Historical Perspective
Voters United, Guest Editorial

Below is an article that reviews how our great country came to be, how it has evolved, and how we can shift it back to the way the country was started.

You only have to read brief articles like this one, published this last 4th of July, to refresh your memory as to what is important. We're not selling anything but our future.

From the Orange County Register, by George Bryjak: How we got our Declaration:

On June 7, 1776, Richard Lee of Virginia read his resolution to members of the Second Continental Congress, meeting in the Pennsylvania State House (which would be renamed Independence Hall). Lee stated: "Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

Consideration of the Lee Resolution was postponed by a vote of seven colonies to five, with the New York delegation abstaining. Congress then recessed for three weeks with the spirit of the debate indicating that the Lee Resolution would be adopted. Prior to its recess the Congress appointed a Committee of Five to draft a statement making a case for colonial independence. The committee consisted of two New Englanders, John Adams of Massachusetts and Roger Sherman of Rhode Island; two representatives of the "Middle Colonies," Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York; and one Southerner, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia.

In his award-winning book, "American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson," historian Joseph Ellis places the creation of the Declaration of Independence in a sociohistorical context. Ellis also sheds light on the evolution of this doctrine from the vantage point of its principle architect, Thomas Jefferson.

The committee convenes
The Committee of Five convened shortly after its appointment and delegated drafting of the document to Adams and Jefferson. Adams turned over to Jefferson the principle authorship to what would become the most sacred pronouncement in American history. Ellis raises the intriguing question of why John Adams, a man of immense political talent (and a very healthy ego), did not write what would become the Declaration of Independence himself, or at the least, substantially contribute his views to the document.

To read the rest of the article, go to http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/-256168--.html