The Declaration of Independence in Bullet Points
1. The Uniqueness of the Declaration
Independence Day—celebrated each Fourth of July—is more than fireworks, hot dogs, and summer fun. It commemorates the birth of a new nation through a formal statement of principles—the Declaration of Independence. Prior to 1776, no nation in history began with a document announcing not merely why it was separating from a ruling power, but also universal principles of justice and political right that apply to all human beings, everywhere, and always.
Nations like ancient Rome were founded on myths and violence (the story of Romulus and Remus, for example), but the Americans broke with that pattern by declaring their independence and articulating the moral-political principles for which they were fighting, openly.
2. Declaring Freedom in Dire Circumstances
It’s important to remember that the Americans did this in the summer of 1776, before they had any guarantee of victory against Britain. The war had already been going on for a year, and General Washington’s army was often on the run. Still, the founders boldly proclaimed that their cause was just and that self-government was a right worth defending—even if they ultimately lost on the battlefield.
3. The Importance of Believing in Truth
Before delving into the text, note that the Declaration assumes there is real, objective truth, including and especially moral truth. In 1776, this was uncontroversial, but today we encounter postmodern doctrines and assumptions that universal, objective truth does not exist. Many people assume all moral opinions are subjective, or relative to cultural views and prejudices. However, if we adopt that viewpoint, we cannot fully understand the Declaration’s argument, which is anchored in objective, rational moral truths discoverable by the human mind.
4. Challenging Students (and Ourselves) to Be Open-Minded
Encourage students to ask themselves: are they open-minded enough to consider the possibility of absolute, objective truth? If the authors of the Declaration truly believed in moral and political truths grounded in human nature, then we can only grasp their argument by momentarily setting aside the assumption that all perspectives are equally valid. That is our challenge if we want to understand the source of American freedom.
5. Setting the Stage: The First Paragraph
The Declaration begins: “When in the Course of human events…” and immediately lays out a premise. Sometimes, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political ties connecting them to another. In this case, that “other” was Great Britain. The colonists still hoped to remain on good terms socially and economically, but politically, they no longer wanted to be ruled without representation.
6. Laws of Nature and Nature’s God
The Declaration states that “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” entitle the American people to assume their “separate and equal station” among the nations. “Nature,” in this sense, means the broader world we did not create—trees, oceans, mountains, the structure of the human mind, and moral principles contained within nature. Observing order in the world suggests that nature follows consistent laws. The founders then reasoned there must be a higher source (Nature’s God) behind those laws, though the text never references a specific, sectarian divinity.
7. Addressing All of Mankind
A crucial part of the Declaration’s opening says a “decent respect to the opinions of mankind” requires explaining why independence is justified. In other words, the founders believed that anyone, anywhere—regardless of language, culture, or era—could understand their arguments if they studied the laws of nature. This universality is why, centuries later, people fighting tyranny in other parts of the world (like students in Tiananmen Square in 1989) have looked to the Declaration for inspiration.
8. “We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident”
The second paragraph begins with the famous line asserting certain “self-evident” truths. Traditionally, “self-evident” means a statement whose evidence is contained within the terms of statement itself. It does not mean “obvious” to everyone; instead, once you explore and understand the terms, you grasp the truth of the statement. A mathematical analogy is the Pythagorean Theorem: it applies to all right triangles, though no one can measure them all. Likewise, the founders believed their moral and political claims could be grasped if you carefully examine human nature.
9. “All Men Are Created Equal”
Here lies the core claim: “all men are created equal.” It may seem contradictory given our many differences—inequalities in height, strength, intelligence, beauty, talents—but the equality the Declaration highlights is our equal human status. No one is “more” or “less” human. Each of us has desires and appetites but also a rational mind that can reason and make moral judgments. This shared human nature carries important moral and political implications, such as the idea that no one should be enslaved because each individual’s mind should govern his or her own body. Each human being is equal to all others in the capacity to govern oneself.
10. Unalienable Rights: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Because we share this fundamental human nature, we also share certain unalienable rights. The Declaration lists three: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These natural rights do not come from government; they arise from our nature as human beings. If a government fails to protect these rights, people have the moral authority to challenge or even replace it.
11. Natural Rights Before Government
The Declaration of Independence famously asserts that human beings have “natural rights” that exist prior to any government or law. By nature, we are endowed with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Since nature intends us to live, we have a right to our own life. Equally important, we have a right to liberty because we possess a rational mind capable of making free choices.
12. Exercising Liberty
When we consider what to do with our freedom, we observe that human beings make countless choices every day. These range from small decisions—like what to eat for breakfast—to major life decisions such as what career to pursue or whom to marry. Yet, all human choices aim at one supreme goal: happiness.
13. Pursuing Happiness
Our everyday decisions are driven by an ultimate desire to be happy. Even when people make harmful or destructive choices (such as drug abuse), they do so in a misguided attempt to feel better or reach some version of happiness. From the perspective of the Declaration, the right to pursue happiness means the freedom to make moral choices consistent with virtue, since true happiness, as George Washington once suggested, requires virtue.
14. What “Endowed” Really Means
The Declaration describes these rights as an “endowments” from the Creator—a gift from God with a purpose. Just as a college that receives an endowment must use those funds responsibly for the purposes of higher education, so human beings should exercise their natural rights in ways that align with their higher purpose: to live well, to be virtuous, and to achieve genuine happiness.
15. Unalienable Rights
These natural rights are also called “unalienable,” meaning they cannot be taken away. This is sometimes misunderstood. Consider the horrific example of a slave being tortured for attempting to run away and escape. Although his natural rights are violated, we denounce the torture as immoral precisely because the slave does in fact have natural rights to his own life and liberty and the free pursuit of happiness—the slaveowner is simply violating those rights. There can be no “wrongs” without “rights.” If a slave truly had no natural rights, then why would it be wrong for someone else to enslave and torture him?
16. Government’s Purpose
The Declaration next explains “that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men.” In other words, government exists to protect the natural rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness we naturally possess. Notice it does not guarantee success or material goods; it only ensures that other people (and the government itself) cannot unjustly take away our natural liberty or private property.
17. The Consent of the Governed
Because we are all equally human and share the same rights, no one has the inherent authority to rule over others. Therefore, the just powers of government come only from “the consent of the governed.” This preserves the equality the Declaration insists upon: we must freely agree to any form of rule that claims authority over our lives and property.
18. The Right—and Duty—of Revolution
A radical element of the Declaration is that if any government consistently violates our rights rather than protecting them, “it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.” Indeed, if there is no peaceful remedy for serious, sustained tyranny, the Declaration says it becomes not merely a right but a duty to resist. Because human beings are naturally free, it is wrong for anyone (even a king) to treat them as slaves or subjects without their consent.
19. Grievances Against the British Crown
Much of the Declaration details King George III’s specific violations against the colonies—taxation without representation, imposing troops without consent, and ignoring petitions for redress. These offenses illustrated that the British government was no longer protecting colonial rights. In fact, it had become a threat to those rights. Revolutionary leaders, such as George Washington, chose to risk their fortunes and lives based on the principles laid out in the Declaration.
20. “Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor”
In the final lines, the Declaration’s signers pledge “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” to each other. They recognized that securing freedom would require mutual trust and sacrifice. Many did indeed sacrifice life and wealth to uphold the Declaration’s ideals, setting a precedent of commitment to liberty that defines the United States to this day.