The Declaration of Independence was a call for freedom and national unity

When the signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the morning of July 4, 1776, they were making a fundamental compact uniting Americans for all time.It may not have seemed so on that steamy morning in Philadelphia, when the members of the Continental Congress adopted Thomas Jefferson’s announcement that the united colonies had voted — two days earlier — to separate from Great Britain.The Declaration was seen as an administrative task, something necessary to legitimize their attempts to form an alliance with France and to start creating a confederated government among the 13 now sovereign states.So busy were they with the business of trying to turn around a losing war that not until weeks later did they even think to have their Declaration written out formally and signed.The summer of 1776 was a dark time for the Americans.The British had evacuated Boston back in March, but the war was going badly, within half a year, Congress would flee Philadelphia for Baltimore as the British chased George Washington and the Continental Army across New Jersey.The Declaration was meant to give comfort to the Patriots, sway the undecided, and maybe even convince some Loyalists to switch sides.Congress spent two full days debating the draft of young Jefferson and the Committee of Five, which included Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.They cared enough about the statement to cut nearly a quarter of Jefferson’s words, including his passionate condemnation of the slave trade, while strengthening other parts.But how could they realize this announcement would be celebrated a quarter of a millennium later?Or that its phrases would change the world?They almost certainly had no expectations that the Declaration would become, next to the Bible, perhaps the most famous statement of political and moral principles in history.The signers wrote their Declaration with the express purpose of uniting Americans.As J...