# So I'm looking at the Declaration of Independence **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 21, 2017, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501 "2017-06-21T02:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501/21 "2017-06-23T14:57:15Z")
Unsurprisingly, **CalMeacham** beat me to this quote (and the entire discussion) by three years. [1776](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17203871&postcount=18) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501/22 "2017-06-23T16:01:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It was illegal under British law. And the Declaration of Independence removed us from British jurisdiction. Then what were that revolutionary war and that treaty all about? It’s a political manifesto, not a legal document. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501/23 "2017-06-23T16:06:36Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Then what were that revolutionary war and that treaty all about? > > It’s a political manifesto, not a legal document. Just filing the divorce papers. Finally England got tired of the court case and paying for the lawyers and said “Take the house, don’t use our last name anymore, there’s plenty of other countries we can fuck.” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501/24 "2017-06-23T16:12:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, to be fair, the Articles of Confederation _were_ legally binding, at the time. But they’re not any more because the Constitution replaced them. Well yeah, that was my point. Of course enforcing the legal status of the Articles was a problem because of the concept of maintaining so much sovereignty in the individual states leaving them to decide what rights the central government had. The Constitution tried to switch that around but still held the Union together with weak glue in order to get everyone to agree to it. Then after that… well, you know… history and stuff happened. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501/25 "2017-06-23T16:14:42Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Just filing the divorce papers. Finally England got tired of the court case and paying for the lawyers and said “Take the house, don’t use our last name anymore, there’s plenty of other countries we can fuck.” Yeah, well, if it hadn’t been for us, they’d all be speaking German. So there. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501/26 "2017-06-23T16:29:09Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The only legal point established by the Declaration of Independence was that the American colonies were no longer part of the British Empire. > [@AK84](#): > > That was the most manifestly _illegal_ thing in it. 😛 > [@mikecurtis](#): > > the Declaration of Independence was one of the first times, if not _ **the** _ first time, that the idea that people had certain rights, bestowed on them by the mere fact of their birth, was written down. And that no govt had the authority to subvert these rights. It is the basis for all of the legally binding stuff that followed. > > mc > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Then what were that revolutionary war and that treaty all about? > > It’s a political manifesto, not a legal document. The Declaration of Independence is an [apology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apologetics) in the original technical sense of the word. An explanation of why, in the colonies’ opinion, the Crown\* had forfeited the loyalty of the colonial subjects. \*Yes, by this time Parliament was for all practical purposes the sovereign; but the framers of the DoI followed the practice of pretending the King was still the ultimate authority. I made an effort awhile back to paraphrase the DoI in modern language to try to get across better just what the colonials were bitching about: > **[The Declaration of Independence, paraphrased](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=761329)** > > I created the following as a writing project, in which I tried to paraphrase the somewhat archaic language of the Declaration of Independence into modern terms, which would give current-day readers a better sense of just what the colonies were... ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501/27 "2017-06-23T19:59:56Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Then what were that revolutionary war and that treaty all about? Getting Britain to recognize that America was independent and no longer under their jurisdiction. The Treaty of Paris didn’t create our independence; it acknowledged it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501/28 "2017-06-23T21:53:07Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Yeah, well, if it hadn’t been for us, they’d all be speaking German. So there. If we had written the DoI in German, maybe King George would have actually read it! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501/29 "2017-06-23T22:42:45Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > If we had written the DoI in German, maybe King George would have actually read it! “Du bist eine scheissekopf, du bist eine scheissekopf, du bist eine scheissekopf, du kuhl, und du bist eine scheissekopf, ich ausfahrt.” Oh, wait. That’s _Half Baked_. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501/30 "2017-06-24T00:25:43Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > If we had written the DoI in German, maybe King George would have actually read it! George I or George II maybe. But George III considered himself to be English not German. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-looking-at-the-declaration-of-independence/789501.md?page=1)