On tuesday, october 2, the National Archives will host a for jamesook launch and mcphersons newest book mcphersons newest book. Todays lecturer is alexander for libertyhor of and equality the life and times of the declaration of independence. He has also written on slavery and reconstruction, the 13th. Mendment, and American Freedom they have appeared or will in a variety of lobar views across the country including the columbia law review, cornell law review, university of california davis law review, Boston College log review, connecticut log review, and wake log review. Is a frequentis presenter nationwide on issues regarding constitutional law, civil rights, reconstruction of the american creed, and hate speech legislation. Please join me in welcoming tsesis to the National Archives. [applause] thank you so much for that kind introduction and i appreciate you making time to hear this presentation. From the time of its signing on july 4, 17 76, the declaration of independence has set the standard for fair governance, both as far as individual rights and the common good. While the physical happy thats held the physical copy thats held here in the national faded, it continues to define us as a people. Indeed, the copy that is housed here has more signatures than the original had. The original declaration of independence was only signed by two people the president of the Continental Congress, john hancock, and the secretary of the Continental Congress. The version you can see here under our armed guard contains 56 signatures, including that of ,uture president john adams second president of the United States, inventor benjamin franklin, and Richard Henry lee, who was first to put forward the vote for independence in the Continental Congress. The version here has more signatures because of what was immediately published afterward. The new york delegates of the Continental Congress did not even receive permission to vote for independence until july 9 and five of the pennsylvania delegates who signed the declaration of independence were elected to congress 16 days after july 4. Whats even more curious is one of the pennsylvania delegates of signed the declaration independence voted against the declaration of independence of july 4, and yet signed it. The more curious, one of delegates of delaware was present at july 4 but did not 1781until 1777 or perhaps were not sure. What is it then that we treasure . I believe it is the values that are encompassed in that written text. The declaration of independence set the ethos for the United States and its statements on inalienable rights and equality have for over two centuries inspire those who fought against racism and xenophobia. Our definition of equality is not static. It has been formed over two centuries. Memorable phrases about inalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and a variety of the things that we remember as a entered our history and have become the guideposts both for federal governance as well as representative democracy. Claims in myhe for liberty andi equality the life and times of the declaration of independence , i argue that from the amount very founding, leaders and the American Public alike took the declaration of independence to be more than a butement of sovereignty. Ore a manifesto samuel adams when he was acting governor of the state of massachusetts told the state that when representatives agreed that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights, they agreed that liberty and equality would be the creed of the United States. The declaration of independence americanecame part of thought because Thomas Jefferson tapped into ordinary political thought of it today. At the time, politics was everywhere in pubs, in public squares, on newspaper pages. Cspan is a vehicle that has become very much what newspapers were of that day. Anchoreds formulation the main street political thought of his day and tapped into political conscience. In drafting the declaration of independence, he accepted universal concepts of natural rights as well as those that had on his word from philosophers like john locke. Reality was different on the ground. The future president James Madison wrote that the National Quality of men is the only basis on which universal justice, order, and freedom can firmly be built and permanently secured. These high sounding rights did not apply to all of humanity because he was a slaveowner, as was jefferson throughout the course of his life. Others proved to be much truer to those ideals than even its father. An 1800r at Independence Day celebration bemoaned that those who were in power have not relied on the Great American truths that were encompassed in the resolution. Hat all men were created equal that declaration statement of must apply to all people, men and women. The fate ofoaned africa, which had suffered murders, robberies, and burnings. The declaration of independence, contrary to the hopes of prominent revolutionary benjamin rush, adoption of the declaration of independence did not put a swift end to slavery swift slavery. Ugh both of the founding generations end of the generations that followed understood the humanitarian was incompatible with slavery. In many years, several books on the declaration of independence have mistakenly stated that it voice until the war of 1812. Youll see the historical record does not bear this out. Older people and public speakers here the declaration from the get go. Ofwas adopted as a statement rights, not only a justification for independence or merely empty rhetoric. Writer in 1787 so the proclamation that all men have inalienable rights must refer to blacks as much as whites, making those who exploited them for forced labor ridiculous and wicked. In a notable book by new jersey quaker david cooper published two sidebyside columns. On one side, he courted the declaration of independence and on the other column, he showed the hypocrisy of continued availabilityte the of these principles in the mainstream thought. Society of the promotion or abolition of slavery adopted the declaration , as did constitution the 1833 constitution of the american Antislavery Society, the declaration of independence the cornerstone of its ideas for ending slavery in the United States. This pattern carried on into the 19th century. Abolitionists devoted to the 1776 statement appeared in innumerable depictions of the early 19th century. The message of the abolitionists came through in sermons, petitions, speeches, editorials, and artistic renditions. An ingenious artist created a window shade in which on one the American Eagle is holding the declaration of independence in its talons, and on the others are two slaves praying for the fulfillment of its promises. Time when those opposed to slavery could not turn to the constitution, the declaration of independence was their official source of national guarantee of equality. Abolitionists really the declaration of independence statement of National Rights impose a National Obligation on the emancipation of slaves, and they counter opposed this with a variety of protections on slavery that existed in the constitution, such as the 3 5 clause, the importation clause in the original constitution, as well as the fugitive slave clause. There simply was no comparable protection of slavery in the declaration of independence, so for abolitionists, the legal ons became became the core legal statement. Conductord railroad individualismt of while denouncing the constitution for granting one representative in the cell for every 70,000 slaves. Through this 3 5 clause, politicians entered political office, only, as rankin said, to strengthen the yoke and tighten the chains of cruel oppression. Any effectiveaves representation. The principles of the declaration of independence as a member of the Antislavery Society were trampled in the dust. Also the interaction because of the constitution which required the federal government to suppress any state rebellion. St is interesting, the contrast of these abolitionists view from the proslavery movement, which from its beginnings argue that slavery was a positive good. Skepticism about the documents thatment of natural rights existed released at the time of proslavery the movement charged it was as system of any other theed labor and regarded words as exaggerated statement. The declaration was completely irrelevant, according to them, to slavery. The greatest apologist in this thought, South Carolina senator calhoun, was marked the declaration of independence for said,ng equality of as he the human races. Others in the proslavery movement took a different position. They acknowledged that human truth,y was in fact a but they simply thought it did not apply to blacks. Abolitionism is not the only area of social activism that found the declaration to be so prominent. In therican manifesto first wave of feminism, feminists relied on a more inclusive version of natural rights than that which had been adopted by its author, Thomas Jefferson. The understood that statement of intrinsic human equality applied to women and men. The American Revolution, which was to throw off tyranny and create representative democracy, which could only come about if states repealed all in equal laws about unequal laws about ownership of property, Voting Rights, and womens ability to have elective office. The declarations principles played into the most important Womens Rights Convention in United States history, convened in 1848 in southern new york. A group of men and women adopted the declarations sentiments, which used the declaration of independence as its touchstone, its baseline, and develop a more inclusive version that held that all men and women were created a. Createdtion of equal. The declaration of independence might have become a forgotten document, a statement of sovereignty, of independence, telling the world we were an independent nation and asking for the Financial Support of countries like spain and france, and then lost and dust filled halls in its copies, or perhaps its original to be kept in some more prominent place. Instead, the document became much more. Abolitionists and women suffragists were outsiders who resorted to the document not as a statement of sovereignty, but as a statement of principle. Outside the social advocacy realm in those two areas, the document was also prominent in mainstream politics. In the First Quarter of the 19th century, various politically disempowered groups relied on the manifesto for change. Their causes range from civil and religious rights, free speech, the better prison movement, as well as the Suffrage Movement, without any constitutional resource and many times without even knowing which politician they should talk to. They use public discourse, electioneering, organizing, editorial writing, religious sermonizing in order to argue for cultural and legal change. The declaration of independence statement ofzable rights and government responsibilities. While the original constitution in the bill of rights used technical jargon about illegal searches and seizures, juries, due process of law, and a variety of other things, most people found that the liberation 1776 was more appealing to ordinary people. The Suffrage Movement made one of the most compelling cases for securing the rights proclaimed in the declaration. At the beginning, laborers made too low a wage to be able to vote in states which required some baseline of property in order to participate. One of its members explained the movement was meant to vindicate les of the quality of representation contained in the declaration of independence because it was the poorest and the propertyless who stood most from its principals. In 1830, 5 out of six people in new england who were in jail where they are because of debts they owed. Many of them had a debt of less than 20. A u. S. Senator from kentucky was the leader of this movement. Richard johnson said this was an unfair thing that was also completely inequitable to the poor. Change was wrought by activists who relied on the document and led to widespread populism which brought Andrew Jackson into power as the president. Political adversaries also articulated the argument about the meaning of the declaration of independence when engaging in sectional conflicts about definitionhe legal of slavery to newly acquired territories. In 1830, the conflict began to play itself out in territories acquired through the louisiana purchase. It dealt with the entrance of missouri and if it could come in as a slave state. Quoted from the declaration and a statement on inalienable rights amply, which they understood to set a National Rule that applied to all people to be incompatible with the subordination and deprivation which was intrinsic to slavery. While the argument did not win the day and, of course, missouri entered the union as a slave thee, the grave message influence of the declaration to policy decision was undeniable. The u. S. Acquired in normas territory out west through the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo acquired enormous territory out west. New states like california, arizona, new mexico, and could enter only if the territory remained free. Condemnedoil party the hypocrisy of politicians who asserted their devotion to the principles of human rights and proclaimed them through the declaration of independence, even to back legislation to introduce slavery into the newly acquired states. At the core of this heated ebate was if these new states memberships had to be conditioned on the human rights principles which were encompassed in the declaration of independence. Thegreatest outcry about compromise of 1850 dealt with the fugitive slave clause, which minimalan extremely right of legal due process in court, did not provide for jury trials, and required ordinary citizens to become part of posses who had to gather and forcefully collect these alleged runaways and put them into jail. Before it went into effect, an irate congressman pointed out that the declaration of independence attributed one of the causes of the revolution to deniedt that britain jury trials to the colonists. Here was the fugitive slave act effectively denying jury trials, despite its tremendous effect on individuals liberty and that it was creating a system of domineering that was even worse colonistswhich the had rebelled against. Passage of the fugitive slave act triggered a response that relied heavily on the statements of the declaration of independence. In syracuse, new york, a racially mixed man who was captured and jailed under the fugitive slave act asked abolitionists who were with him, in the name of the declaration of independence and god, why am i bound thus in a free country . To irony was not lost to a member of the new york abolitionist society, who asked crimeically, what was his . A love of liberty which we all declared to be man yes manns inalienable rights mans inalienable right . In the south, Jefferson Davis had a very different perception of the declaration. He thought it was primarily about executive tyranny and about state rights. His followers and supporters believed that bars to the introduction of slavery in the new states was a type of tierney against which the colonies had fought and rejected when they were under british rule. Indeed, when president lincoln took power, davis compared him iii with the view that lincoln was as much of an autocrat and that the secession was comparable to throwing off as had been when the colonists freed themselves from europe. What was missing from the picture was any sense that White Supremacism was against the principles of equality and rights contained in the declaration of independence. The Supreme Court in its effort to resolve the dispute did not help. The now infamous dred scott decision written by Supreme Court chief Justice Robert tani issued a politically charged time of the at the revolution, blacks were not citizens and not part of the compact of the american declaration of independence. The opinion did have supporters, argued heenting judge had falsely stated history. The statement in the declaration of independence was meant to create an assertion of universal truths. The same dissenter went on to say the framers could not have meant to say that god could not have endowed the white race exclusively with inalienable rights contained in the declaration of independence. Opinion was immediately countered by the opposition. A milwaukee newspaper accused him of degrading the declaration into a mere sham. Committee waste convened for the purpose of andessing dred scott ys claimg justice tane is a violation of the sacred principles announced in the declaration of independence. The greatest effect in this white only perception of the declaration of independence was to drastically speed up civil war. Throughout the civil war, the nation was led by president Abraham Lincoln, a politician for whom the declaration of independence had played an incredibly important part throughout the course of his political career. He often asserted his belief that the declaration that all men are created equal is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest and that slavery is a violation of those principles. On the American People to readop