We are publishing the Declaration of Independence for one simple reason.
Read it.
Even without knowing much about what was going on at the time it is truly a remarkable document.
But even a cursory education of American and European history renders a reader speechless at the breadth and scope contained in those few hundreds of words.
Yes at the end of the 18th century there were other and perhaps better writers or thinkers than Jefferson, Adams or Franklin.
But those great sentiments were given said in the polite salons of Europe over cups of hot chocolate.
The document printed on this page was not written for intellectuals only, but for the yeoman, the cobbler, the farmer and the printer who were at the time making war against a far better equipped, trained and fed adversary.
The Declaration was in itself an act of war and high treason.
And every man who signed it knew that if the British won as it looked like they were going to do back in 1776, the signatories would be tortured slowly to death.
There must have been a few who questioned the reason for it. The war had been going on for over a year and it was not at though a piece of parchment was going to win it or lose it.
Yet they signed it and published it all over the 13 states. The put the necks in the British noose and their property was forfeit.
More than a monument to Reason, the Declaration is a profile in courage.
One may now find fault with our founding fathers.
Most did have feet of clay.
But their imperfect natures only add luster to this document.