,

yet official help from Great Britain's rivals, France, Spain, and the Netherlands

stood beyond their reach unless they could prove that their recourse to arms against Great Britain was just.

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