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The Declaration of Independence: Why It Is So Important to Our Country

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“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” - The Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence is one of the most famous documents in the history of the United States of America. It helped the colonists declare independence from Great Britain and King George III. It is one of the documents that has made our country what it is today. Without the Declaration many things would be different. After reading this I hope you are able to see what these great men went through to make America’s founding document. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented …show more content…

The debate for that was scheduled for July 1. The draft would be accepted if they voted for independence. When July first finally arrived, the congress started debating whether or not to vote for independence. The debate lasted around 9 hours, they debated from morning, through the afternoon, and into twilight. The first delegate to speak was John Dickinson of Pennsylvania. He said that the timing wasn’t right for independence. Then, John Adams spoke next to answer him. Adams made a masterful presentation explaining why independence was a good idea. After he spoke for more than an hour, new delegates from New Jersey entered the meeting place and asked Adams to repeat his speech. He politely declined, but they insisted he make the speech once more. So he did. This time fixing and editing things as he spoke making the speech better. Once he was done for the second time, after nine hours of debating, it was time to vote. The vote for independence was good with nine states voting yes, but it didn’t feel right to call themselves the United States if they weren’t all together. So they decided to have the final vote for independence the next day, July 2, in hope that the delegates the voted no might change their minds. On July 2, 1776, the Congress made the final vote for independence. This time all the colonies voted “aye” except for New York which didn’t vote because they awaited official confirmation, but they would

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