American Scripture Making the Declaration of Independence

by MAIER, PAULINE

• ISBN13: 9780679779087
• ISBN10: 0679779086
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-05-26
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Pauline Maier shows us the Declaration as both the defining statement of our national identity and the moral standard by which we live as a nation. It is truly "American Scripture," and Maier tells us how it came to be -- from the Declaration's birth in the hard and tortuous struggle by which Americans arrived at Independence to the ways in which, in the nineteenth century, the document itself became sanctified. Maier describes the transformation of the Second Continental Congress into a national government, unlike anything that preceded or followed it, and with more authority than the colonists would ever have conceded to the British Parliament; the great difficulty in making the decision for Independence; the influence of Paine'sCommon Sense, which shifted the terms of debate; and the political maneuvers that allowed Congress to make the momentous decision. In Maier's hands, the Declaration of Independence is brought close to us. She lets us hear the voice of the people as revealed in the other "declarations" of 1776: the local resolutions -- most of which have gone unnoticed over the past two centuries -- that explained, advocated, and justified Independence and undergirded Congress's work. Detective-like, she discloses the origins of key ideas and phrases in the Declaration and unravels the complex story of its drafting and of the group-editing job which angered Thomas Jefferson. Maier also reveals what happened to the Declaration after the signing and celebration: how it was largely forgotten and then revived to buttress political arguments of the nineteenth century; and, most important, how Abraham Lincoln ensured its persistence as a living force in American society. Finally, she shows how by the very act of venerating the Declaration as we do -- by holding it as sacrosanct, akin to holy writ -- we may actually be betraying its purpose and its power.

Author Biography

Pauline Maier was born in St. Paul, Minnesota.  She received her B.A. from Radcliffe College in 1960, was a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics in 1960-61, and took her Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1968.  She has taught at Harvard, the University of Massachusetts (Boston), University of Wisconsin, Yale University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she has been William R. Kenan, Junior, Professor of American History since 1990.  She is the author of <b>From Resistance to Revolution, The Old Revolutionaries</b>, and <b>The American People: A History</b>, a single-authored text for junior high school, as well as numerous other articles and reviews.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>

Table of Contents

Introduction: Gathering at the Shrine
Independence	p. 3
Congress	p. 7
Independence?	p. 17
Common Sense	p. 28
A Republic?	p. 34
Decision	p. 41
The "Other" Declarations of Independence	p. 47
In English Ways	p. 50
Mobilizing the People	p. 59
Declaring Independence	p. 69
Founding a Republic	p. 90
Mr. Jefferson and His Editors	p. 97
The Drafting Committee	p. 99
Jefferson's Draft: The Charges Against the King	p. 105
Jefferson's Draft: A Revolutionary Manifesto	p. 123
Congress's Declaration	p. 143
American Scripture	p. 154
Spreading the News	p. 155
An All-But-Forgotten Testament	p. 160
A Partisan Document	p. 170
Sacred Text	p. 175
Equality and Rights	p. 189
Epilogue: Reflecting at the Memorials	p. 209
State and Local Declarations of Independence, A Log: April-July 1776	p. 217
Local Resolutions on Independence: Some Examples	p. 225
The Declaration of Independence: The Jefferson Draft with Congress's Editorial Changes	p. 235
Notes	p. 243
Acknowledgments	p. 287
Index	p. 289
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