A Study In The History of Political Ideas
By Carl Becker, Joe Henry Mitchell
The Declaration of Independence A Study In The History of Political Ideas By Carl Becker
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
IT is often forgotten that the document which
we know as the Declaration of Independence is
not the official act by which the Continental
Congress voted in favor of separation from Great
Britain. June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, on
behalf of the Virginia delegation, submitted to
the Continental Congress three resolutions, of
which the first declared that "these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free
and independent States, that they are absolved
from all allegiance to the British Crown, and
that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain is, and ought to
be, totally dissolved."