EDITORIAL: What others have said ...
Jul. 1—On the right, you will find the full text of the Declaration of Independence. It was on July 2, 1776, that the United States declared its independence from Great Britain. It's not a long or difficult read, taking a just a few minutes. Its concepts are straightforward. Then take a minute to read what others have said about it, below. "(Independence Day) will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival ... It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."
— John Adams
"Here, in the first paragraph of the Declaration, is the assertion of the natural right of all to the ballot; for how can 'the consent of the governed' be given, if the right to vote be denied?"
— Susan B. Anthony
"The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions."
— Frederick Douglass
"If our nation had done nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its contribution to civilization would be imperishable. The first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence and the other is ... the Emancipation Proclamation."
— Martin Luther King Jr.
"We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.
— Winston Churchill
"It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause. ... If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final."
— Calvin Coolidge
