Dr. Bell has presented many topics related to American History and early revolution period over the past of the last several years. He received phd from harvard and ba from university of cambridge in england. Hes associate professor history in maryland in college park where he specialize in american early history and cultural history and has been honored with more than half dozen teaching awards. The American Society of 18th century studies bestowed his award on topic of ordinary lives in the American Revolution. And his book stolen, five free boys kidnapped into slavery into their astonishing journey which tells the true story of five boys smuggled into slavery in the deep south and dairy escape to bring their captors to justice is being published by simon and schuster in october. Thank you once again for joining us, please join me in welcoming dr. Rick bell. [ applause ] all right, folks, thanks to heather. Thanks to cspan for covering this. Those who might have been here before and heard me give other programs wont be surprised to hear my strange accent, which is not exactly a marylandnative accent. I was born and raised in england yet find myself teaching about the American Revolution as part of my job right now which is a blessing and curse in an under graduate classroom to teach with an accent like this. Im very proud where i grew up. I often carry in my back pocket on occasions like this, a giant british flag which i might drape for cspan to drink in. But i was also naturalized as a u. S. Citizen couple years ago, something im incredibly proud of. Its wonderful to be part of the programming here as we move into the july 4th weekend. When you hear me say our declaration as i go forward im talking about us americans, okay. The down side of cspan being here unfortunately is that i dont get to swear. At least i will try not to. Also means i dont get to show cute videos of my kids or anything from hamilton the musical for copyright reasons. That still leaves us with a lot. Lets get started. Wo theres a lot of microphones here. Okay. The document on display in the National Archives which we call the declaration of independence has lived an interesting life. Has only been on display in that massive building since 1952 before that in the life of Congress Though for two years in world war ii it hunker down in a deep vault in fort knox in kentucky. Before that it bounce bounced back and forth. In 1876 it did briefly return to philadelphia the city of its birth. There a grandson of one of its original signers red it publicly as part of this countrys 100th Birthday Celebration and reports tell us the massive crowd of people there that day burst into cheers at the site of it. In its first 50 years it travelled more frequently when the british burned down washington, d. C. In 1812 the document we thought of as the declaration of independence was hiding in lees pburg, virginia and you may know it spent years earlier rolled up and stuffed in a bag from one city to the other. Folks, i have shobing news. The document our government has gone to such length to preserve and protect over the centuries, that one, is not actually the declaration of independence. Or at least that document is not the first declaration of independence or the last declaration of independence and it is far from being the only declaration of independence. The document on display at the National Archive, the one this gentleman is peering at is in fact a special commemorative edition that congress ordered up at the end of july, 1776 to memorial the independence the delegates declared in a simple vote weeks earlier on july 2nd and who would formalize that vote in writing on july 4th. The document on display in the National Archives really a souvenir, a beautiful souvenir, made after the fact. It was engrossed on parchment in the hand of a junior clerk named timothy mattlack and was later signed by 56 of the delegates of the congress including several who had not been present for the actual vote and at least one delegate who had voted against the resolution for independence. Now this is all interesting stuff. This is solid Cocktail Party trivia im giving you so far. But to borrow a word from the declaration itself, all of what i said so far is just my preamble. My talk tonight is not actually about this matt lack poiarchmep. Instead it is about all of the other declaration of independence. That the prominence that this lovely keepsake has obscured over the past 2. 5 centuries. Im thinking of jeffersons own drafts. We have seven copies in his handwriting. S of and of the final version approved by congress on july 4able, the one that was disseminated in print across america and across the world. Im also thinking of several other sets of declarations. Some that predate july 4th by several months. Others that were written much more recently. Some written here. Others written far away. Some written by property elite men like jefferson. Others written by people who couldnt be more different to him. Put in all these declaration of independence into conversation with one another this evening, will, i hope give us some fresh perspective on the famous matt lack parchment that peeks out from behind bullet proof glass in the National Archive rotunda. We can be reminded perhaps for all its relic, this honors something unambiguously momentous. It commemorates the creation, adoption and dese min ation of 1310 word statement that forged the american union, and justified their rebellion and certified their independence and announced this countrys appearance on the world stage. That famous statement, the declaration of independence is our mid wife, it is our birth certificate, it is our promise to ourselves. There is much to admire about it and therefore much to discuss. Because i want to have time for questions and comments we need to get going. As the founding moment in our history, declaring independence from Great Britain can seem to us today like this countrys first date with destiny, but it didnt seem like that at the time. And declaring independence, the decision to do it was a long, long time in coming. Open rebellion was treason, remember. And in april 1775 when new england militia took pot shot at the british army in lexington at concord in april 1775 the number of americans contemplating unambiguous revolution could probably still have been counted on the fingers of a couple hands. When the Second Continental Congress assembled in philadelphia a month after these events at lexington and concord in may 1775, the delegates to that Second Congress were under instruction from their colonial legislatures to find a way to patch things up with britain. Thats what they were sent to philadelphia to do, to patch things up, reconciliation, and redress the order of the day. Few at that point, may, 1775, few at that point were thinking of using this congress to cement insurrection against the monarchy or use it to break against the empire upon which the colonists obviously depended for trade and security. In fact, it was actually king george iii who first declared the colonists independence for them. Heres how we did it. On august 23, 1775, the king in london issued a proclamation. The word of the king. Saying that the colonists had proceeded to open an avowed rebellion and because of that they were now outside his protection and because of that they should now be punished as traitors. Thats august, 1775. And in december of that year the British Parliament acted on the kings proclamation and declared war on the colonists maritime commerce beginning a series of stop and search raids on american shipping up and down the coast. Brita britains belligerent was one of the things to nudge philadelphia towards their written declaration. Another thing was the appearance of a pungent new political pamphlet in january 1776. It was the work of an outcast english man named tom payne who had come to philadelphia to start again and told reader thats it was common sense for the colonists to respond to georges bullying by walking away and starting afresh. Tom paynes chief 46 page pamphlet sold like hot cakes and quickly made its way into the pockets, homes and minds of perhaps 100,000 americans in the spring of 1776 and it changed people. It worked to bind people throughout the colonies into a common struggle giving southerners a sense of a common cause of new englanders for the first time. And gave them all a common enemy too. By laying the blame of all of the chaos and trauma for past ten years directly at one mans feet, the feet of king george iii. In these ways, this flimsy plain spoken familiar threat, common sense, in many ways it was the American Peoples declaration of independence, the fact that readers across the colonies made pretty of this over the following months. As the historian pauline mare demonstrate in american is scripture thousands of local government officials in towns, counties and provinceal legislatures spent months after common sense was published, spent the spring of 1776 issuing their own mini declaration of independence, formal statements to claim commitment to separate nationhood and summarizing the chain of events that pushed them to make that decision. Some of these local declaration of independence were short and in your hand outs theres one short, one paragraph version, an example from the town of ashby, massachuset massachusetts. But others, among the local group of declaration of independence were much longer, one running much longer from Buckingham County virginia. But all the local deck larition as said the same, in justifying their support for independence they came back again and again to the kings contempt for the colonists petitions, and they came back again and again to the now escalating rumors that the British Government had recently dispatched a large, invading force of german hessian mercenaries to the colonies. Pauline identified 90 of theater state an local declaration of independence. She wreckon there were many more undiscovered. They were written to put pressure on the often cautious delegates of the Second Continental Congress so those delegates in philadelphia might find the courage to embrace the cause of independence and sever all ties with britain and they soon began getting attention. Was john adams one of those in philadelphia observed on may 20th. Every post and every day rolls in upon us. Independence, like a torrent. They are writing to the dell gants about independence and the delegates are starting to get the message. It wasnt just john adams. Other delegates too were starting to get this message from their own constituents and on friday, june 7, 1776 1776, this man Richard Henry lee, a member of the virginia delegation, introduced to the Continental Congress the first formal proposal for americans independence for that bodys history, a resolution to declare that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states, that they are ab solved of all allegiance to the british claim and all political connection between them and the state of britain ought to be finally dissolved. Two days of intense debate followed Richard Henry lees resolution. Though the outcome of that debate may not be the result you are expecting. Richard henry lee, john adams and other delegate its in favor of independence didnt have the votes to carry the day. At least not yet. So the members did what congress has always done best, they kicked the can the road. They delayed a final vote and they agreed instead to set up a committee. To study the issue. This is what they agreed. Resolved that that first resolution be postponed to this day three weeks or so from now and that in the meantime, lest any time be lost, in case the congress does agree to that resolution a committee be appointed to prepare a declaration to the effect of the said first resolution. This is hardly the rousing nationbirthing moment that patriots might have been hoping for. Still, it was enough to keep things moving, to keep things moving forward, and john adams himself vowed to spend those next three weeks or so lobbying his fellow delegates to vote yes when the vote for independence finally came along. John adams also agreed to serve on this new committee. A fiveperson team tasked to draft a declaration of independence that congress could quickly roll out in the event that lees original revolution did somehow later pass. We ever vote yes we better have a declaration to show people. We better get cracking on it. So a committee of five. The other delegates assigned to this committee which by the way was not a plum assignment. There was probably some armtwisting involved, were Benjamin Franklin, among the five members, what was the last guys name maybe a picture will help, Thomas Jefferson of virginia. Now all of these guys, all of them, were busy with other committee assignments. So it made sense for just one of them to take the lead. Drafting the little document that they had been tasked to prepare. Now Benjamin Franklin, a gifted stylist and zealous supporter of independence by this time, he might seem to us like the obvious joyce to be the obvious choice to be the lead draft man. He was a good brigwriter but he also plagued by gout and he was exhausted. Robert livingston was on the committee as the token conservative. He was not there to do actual work. He had been urging reconciliation. He had been urging patching things up, not pends. He was there to make sure things didnt get too crazy and didnt run out of hand. Roger sherman, the guy in the middle, was largely window dressing. He was a good man. John adams once described him as being as honest as an angel but he shrm an wrote like he was in the 17th century. His colleagues found him strange if not weird. That left john adams, the short lawyer who was an outspoken advocate for independence and Thomas Jefferson, the tall, sandyhaired planter who had a reputation as a writer but who had barely said a word on the Congress Floor so far. Now john adams later recalled that these two men actually bickered and argued about which one of them shouldnt do the work. And who the other person should be. Who should lead the drafting. Who should be the lead drafts man and to reconstruct that exciting conversation we are going to do some theater. Live on cspan. Im going to call up two randomly selected volunteers. Chuck, can you come around. Catherine, could you come around. Yes give them a round of applause as they come up. Now, adams later wrote a reconstruction of the conversation, the bickering, the argument that supposedly happened between Thomas Jefferson, say hello Thomas Jefferson. Hello Thomas Jefferson. And between youre fine why dont we move you around, you were right the first time. The conversation between Thomas Jefferson and john adams and if i believe if i am remembering correctly the conversation began like this. Will you write . I will not. You should write it. Oh, no. Well, why not . You ought to do it i will not why reason is enough. What can be your reasons . Reason one, you reason three, you can write ten times better than i can. Well, if youre decided i will do as well as i can. Very well. When you have drawn it up we will have a meeting. Thank you. [ applause ] that took 30 minutes of rehearsal before we got started. I want to thank chuck and catherine, just fabulous, the rehearsal was for technical reasons. [ applause ] now, thats the conversation according to john adam s about the bickering. When jefferson was asked is that how it happened, he said absolutely not. So jefferson is lead drafts man. The five men met a few times over the next few days to outline what exactly this document should contain. But they left it to jefferson to write it up on his own. And he did as he was told. He wrote quickly. He used a portable writing desk that he brought with him from virginia and he had a first draft done within perhaps two days. Wow. Jefferson later claimed that he lent only no other sources while he was scribbling away for those two days. Still jefferson was already deeply versed in enlightened political philosophy. And that fact is evident in the draft he came up with. The draft he came up with owes a considerably debt to several texts including englands 1689 declaration of rights. Including second treaty of civil government published that same year. Including Thomas Jefferson own 1774 pamphlet a summary view of the rights of british america. And his more recent draft of a constitution for virginia. And george masons virginia declaration of rights. An early copy of which jefferson received just days earlier. The powerful opening lines of jeffersons draft drew directly from this well spring of ideas and language. Though, as you can see on screen, jeffersons language jeffersons language was decidedly simpler, and more forceful. So heres john locke saying, let me give you two examples here. But if a long train of abuses, and artiveaces all the same way make the design influence to the blam [ reading ]. You can see a sort of borrowing of language and ideas there. We can debate which is better. Heres jefferson apparently borrowing from george mason. George mason had written all men are created equally free and independent and have certain inhernant naturale rights [ reading ] [ reading ]. Jeffersons version of his first draft reads [ reading ]. Now thats all im going to say for the moment about jeffersons opening paragraph. Well return to it later on. For more of the philosophies that form the first two paragraphs of the declaration. I recommend these wonderfully learned books if you want to learn more. I want to keep going, because instead, i want us to think about his declarations long middle section. The least quotable bit. The paragraphs that everyone skips over between the famous opening and the rousing conclusion. Im talking about jeffersons list of grievances. They are hugely important. Because with