The Declaration of Independence
250 Years of Interpretation
A growing collection tracing how Americans have invoked the Declaration of Independence from 1776 to today — designed for scholars, teachers, and students.
16 sources and counting · Updated as the collection grows
The Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson & the Continental Congress
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
The origin point — the founding promise every later generation would claim, challenge, and reinterpret.
Declaration of Sentiments
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal..."
The first great reinvention of the Declaration — women's rights claimed in the founding's own words.
"What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"
Frederick Douglass, Rochester
"This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn..."
Douglass turns the founders' words into a fierce indictment of a nation celebrating liberty while enslaving millions.
The Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Lincoln re-founds the nation on the Declaration's promise of equality — and makes it the war's meaning.
Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States
Susan B. Anthony, Centennial, Philadelphia
"We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever."
Delivered at the nation's 100th birthday — proof that anniversaries become moments of reckoning over the Declaration.
"I Have a Dream"
Martin Luther King Jr., March on Washington
"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir."
King casts the Declaration as a check America has refused to cash — the most famous modern invocation of its promise.
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King Jr.
"We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands..."
From a jail cell, King anchors the struggle for justice in the nation's founding ideals.
A Sitting President's Amenability to Indictment and Criminal Prosecution
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel
"The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions." The 2000 opinion reviewed the department's 1973 conclusion from the Watergate era and declined to change it.
This is the rule that explains the ending. Students who do not know it exists will read Volume II as evasion. Students who do know it can see that the special counsel was working inside a rule the Justice Department had applied to presidents of both parties.
Democratic National Convention Keynote
Barack Obama
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
More than two centuries on, the Declaration's self-evident truths remain the language Americans reach for to define the nation.
Indictment: United States v. Internet Research Agency LLC et al.
Grand jury, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Special Counsel's Office)
The indictment alleges that the defendants, posing as American political activists, ran social media pages and organized rallies with the stated goal of "spread[ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general."
Proves that a great deal of what people argued about in 2019 was already in a charging document a year earlier. Also a clean teaching example of the difference between an indictment (an accusation) and a conviction (a finding).
Attorney General's Letter to Congress on the Special Counsel's Report
Attorney General William P. Barr
"The Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election." Barr wrote that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein "concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."
The best media-literacy document in the set. Barr quoted the report accurately, and the report's own team objected that his summary 'did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance' of their work. Put the letter beside the report and the difference between an accurate quote and a fair summary becomes something students can see for themselves.
Special Counsel's Public Statement on the Investigation
Robert S. Mueller III
"If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime." "The Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing."
Two sentences, ten minutes, and the clearest statement of the constitutional argument in the entire case. The second sentence is the civics lesson: the Framers put the judgment of a president somewhere, and that somewhere was not a courtroom.
Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election - Volume I (Executive Summary)
Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, U.S. Department of Justice
"The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion." "Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."
This is the document itself, not a summary of it. Two sentences in the same paragraph say two different things: the interference was real and sweeping, and the evidence did not establish coordination with the campaign. Students who read the paragraph rather than the headline can see that both halves were written on purpose.
Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election - Volume II (Introduction)
Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, U.S. Department of Justice
"Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate conclusions about the President's conduct. ... [I]f we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."
The single most quoted passage of the investigation, and the one most often quoted with its reasoning removed. The special counsel explains that he was not applying ordinary prosecutorial judgment at all. That distinction is the whole lesson: a decision not to decide is still a decision, and it has a reason.
Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Russian Active Measures, Volume 5
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
"Taken as a whole, Manafort's high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska, represented a grave counterintelligence threat."
The counterweight document. A Republican-led committee confirmed the interference and went further than the special counsel on the campaign's exposure to Russian intelligence - while also finding no evidence of a criminal conspiracy. Reading it beside the Mueller report shows students that 'the investigation is over' and 'the record is closed' are different sentences.
Report on Matters Related to Intelligence Activities and Investigations Arising Out of the 2016 Presidential Campaigns (Durham Report)
Special Counsel John H. Durham, U.S. Department of Justice
"The speed and manner in which the FBI opened and investigated Crossfire Hurricane during the presidential election season based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence also reflected a noticeable departure from how it approached prior matters." Durham concluded that the Department and FBI "failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report."
The other side of the audit. Students should see that the FBI's own conduct was investigated by a second special counsel and criticized in strong terms, and also that the report produced no new charges against FBI officials over the opening of the case. Holding both halves at once is the skill.
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