Idea of Independence.
Taking each of these problems separately, let us endeavor to set in order first, the sources which should be studied in tracing the growth of the idea of independence in the colonies. Up to 1761, though there had been causes for differences of opinion between the Crown and the colonies, none of these causes had led to an open breach. In 1761 came the difficulty about the Writs of Assistance in which James Otis took such a prominent part. Otis’ speech on the Writs of Assistance, and especially his “Vindication of the House of Representatives” and his “Rights of the Colonies” may therefore be studied with profit. In them will be found the first statement of the American theory of government. These documents may be found in Hart’s Contemporaries, in the American History Leaflets, and in various other places. Following then in quick succession come the various declarations of the colonies and the various petitions to the Crown, beginning with the Declaration of the Stamp Act Congress issued in 1765 and ending with the Olive Branch Petition issued in June, 1775. Most of these documents can be found most conveniently in Macdonald’s Select Charters and the teacher can make his own selection according to his taste and the size of his class. The only thing to be emphasized in the study of any or all of these documents is the fact that, as Friedenwald expresses it, in speaking of the First Continental Congress (Declaration of Independence, p. 28), “spirited and outspoken as were the resolutions of the Congress of 1774 in stating their demands, there is no sign among them all that can rightly be interpreted as indicating a wish for the establishment, even remotely, of an independent government.” The same facts can be gleaned from a study of Tyler’s “Literary History of the American Revolution,” Vol. I, p. 458 ff.
With the news of the rejection of the Olive Branch Petition which reached the colonies in November, 1775, begins a new phase of the American Revolution. Thenceforward, there is a rapid and steady growth of the idea of political independence. The development of this idea should be studied in such documents as the declarations of the various colonies, especially the Virginia Declaration of Rights, June, 1776, and in the writings of the Revolutionary leaders such as Thomas Paine’s pamphlet entitled “Common Sense” issued in January, 1776, and the correspondence of John Adams. The idea culminates, of course, in the Declaration of Independence.
“Under this aspect,” says Tyler (Vol. I, p. 477) comparing the Revolution to the Civil War, “the American Revolution had just two stages; from 1764 to 1776, its champions were Nullifiers without being Secessionists; from 1776 to 1783, they were Secessionists, and as events proved, successful Secessionists.”
Criticism of the Declaration of Independence began with the animadversions of John Adams in his letter to Pickering in 1822 and has continued ever since. First, it has been declared that the ideas expressed in the preamble are not new, that “there is not an idea in it,” as Adams said, “but what had been hackneyed in Congress for two years before;” second, that the document is partisan and that the statement of grievances is unfair to the British Crown and to Parliament; third, that the political philosophy contained in the preamble is false and contrary to the facts of history.