Where is dec of independence

Through Founders Online, you can read and search through thousands of documents and records to and from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison and see firsthand the growth of democracy and the birth of the Republic. Their letters and journals are a kind of "first draft" of the Charters of Freedom.

Top Skip to main content. Main menu Research Our Records Veterans' Service Records Educator Resources Visit Us America's Founding Documents These three documents, known collectively as the Charters of Freedom, have secured the rights of the American people for more than two and a quarter centuries and are considered instrumental to the founding and philosophy of the United States.

Declaration of Independence. Learn More The Declaration of Independence expresses the ideals on which the United States was founded and the reasons for separation from Great Britain. Dunlap, working from a corrected manuscript and supervised by the drafting committee, produced approximately broadsides for distribution to the thirteen states and elsewhere. Dunlap is believed to have worked feverishly on the night of July 4th to produce his broadsides so they could be posted and read aloud on July 5th to alert the citizenry of this momentous event in time.

As John Adams later wrote, "We were all in haste. The Dunlap copies do not carry the same title of unanimity as the original engrossed copy due to New York's abstention until July 9th. One of these Dunlap copies was reportedly delivered to George Washington at Valley Forge to be read aloud to the troops.

Another, currently housed at Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia, was donated to the park by the heirs of Colonel John Nixon, the man appointed by the sheriff of Philadelphia to read the Declaration aloud in the State House yard on July 8, Only 25 Dunlap Copies are known to still exist. This copy made a tour of the country to allow Americans to view it. In , in response to a wave of patriotism following the War of and in advance of the nation's 50th birthday, John Quincy Adams commissioned Washington DC engraver William Stone to produce a facsimile of the original engrossed Declaration's text and the 56 signatures of the members of the Continental Congress.

Stone required three years to complete his task and the results were a remarkably accurate engraved copper plate. History does not record his exact technique or methodology, but various rumors over the years included the employment of a tracking device, tracing and even a suspicion that Stone's skills included those of a master forger.

It is now widely accepted that Stone utilized carefully placed mirrors and his exemplary engraving skills in a painstakingly tedious process to create his printing plate. With the discovery of the Anastatic Declaration it is proven Stone was a master engraver as they are nearly identical.

Stone completed the engraving of the copper plate in and sold it to the State Department. A congressional resolution passed on May 26, with an order placed for copies, on vellum. These copies were to be distributed to official repositories, significant office holders and the surviving signers of the Declaration, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Charles Carroll.

Two copies were given to the Marquis d'Lafayette when he visited America in At 24 x 30 inches, the Stone facsimile is very close to the original engrossed Declaration in size. At the top is a line that reads "Engraved by W.

Adams Secy of State July 4, Later printings from the Stone copperplate are the same size but printed on paper, not parchment or vellum, and have the imprint bottom left. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. 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 protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:.

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:. For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:.

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.