What was listed in the declaration of independence

One later theory as to why the Declaration was aging so soon after its creation stems from the common 18th-century practice of taking "press copies. The thin paper copy was retained in the same manner as a modern carbon copy. The ink was reimposed on a copper plate, which was then etched so that copies could be run off the plate on a press. This "wet transfer" method may have been used by William J.

Stone when in he was commissioned by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to make a facsimile of the entire Declaration, signatures as well as text. By June 5, , almost exactly 47 years after Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration, the Washington National Intelligencer was able to report "that Mr.

William J. Stone, a respectable and enterprising Engraver of this City, has, after a labor of three years, completed a fac simile of the original of the Declaration of Independence, now in the archives of the government; that it is executed with the greatest exactness and fidelity; and that the Department of State has become the purchaser of the plate.

As the Intelligencer went on to observe: "We are very glad to hear this, for the original of that paper which ought to be immortal and imperishable, by being so much handled by copyists and curious visitors, might receive serious injury. The facility of multiplying copies of it now possessed by the Department of State will render further exposure of the original unnecessary. The copies made from Stone's copperplate established the clear visual image of the Declaration for generations of Americans.

The official parchment copies struck from the Stone plate carry the identification "Engraved by W. Stone for the Department of State, by order" in the upper left corner followed by "of J.

Adams, Sec. Instead the engraver identified his work by engraving "W. Stone SC. The longest of the early sojourns of the Declaration was from to Daniel Webster was Secretary of State in Ellsworth, who was then occupying a new building now the National Portrait Gallery , that "having learned that there is in the new building appropriated to the Patent Office suitable accommodations for the safe-keeping, as well as the exhibition of the various articles now deposited in this Department, and usually, exhibited to visitors.

I have directed them to be transmitted to you. Item 6 was the Declaration. The "new building" was a white stone structure at Seventh and F Streets. The Declaration and Washington's commission as commander in chief were mounted together in a single frame and hung in a white painted hall opposite a window offering exposure to sunlight.

There they were to remain on exhibit for 35 years, even after the Patent Office separated from the State Department to become administratively a part of the Interior Department. This prolonged exposure to sunlight accelerated the deterioration of the ink and parchment of the Declaration, which was approaching years of age toward the end of this period.

During the years that the Declaration was exhibited in the Patent Office, the combined effects of aging, sunlight, and fluctuating temperature and relative humidity took their toll on the document. Occasionally, writers made somewhat negative comments on the appearance of the Declaration.

An observer in the United States Magazine October went so far as to refer to "that old looking paper with the fading ink. Ellis remarked in The Sights and Secrets of the National Capital Chicago, that "it is old and yellow, and the ink is fading from the paper. Already, nearly all the signatures attached to the Declaration of Independence are entirely effaced. The technology of a new age and the interest in historical roots engendered by the approaching Centennial focused new interest on the Declaration in the s and brought about a brief change of home.

Philadelphia's Mayor William S. Stokley was entrusted by President Ulysses S. Grant with temporary custody of the Declaration. The Public Ledger for May 8, , noted that it was in Independence Hall "framed and glazed for protection, and. The text is fully legible, but the major part of the signatures are so pale as to be only dimly discernible in the strongest light, a few remain wholly readable, and some are wholly invisible, the spaces which contained them presenting only a blank.

Other descriptions made at Philadelphia were equally unflattering: "scarce bears trace of the signatures the execution of which made fifty-six names imperishable," "aged-dimmed. By late summer the Declaration's physical condition had become a matter of public concern. On August 3, , Congress adopted a joint resolution providing "that a commission, consisting of the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Librarian of Congress be empowered to have resort to such means as will most effectually restore the writing of the original manuscript of the Declaration of Independence, with the signatures appended thereto.

One candidate for the task of restoration was William J. Canby, an employee of the Washington Gas Light Company. On April 13 Canby had written to the Librarian of Congress: "I have had over thirty years experience in handling the pen upon parchment and in that time, as an expert, have engrossed hundreds of ornamental, special documents. The commission did not, however, take any action at that time.

After the conclusion of the Centennial exposition, attempts were made to secure possession of the Declaration for Philadelphia, but these failed and the parchment was returned to the Patent Office in Washington, where it had been since , even though that office had become a part of the Interior Department.

On April 11, , Robert H. Duell, Commissioner of Patents, had written to Zachariah Chandler, Secretary of the Interior, suggesting that "the Declaration of Independence, and the commission of General Washington, associated with it in the same frame, belong to your Department as heirlooms.

Chandler appears to have ignored this claim, for in an exchange of letters with Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, it was agreed-with the approval of President Grant-to move the Declaration into the new, fireproof building that the State Department shared with the War and Navy Departments now the Old Executive Office Building.

On March 3, , the Declaration was placed in a cabinet on the eastern side of the State Department library, where it was to be exhibited for 17 years. It may be noted that not only was smoking permitted in the library, but the room contained an open fireplace.

Nevertheless this location turned out to be safer than the premises just vacated; much of the Patent Office was gutted in a fire that occurred a few months later.

On May 5, , the commission that had been appointed almost 4 years earlier came to life again in response to a call from the Secretary of the Interior. It requested that William B. Rogers, president of the National Academy of Sciences appoint a committee of experts to consider "whether such restoration [of the Declaration] be expedient or practicable and if so in what way the object can best be accomplished.

The duly appointed committee reported on January 7, , that Stone used the "wet transfer" method in the creation of his facsimile printing of , that the process had probably removed some of the original ink, and that chemical restoration methods were "at best imperfect and uncertain in their results.

Recent study of the Declaration by conservators at the National Archives has raised doubts that a "wet transfer" took place. Proof of this occurrence, however, cannot be verified or denied strictly by modern examination methods. No documentation prior to the reference has been found to support the theory; therefore we may never know if Stone actually performed the procedure.

Little, if any, action was taken as a result of the report. It was not until that the State Department announced: "The rapid fading of the text of the original Declaration of Independence and the deterioration of the parchment upon which it is engrossed, from exposure to light and lapse of time, render it impracticable for the Department longer to exhibit it or to handle it.

For the secure preservation of its present condition, so far as may be possible, it has been carefully wrapped and placed flat in a steel case. A new plate for engravings was made by the Coast and Geodetic Survey in , and in a photograph was made for the Ladies' Home Journal. On this latter occasion, the parchment was noted as "still in good legible condition" although "some of the signatures" were "necessarily blurred.

On April 14, , Secretary of State John Hay solicited again the help of the National Academy of Sciences in providing "such recommendations as may seem practicable. I am unable to say, however, that, in spite of these precautions, observed for the past ten years, the text is not continuing to fade and the parchment to wrinkle and perhaps to break. On April 24 a committee of the academy reported its findings. Summarizing the physical history of the Declaration, the report stated: "The instrument has suffered very seriously from the very harsh treatment to which it was exposed in the early years of the Republic.

Folding and rolling have creased the parchment. The wet press-copying operation to which it was exposed about , for the purpose of producing a facsimile copy, removed a large portion of the ink. Subsequent exposure to the action of light for more than thirty years, while the instrument was placed on exhibition, has resulted in the fading of the ink, particularly in the signatures. The present method of caring for the instrument seems to be the best that can be suggested.

The committee added its own "opinion that the present method of protecting the instrument should be continued; that it should be kept in the dark and dry as possible, and never placed on exhibition. Michael, author of The Declaration of Independence Washington, , recorded that the Declaration was "locked and sealed, by order of Secretary Hay, and is no longer shown to anyone except by his direction.

World War I came and went. Then, on April 21, , Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby issued an order creating yet another committee: "A Committee is hereby appointed to study the proper steps that should be taken for the permanent and effective preservation from deterioration and from danger from fire, or other form of destruction, of those documents of supreme value which under the law are deposited with the Secretary of State. The inquiry will include the question of display of certain of these documents for the benefit of the patriotic public.

On May 5, , the new committee reported on the physical condition of the safes that housed the Declaration and the Constitution. It declared: "The safes are constructed of thin sheets of steel. They are not fireproof nor would they offer much obstruction to an evil-disposed person who wished to break into them.

We see no reason why the original document should not be exhibited if the parchment be laid between two sheets of glass, hermetically sealed at the edges and exposed only to diffused light. The committee also made some important "supplementary recommendations.

For the Declaration, therefore, two important changes were in the offing: a new home and the possibility of exhibition to "the patriotic public. There was no action on the recommendations of until after the Harding administration took office. On September 28, , Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes addressed the new President: "I enclose an executive order for your signature, if you approve, transferring to the custody of the Library of Congress the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States which are now in the custody of this Department.

I make this recommendation because in the Library of Congress these muniments will be in the custody of experts skilled in archival preservation, in a building of modern fireproof construction, where they can safely be exhibited to the many visitors who now desire to see them. President Warren G. Harding agreed. On September 29, , he issued the Executive order authorizing the transfer.

The following day Secretary Hughes sent a copy of the order to Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam, stating that he was "prepared to turn the documents over to you when you are ready to receive them.

Putnam was both ready and eager. He presented himself forthwith at the State Department. The safes were opened, and the Declaration and the Constitution were carried off to the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill in the Library's "mail wagon," cushioned by a pile of leather U.

Upon arrival, the two national treasures were placed in a safe in Putnam's office. On October 3, Putnam took up the matter of a permanent location.

In a memorandum to the superintendent of the Library building and grounds, Putnam proceeded from the premise that "in the Library" the documents "might be treated in such a way as, while fully safe-guarding them and giving them distinction, they should be open to inspection by the public at large. Material less than bronze would be unworthy. The cost must be considerable.

The need was urgent because the new Bureau of the Budget was about to print forthcoming fiscal year estimates. There was therefore no time to make detailed architectural plans. Putnam told an appropriations committee on January 16, , just what he had in mind. The result could be achieved and you would have something every visitor to Washington would wish to tell about when he returned and who would regard it, as the newspapermen are saying, with keen interest as a sort of 'shrine.

Before long, the "sort of 'shrine'" was being designed by Francis H. Bacon, whose brother Henry was the architect of the Lincoln Memorial. The marbles surrounding the manuscripts were American; the floor and balustrade were made of foreign marbles to correspond with the material used in the rest of the Library.

The Declaration was to be housed in a frame of gold-plated bronze doors and covered with double panes of plate glass with specially prepared gelatin films between the plates to exclude the harmful rays of light. A hour guard would provide protection. On February 28, , the shrine was dedicated in the presence of President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Secretary Hughes, and other distinguished guests.

Not a word was spoken during a moving ceremony in which Putnam fitted the Declaration into its frame. There were no speeches. Two stanzas of America were sung. In Putnam's words: "The impression on the audience proved the emotional potency of documents animate with a great tradition. With only one interruption, the Declaration hung on the wall of the second floor of the Great Hall of the Library of Congress until December During the prosperity of the s and the Depression of the s, millions of people visited the shrine.

But the threat of war and then war itself caused a prolonged interruption in the steady stream of visitors. The Librarian was concerned for the most precious of the many objects in his charge. He wrote "to enquire whether space might perhaps be found" at the Bullion Depository in Fort Knox for his most valuable materials, including the Declaration, "in the unlikely event that it becomes necessary to remove them from Washington.

On December 7, , the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. On December 23, the Declaration and the Constitution were removed from the shrine and placed between two sheets of acid-free manilla paper. The documents were then carefully wrapped in a container of all-rag neutral millboard and placed in a specially designed bronze container. It was late at night when the container was finally secured with padlocks on each side. Preparations were resumed on the day after Christmas, when the Attorney General ruled that the Librarian needed no "further authority from the Congress or the President" to take such action as he deemed necessary for the "proper protection and preservation" of the documents in his charge.

The packing process continued under constant armed guard. The container was finally sealed with lead and packed in a heavy box; the whole weighed some pounds. It was a far cry from the simple linen bag of the summer of At about 5 p.

Armed Secret Service agents occupied the neighboring compartments. After departing from Washington at p. More Secret Service agents and a cavalry troop of the 13th Armored Division met the train, convoyed its precious contents to the Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, and placed the Declaration in compartment 24 in the outer tier on the ground level. The Declaration was periodically examined during its sojourn at Fort Knox. One such examination in found that the Declaration had become detached in part from its mount, including the upper right corner, which had been stuck down with copious amounts of glue.

In his journal for May 14, , Verner W. Clapp, a Library of Congress official, noted: "At one time also about January 12, an attempt had been made to reunite the detached upper right hand corner to the main portion by means of a strip of 'scotch' cellulose tape which was still in place, discolored to a molasses color.

In the various mending efforts glue had been splattered in two places on the obverse of the document. The opportunity was taken to perform conservation treatment in order to stabilize and rejoin the upper right corner. Over a period of 2 days, they performed mending of small tears, removed excess adhesive and the "scotch" tape, and rejoined the detached upper right corner.

Finally, in , the military authorities assured the Library of Congress that all danger of enemy attack had passed. On September 19, the documents were withdrawn from Fort Knox.

On Sunday, October 1, at a. The Declaration was back in its shrine. With the return of peace, the keepers of the Declaration were mindful of the increasing technological expertise available to them relating to the preservation of the parchment. In this they were readily assisted by the National Bureau of Standards, which even before World War II, had researched the preservation of the Declaration.

The problem of shielding it from harsh light, for example, had in led to the insertion of a sheet of yellow gelatin between the protective plates of glass.

Yet this procedure lessened the visibility of an already faded parchment. Could not some improvement be made? Following reports of May 5, , on studies in which the Library staff, members of the National Bureau of Standards, and representatives of a glass manufacturer had participated, new recommendations were made. In the Declaration was sealed in a thermopane enclosure filled with properly humidified helium. The exhibit case was equipped with a filter to screen out damaging light.

The new enclosure also had the effect of preventing harm from air pollution, a growing peril. Soon after, however, the Declaration was to make one more move, the one to its present home. See Appendix B. He announced that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution would eventually be kept in the impressive structure that was to occupy the site.

Indeed, it was for their keeping and display that the exhibition hall in the National Archives had been designed. Two large murals were painted for its walls. In one, Thomas Jefferson is depicted presenting the Declaration to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress while members of that Revolutionary body look on.

The final transfer of these special documents did not, however, take place until almost 20 years later. In October President Franklin D. The President told Connor that "valuable historic documents," such as the Declaration of Independence and the U. Constitution, would reside in the National Archives Building.

In a meeting with the President 2 months after his appointment, Connor explained to Roosevelt how the documents came to be in the Library and that Putnam felt another Act of Congress was necessary in order for them to be transferred to the Archives. Connor eventually told the President that it would be better to leave the matter alone until Putnam retired. MacLeish agreed with Roosevelt and Connor that the two important documents belonged in the National Archives.

Solon J. Buck, Connor's successor as Archivist of the United States , felt that the documents were in good hands at the Library of Congress. His successor, Wayne Grover, disagreed. Luther Evans, the Librarian of Congress appointed by President Truman in June , shared Grover's opinion that the documents should be transferred to the Archives.

In the two men began working with their staff members and legal advisers to have the documents transferred. The Archives position was that the documents were federal records and therefore covered by the Federal Records Act of , which was "paramount to and took precedence over" the act that had appropriated money for the shrine at the Library of Congress.

Luther Evans agreed with this line of reasoning, but he emphasized getting the approval of the President and the Joint Committee on the Library. Senator Theodore H.

Green, Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library, agreed that the transfer should take place but stipulated that it would be necessary to have his committee act on the matter. Evans went to the April 30, , committee meeting alone. There is no formal record of what was said at the meeting, except that the Joint Committee on the Library ordered that the documents be transferred to the National Archives. In their complaints, the colonists make it clear that they are angry with the British king and government for taking away their rights as English citizens.

They point out that the king has ignored or changed their colonial governments, as well as their rights to a trial by jury. The colonists accuse the king of sending a hired army to force them to obey unjust laws. Formal declaration of independence The final paragraph, beginning with "We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America," affirms that the 13 colonies are free and independent states.

It breaks all ties with the British government and people. As independent states, they can make trade agreements and treaties, wage war, and do whatever is necessary to govern themselves.

This formal declaration of independence ends with important words. Fifty men from 13 states signed the document on August 2 in The other six signed over the course of the next year and a half. He wrote his name very large. Some of the men abbreviated their first names, like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. All of the signers risked their lives when they signed the Declaration of Independence.

Legacy of the argument Contrary to popular belief, the words of the Declaration of Independence did not gain immediate prominence. In fact, they remained obscure for decades. And yet the spirit of the Declaration caused ripples almost immediately, most famously with the French Revolution in The Haitian Revolution followed soon after, and the subsequent decades would see many Latin American countries continuing the fight for independence from colonial powers.