How Government Works: the Foundation Laid by the Declaration of Independence

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The Declaration of Independence stands as one of the most consequential documents in human history. Adopted on July 4, 1776, this revolutionary text did far more than announce the American colonies’ separation from Great Britain. It established a comprehensive philosophical framework that would shape the development of American government and influence democratic movements worldwide for centuries to come. Understanding how the Declaration laid the foundation for American government requires examining its core principles, historical context, and lasting impact on constitutional governance.

The Historical Context and Creation of the Declaration

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee brought what came to be called the Lee Resolution before the Continental Congress, stating “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states”. After Congress debated independence for several days, the Committee of Five—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson—was given the job of drafting a formal Declaration of Independence, and they gave the task of writing the document to Jefferson.

Drawing on documents, such as the Virginia Declaration of Rights, state and local calls for independence, and his own draft of a Virginia constitution, Jefferson wrote a stunning statement of the colonists’ right to rebel against the British government and establish their own based on the premise that all men are created equal and have the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Jefferson’s writing was influenced by George Mason’s Virginia Declaration of Rights, as well as by his study of natural rights theory and the writings of John Locke, including Two Treatises of Government.

The drafting process involved careful collaboration and revision. Franklin and Adams edited Jefferson’s draft, and the final document was presented to Congress about two weeks later. On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to declare independence from England, and Congress made several changes to Jefferson’s draft, including removing references condemning slavery, before the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.

The Philosophical Foundations: Natural Rights and Enlightenment Thought

The American Revolution and subsequent War for Independence were a product of the Enlightenment, the 17th-century intellectual movement in Europe that sparked new ideas about humanity, science, government, human rights and reason combined with a sense of liberal nationalism. The most influential European philosopher on the American Revolution was Englishman John Locke, who at the end of the 17th century expanded the notion of the social contract between those governed and those governing, and Locke’s philosophy of the “social contract” greatly influenced Thomas Jefferson and its influence runs throughout the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration’s philosophical underpinnings drew from multiple intellectual traditions. Lord Kames provided the philosophical foundation of the phrase “pursuit of happiness,” which was appropriated by Jefferson as an inalienable right of mankind in the Declaration of Independence. By Jefferson’s own admission, the Declaration contained no original ideas, but was instead a statement of sentiments widely shared by supporters of the American Revolution, as he explained in 1825: “Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind”.

Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, published in 1776, influenced the drafters of the Declaration of Independence, as Paine argued in succinct terms that ordinary people had the capacity to govern themselves and did not need to be led by a crowned official. This revolutionary concept challenged centuries of monarchical tradition and established the intellectual groundwork for popular sovereignty.

The Three Essential Sections of the Declaration

The Declaration contained 3 sections: a general statement of natural rights theory and the purpose of government; a list of grievances against the British King; and the declaration of independence from England. Each section served a distinct purpose in building the case for independence and establishing principles for future governance.

The Preamble: Self-Evident Truths and Natural Rights

The Declaration’s most famous passage articulates fundamental principles that would become the bedrock of American political philosophy. The text states: “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.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”.

This revolutionary statement established several critical principles. First, it asserted that certain rights are inherent to human beings and cannot be taken away. Second, it declared that governments exist specifically to protect these rights. Third, it proclaimed that governmental authority derives from the consent of the people being governed, not from divine right or hereditary privilege.

Consent can only mean assent to a government that really does secure the rights human beings have by nature, thanks to their Creator, before they form the government, and once they no longer consent to their government because it no longer serves the purpose a government ought to have, not only do we have the right to alter or abolish it, we also have the right, even the obligation, to frame a new government.

The Grievances: Documenting Tyranny

The middle section of the Declaration presented a detailed list of complaints against King George III, documenting specific instances of tyrannical behavior. These grievances served multiple purposes: they justified the colonies’ break from Britain, provided evidence of systematic oppression, and illustrated what a legitimate government should not do.

Among the many grievances listed, the colonists accused the King of various abuses. The Declaration charged that “He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world”.

More than 20 years later, the Second, Third, Fourth, and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution would contain prohibitions against the government to prevent the same forms of tyranny as were listed as grievances. This direct connection demonstrates how the Declaration’s documentation of British abuses directly influenced the specific protections later enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

The Declaration of Independence Itself

The final section formally announced the colonies’ separation from Great Britain. The representatives 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; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do”.

Core Principles That Shaped American Government

The Declaration of Independence affirmed the republican principle of popular government, as the people were the source of all sovereignty, or authority, in the representative government. This principle represented a radical departure from the prevailing systems of government in the 18th century, where monarchs claimed authority through divine right or hereditary succession.

The concept of popular sovereignty established that legitimate governmental power flows upward from the people rather than downward from a monarch or ruling class. This foundational principle would later be explicitly incorporated into the Constitution’s opening words: “We the People.” The Preamble to the Constitution outlined that the new constitutional government was also to be based on this principle of popular sovereignty, stating “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,” which meant that the people of the United States, through their representatives, established this new government.

Natural Rights and Human Equality

The core purpose of the Declaration of Independence was to establish a just political order that recognized human equality in natural rights for all persons. The assertion that “all men are created equal” became one of the most powerful and contested phrases in American history.

However, the meaning of this phrase has evolved significantly over time. When Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal” in the preamble to the Declaration, he was not talking about individual equality; what he really meant was that the American colonists, as a people, had the same rights of self-government as other peoples, and hence could declare independence, create new governments and assume their “separate and equal station” among other nations.

But after the Revolution succeeded, Americans began reading that famous phrase another way; it now became a statement of individual equality that everyone and every member of a deprived group could claim for himself or herself, and with each passing generation, our notion of who that statement covers has expanded. This evolving interpretation has driven movements for abolition, women’s suffrage, civil rights, and ongoing struggles for equality.

The Right to Revolution

The Declaration established not only the right but the duty of people to alter or abolish governments that fail to protect their natural rights. This principle of justified revolution was perhaps the most radical aspect of the document. It asserted that when a government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was created—namely, securing natural rights—the people have the right to change it.

This principle had profound implications for future governance. It meant that government authority was conditional, not absolute. Officials held power only so long as they governed justly and with the consent of the governed. This concept would influence the development of constitutional mechanisms for peaceful change, including regular elections, amendment processes, and impeachment procedures.

Limited Government

By establishing that governments exist solely to secure natural rights, the Declaration implicitly limited governmental power. Government was not an end in itself but a means to protect individual liberty. This principle would later manifest in the Constitution’s enumeration of specific powers, the separation of powers among three branches, and the system of checks and balances designed to prevent any single entity from accumulating too much authority.

The Declaration’s Influence on Constitutional Development

From Declaration to Articles of Confederation

Following independence, the newly formed states needed a framework for national governance. The Declaration announced independence from Great Britain and created a new nation that claimed the powers to declare and fight a war, to make peace treaties, to establish alliances with other nations, and to trade with other countries, and the Continental Congress outlined these powers in a governing document called the Articles of Confederation, which formed the first national government of the United States.

However, the Articles of Confederation proved inadequate. The Articles failed spectacularly, not primarily because of specific structural defects like the lack of a chief executive or national judiciary, but because they failed to fulfill the Declaration’s fundamental promises, as the Declaration had proclaimed that governments exist to secure people’s natural rights on the basis of popular consent, and the Articles accomplished neither goal effectively.

The Constitutional Convention and the Declaration’s Principles

The Constitution emerged as a necessary replacement, designed specifically to create a framework that would actually realize the Declaration’s vision. The framers who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 sought to create a government structure that would embody the principles articulated in 1776 while addressing the practical failures of the Articles of Confederation.

Most importantly, the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are based on the idea that all people have certain fundamental rights that governments are created to protect. This common foundation unified the founding documents despite their different purposes and structures.

The principles of the Declaration of Independence informed the creation of the new government under the Constitution, and together, the Founding principles contained in the documents worked together to guide the governance of the nation to secure the blessings of liberty.

Lincoln’s “Apple of Gold” Metaphor

President Abraham Lincoln provided one of the most eloquent explanations of the relationship between the Declaration and the Constitution. Using a biblical metaphor, Lincoln stated that the Declaration of Independence was an “apple of gold” because it contained the Founding principles of the new country, while the Constitution was a “picture of silver,” or a frame around the apple that created the structures of republican government, and in Lincoln’s mind—and in those of the Founders—the two documents were permanently linked in creating a free government.

Drawing on Proverbs 25:11, which mentions “apples of gold in pictures of silver,” Lincoln described the Declaration’s principle of liberty to all as the apple of gold, with the Constitution and Union serving as the silver frame, writing “The picture was made to conceal or destroy the apple, but to adorn and preserve it”. This metaphor emphasized that the Constitution’s structures existed to protect and implement the Declaration’s principles, not to replace or supersede them.

Specific Constitutional Provisions Rooted in the Declaration

The Preamble’s Echoes

A close reading of the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution reveals a common set of Founding principles of republican government. The Constitution’s Preamble establishes purposes that directly reflect the Declaration’s philosophy: establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty.

The Declaration promoted the general welfare by asserting the universal principle that all were equally entitled to inalienable rights—those rights that belonged to them as human beings—and it also established the principle of a free government to protect those rights, as Americans declared independence as a path to end tyranny and embrace those free principles for both the good of the individual and the common good.

The Bill of Rights Connection

The first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, represent a direct application of the Declaration’s principles to specific governmental limitations. Many of these protections respond directly to the grievances listed in the Declaration against King George III.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights strongly influenced Thomas Jefferson in writing the first part of the Declaration of Independence, and it later provided the foundation for the Bill of Rights. This lineage demonstrates the continuous thread of rights-based thinking from colonial documents through the Declaration to the Constitution’s amendments.

The Bill of Rights protects freedoms of speech, religion, press, and assembly; prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures; guarantees due process and trial by jury; and reserves powers to the states and people. Each of these protections reflects the Declaration’s fundamental premise that individuals possess inherent rights that government must respect.

Structural Safeguards

The Constitution’s structural features—separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, and regular elections—all serve to implement the Declaration’s principles. These mechanisms ensure that government remains limited, accountable, and responsive to the people.

The separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers prevents the concentration of authority that the Declaration condemned in King George III. The system of checks and balances ensures that each branch can restrain potential abuses by the others. Federalism divides power between national and state governments, providing additional protection against tyranny. Regular elections maintain the consent of the governed by allowing the people to change their representatives peacefully.

Unlike the other founding documents, the Declaration of Independence is not legally binding, but it is powerful. While courts cannot directly enforce the Declaration’s provisions, it serves important interpretive functions.

The Declaration of Independence does not have the force of law domestically, but nevertheless it may help to provide historical and legal clarity about the Constitution and other laws. Judges, scholars, and political leaders have frequently turned to the Declaration to understand the principles underlying constitutional provisions and to resolve ambiguities in legal interpretation.

The Declaration and Constitution establish complementary constitutional values, as several of the Declaration’s paragraphs clarify the founding generation’s meaning, making the document a constructive tool for parsing the meaning of the Constitution, and furthermore, the Declaration contains fundamental principles for fulfilling the aims, duties, and functions of government, with those principles placing limits and imposing obligations on public officials.

Historical Understanding and Originalism

For those who interpret the Constitution according to its original meaning, the Declaration provides crucial context. Understanding what the founding generation meant by terms like “liberty,” “equality,” and “rights” requires examining the Declaration’s articulation of these concepts.

The Constitution itself provides clues about its relationship to the Declaration, as Article VII, which addresses ratification, notes that the Constitution was completed “in the year of our Lord 1787 and of the independence of the United States the twelfth,” and this seemingly minor detail establishes something significant: America as a political community began in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence, not in 1787 with the Constitution.

The Declaration’s Expanding Promise

Abolition and the Civil War

In the 19th century, the Declaration took on a special significance for the abolitionist movement, as historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown wrote that “abolitionists tended to interpret the Declaration of Independence as a theological as well as a political document,” and abolitionist leaders Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison adopted the “twin rocks” of “the Bible and the Declaration of Independence” as the basis for their philosophies.

Abraham Lincoln made the Declaration central to his opposition to slavery’s expansion. Lincoln believed that the “principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society,” as he wrote shortly before the anniversary of Jefferson’s birthday in 1859. Lincoln argued that allowing slavery to expand violated the Declaration’s fundamental promise of equality.

After the war, the Declaration’s vision was embodied in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, which formally ended slavery, guaranteed all persons the “equal protection of the laws,” and gave African-American men the right to vote. These Reconstruction Amendments represented a constitutional fulfillment of the Declaration’s promise of equality.

Women’s Rights and Suffrage

At the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, when supporters of gaining greater rights for women met, they, too, used the Declaration of Independence as a guide for drafting their Declaration of Sentiments, and their efforts to achieve equal suffrage culminated in 1920 in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.

The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments deliberately echoed the 1776 Declaration’s language, asserting that “all men and women are created equal” and listing grievances against male-dominated society just as the original Declaration had listed grievances against King George III. This rhetorical strategy demonstrated the power of the Declaration’s principles to inspire movements for expanded rights.

Civil Rights Movement

The mid-20th century civil rights movement similarly invoked the Declaration’s promises. During the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his famous address at the Lincoln Memorial, “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir”.

Dr. King’s metaphor of a “promissory note” captured the Declaration’s ongoing significance. The document made promises that subsequent generations have worked to fulfill more completely. Each movement for expanded rights has appealed to the Declaration’s assertion of equality and natural rights as justification for reform.

International Influence and Legacy

Inspiring Democratic Movements Worldwide

Abraham Lincoln called the Declaration “a rebuke and a stumbling-block to tyranny and oppression,” and it continues to inspire people around the world to fight for freedom and equality. The Declaration’s principles influenced revolutionary movements and constitutional developments far beyond American shores.

Many leaders of the French Revolution admired the Declaration of Independence but were also interested in the new American state constitutions, and the inspiration and content of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) emerged largely from the ideals of the American Revolution, as Lafayette prepared its key drafts, working closely in Paris with his friend Thomas Jefferson.

According to historian David Armitage, the Declaration of Independence did prove to be internationally influential, but not as a statement of human rights, as Armitage argues that the Declaration was the first in a new genre of declarations of independence which announced the creation of new states. This model of formally declaring independence and justifying it through appeals to universal principles became a template for independence movements worldwide.

A Living Document for Democratic Aspirations

In Lincoln’s hands, the Declaration of Independence became first and foremost a living document with a set of goals to be realized over time. This interpretation recognizes that the Declaration established ideals that no society has perfectly achieved but that provide standards toward which to strive.

It is that promise of equality that has always defined our constitutional creed. The Declaration’s principles continue to serve as a measuring stick against which Americans evaluate their laws, institutions, and practices. When reality falls short of the Declaration’s ideals, reformers invoke those principles to demand change.

Core Governmental Concepts Established by the Declaration

The Declaration of Independence established or reinforced several core concepts that became fundamental to American government:

The principle that governmental authority derives from the consent of the governed transformed political theory and practice. Rather than accepting that rulers possessed inherent authority, the Declaration asserted that people create governments and can alter or abolish them when they fail to serve their proper purpose.

Limited Government

By defining government’s purpose as securing natural rights, the Declaration established that governmental power should be limited to that function. This principle led to constitutional structures designed to prevent governmental overreach, including enumerated powers, separation of powers, and explicit protections for individual rights.

Separation of Powers

While not explicitly detailed in the Declaration, the concept of separating governmental functions emerged from the Declaration’s critique of concentrated power. The grievances against King George III documented the dangers of combining legislative, executive, and judicial authority in a single person or body. The Constitution’s division of powers among three branches responded directly to these concerns.

Checks and Balances

The system of checks and balances implements the Declaration’s principle that power must be constrained. By giving each branch of government the ability to limit the others, the Constitution created a structure designed to prevent the kind of tyranny the Declaration condemned.

Individual Rights

The Declaration’s assertion of unalienable rights established that individuals possess inherent dignity and freedoms that government must respect. This principle led directly to the Bill of Rights and continues to inform debates about the scope and nature of constitutional protections.

Rule of Law

By appealing to natural law and universal principles rather than mere power, the Declaration established that legitimate government operates according to law, not arbitrary will. This concept became central to American constitutionalism, manifesting in requirements for due process, equal protection, and judicial review.

Challenges and Contradictions

The Slavery Paradox

The Declaration’s most glaring contradiction was the existence of slavery in a nation founded on the principle that all men are created equal. Thomas Jefferson drafted a passage in the Declaration, later struck out by Congress, that blamed the British monarchy for imposing slavery on unwilling American colonists, describing it as “the cruel war against human nature”.

This contradiction haunted American politics for nearly a century and ultimately required a civil war to begin resolving. The greatest tragedy of American constitutional history was not the failure of the framers to eliminate slavery in 1787, as that option was simply not available to them, but the real tragedy was the failure of Reconstruction and the ensuing emergence of Jim Crow segregation in the late 19th century that took many decades to overturn.

Exclusions from “All Men”

The Declaration’s promise of equality initially excluded not only enslaved people but also women, Native Americans, and those without property. The history of American democracy has been, in many ways, the story of expanding the circle of who counts as part of “all men are created equal.”

Each generation has grappled with this tension between the Declaration’s universal language and the limited application the founding generation intended. The document’s power lies partly in its aspirational language, which provided tools for excluded groups to demand inclusion.

The Declaration in Contemporary Governance

Ongoing Relevance to Constitutional Debates

The Declaration continues to inform contemporary debates about constitutional interpretation, individual rights, and the proper scope of government. When courts consider questions about liberty, equality, or governmental power, the Declaration’s principles often provide relevant context and guidance.

Arguments about religious freedom, free speech, property rights, and equal protection frequently invoke the Declaration’s natural rights philosophy. While the Declaration itself is not legally enforceable, its principles help interpret constitutional provisions that are.

Civic Education and National Identity

The Declaration of Independence states the principles on which our government, and our identity as Americans, are based. Understanding the Declaration remains essential to civic education and national identity. The document articulates shared values that unite Americans across diverse backgrounds and beliefs.

Despite similarities and differences, the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are, in many ways, fused together in the minds of Americans, because they represent what is best about America, as they are symbols of the liberty that allows us to achieve success and of the equality that ensures that we are all equal in the eyes of the law.

A Standard for Evaluating Government

The Declaration provides citizens with standards for evaluating their government’s performance. Does government secure natural rights? Does it operate with the consent of the governed? Does it promote the general welfare while respecting individual liberty? These questions, rooted in the Declaration’s principles, remain central to political discourse.

In Federalist No. 1, Alexander Hamilton explained the entire purpose of establishing free government based upon the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, stating that Americans had the opportunity and responsibility to form good government through “reflection and choice,” not by “accident and force,” and the ability to choose reflected the ideals of government by consent argued for in the Declaration.

Conclusion: An Enduring Foundation

The Declaration of Independence laid the philosophical and moral foundation for American government in ways that continue to resonate nearly 250 years later. Its assertion of natural rights, popular sovereignty, and the right to self-governance established principles that the Constitution would implement through specific structures and procedures.

Together, these documents demonstrate that the United States was founded uniquely upon a set of principles and ideals, and although these ideals shaped the structure of the government, it was ultimately up to the people to maintain them. The Declaration did not create a government; it articulated the purposes for which government should exist and the principles by which it should operate.

The relationship between the Declaration and the Constitution is not one of replacement but of complementarity. The Declaration announced principles; the Constitution created structures to implement those principles. The Declaration promised rights; the Constitution and Bill of Rights specified and protected them. The Declaration justified revolution; the Constitution established mechanisms for peaceful change.

The Declaration serves as a point of departure and a promise, and the Constitution as a set of commitments that had lasting consequences, as the Declaration, in its remarkable concision, gives us self-evident truths that form the premises of the right to revolution and the capacity to create new governments resting on popular consent.

Understanding how the Declaration laid the foundation for American government requires recognizing both its immediate impact and its ongoing influence. It shaped the Constitution’s creation, informed the Bill of Rights, inspired movements for expanded rights, and continues to provide principles for evaluating governmental legitimacy. The Declaration’s vision of a government that secures natural rights through the consent of the governed remains the animating ideal of American democracy.

For those seeking to understand American government, the Declaration of Independence is not merely a historical artifact but a living statement of principles that continue to shape constitutional interpretation, political debate, and national identity. Its influence extends far beyond the moment of independence to encompass the entire development of American constitutional governance and the ongoing project of making its promises real for all people.

To explore the Declaration of Independence further, visit the National Archives for the original document and detailed historical information. The National Constitution Center offers excellent resources on the relationship between the Declaration and the Constitution. For scholarly analysis of the Declaration’s influence on American government, the Bill of Rights Institute provides educational materials and essays exploring these founding documents in depth.