One could surmise that simply copies were sent to London to King George and his prime minister. Or since the British Army and the Royal Navy occupied considerable territory in the colonies, copies could have fallen into Royalist or British hands during all of the years of the American Revolution, or the American Rebellion as it has been styled in Great Britain. New York City was occupied by the British for the duration of the war.
I can't see a copy being willingly given to a British delegate just in case the revolt failed. Benjamin Franklins' head would have been on the block.
the declaration was the rationale for war I cannot see it being given to the british, although customs were so different back then, I like the idea that during an occupation of a city the found one and shipped it back to king george. Or to Pitt for him to proofread.
The Declaration of Independence was submitted to King George, perhaps carried by one of the deposed Royal Governors. He was presented with it. It was published in England. Copies went to France, where it fanned the flames of reformation by the intellectuals of the Enlightenment that would lead to French Revolution and the Rights of Man.
An idea is the most powerful thing that Man can devise.
The declaration of independence was not an original document it follows very closely the 1689 English Bill of Rights. In that document, Parliament endorsed the ouster of the despotic James II as the only means to vindicate the “rights and liberties of the subject.” Similar to the dec the bill of rights starts off with a list of reasons why the monarchy should not be allowed to return. Even has no taxation without representation statement. Part of its list of grievances. Likewise, the Declaration’s defense of the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” conveyed nothing more radical than established British law. Life: liberty and Property that had been a keystone of English law. So on July 4 when we think of the declaration maybe we should also think and say thank you to theEnglish roots that inspired it?
English Common Law which started when Britannia was a Roman province, continued to evolve throughout the centuries with noted milestones such as the Magna Carta. By the 18th century it was the basis that formed the English Constitution which is an amalgamation written and unwritten law based custom and usage. The American colonists carried that constitution with them as baggage when the came to establish the colonies.
The colonists, though religious radicals, were still Englishmen in their mindset. They absorbed Dutch and Swedish colonials into their heterogenous society. Something that would set the trend for the absorption of tens of millions of the poor and unwanted of the world who would arrive on our shores and be assimilated into the evolving American culture that continues to this day.
The Fourth is a good time to recall the purpose of our experiment and renew the ideals that have made this the light of liberty unto the world. Give a thought to the millions of Iranians who are being crushed under the despotism of the mad mullahs and support their efforts to achieve liberty and freedom of religion or freedom from religion.
