On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence that established separation of the colonies from England. The Declaration did not establish new rights but simply re-affirmed the old rights that all Englishmen had under law. The rights of the colonials were already codified into English law. The Crown and Parliament were ignoring those rights and, through government force, were actually curtailing them. The Colonials were only fighting to keep their rights for themselves and their descendants.
In the Middle Ages, England was moving away from centralization of government toward limited government and more personal freedom. In 1100, the Charter of Liberties forced restrictions on the power of King Henry I of England, while the Magna Carta, one hundred years later, codified the principle that the king and his government were not above the law, with the barons being on an equal level with the king. Law was established as a power in itself.
Though more powerful English monarchs simply ignored the Magna Carta, several of its provisions became the basis of English common law, including the writ of habeas corpus. Our founders included this fundamental right in the Constitution in Article I, Section 9 to protect against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment.
When civil war erupted in England in the 1600s, the Parliament expelled the king and forced the new monarch, William of Orange, to sign the English Bill of Rights. It was essentially the English Bill of Rights, which Jefferson later incorporated into the Declaration. When Jefferson listed the various rights that King George III had violated, he was following this same English tradition implemented by the Parliament and adapting the abuses to American circumstances.
After establishing in the preamble the basis for the existence of government followed by the enumeration of the Crown’s violation of these rights, the Declaration states, “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; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”
The colonies would become “Free and Independent States,” equal to the State of Great Britain, and free to form their own governments. They were not bound together as a nation, but “unified” solely for the purpose of defending themselves against invasion by the British. Jefferson used the term “united States,” or the “States united” — always with a small “u.” The united colonies became “FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.”
The Declaration of Independence simply established the secession of thirteen colonies from Great Britain, each of which would form its own “nation.” The free and independent states ultimately formed a “union” under the Articles of Confederation and later the Constitution. Neither the Articles of Confederation nor the U.S. Constitution of 1787 changed the relationship among the states as new states were admitted.