Three-Minute Legal Talks: Surprising Facts about the Declaration of Independence

Across the country, Americans gather for barbecues and fireworks every Fourth of July to celebrate the United States’ independence from Great Britain in 1776. Two hundred fifty years after its drafting, the Declaration of Independence remains an iconic symbol of American values and national identity.

Yet despite the singular importance of July 4, independence did not occur in a single day. Instead, over the course of several weeks, the Declaration was drafted, revised, presented to the Continental Congress and ultimately signed by delegates. Even more, the purpose for creating the document in the first place may elude many Americans.

In this video, Associate Dean Emeritus Hugh Spitzer presents lesser-known facts about one of the nation’s most revered documents. He explores key dates in its creation, the document’s intended audience and the surprisingly international character of its language.

Read the Transcript

Hugh Spitzer (HS): I'm Hugh Spitzer. I'm a partially retired professor at the UW School of Law, and I've taught a number of constitutional law and legal history courses.

UW Law: How long did it take to draft the Declaration of Independence?

HS: It only took a couple of weeks. A committee of five — Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Livingston and Sherman — was appointed on June the 11th. The Continental Congress said, "Go forth and draft the Declaration of Independence," and they went to work. Jefferson wrote the first draft. He was always careful in later life to let everybody know that he wrote the first draft. And then they presented a draft to the Continental Congress on June the 28th.

UW Law: Some say we should be hosting our cookouts and setting off fireworks on August 2 instead of July 4. Why is that?

HS: Well, there's a lot of dates to pick from. The final committee draft went to the Congress on June the 28th, and on July the 2nd, Congress actually officially voted for independence, so we could celebrate it on July the 2nd. And then on July the 4th, the final text was sent to the printer, so that's when the public got it, so that's an okay time for a cookout. But it wasn't until August the 2nd that most of the delegates actually signed the original declaration, so that's another good time for fireworks.

UW Law: What happened once the declaration was finalized and signed?

HS: The declaration then was sent around the colonies, the 13 colonies. It was sent to England. It was also sent to European governments.

We declared independence, but in fact, the American colonies were already pretty doggone independent. They were self-governing. They had been for, really, you know, a century and a half.

UW Law: What role did France play in the declaration?

HS: Fundamentally, the declaration was written in order to enable France to start sending foreign aid and military aid to the colonies. In order to get aid from other governments, these colonies needed to be a state — that is, a country under international law — and that's actually the primary reason that this document was written.

UW Law: What's ironic about the language used in the declaration?

HS: The language itself is international in scope. The drafters — Jefferson, Adams and the others — they were very well educated. They read Enlightenment works from France. They read British and Scottish philosophy. So, it's not as though this declaration was a purely American document. It's an international document in that way.

Another important thing is that it is also a British document, because the language so closely tracks the Petition of Right by Parliament of 1628 and then the Declaration of Rights of 1689 that William and Mary signed when Parliament fired James II and hired William and Mary to come in to be king and queen. So, the Declaration of Independence is not just American; it's also British, and it is international in character.