It is common enough to say that the Declaration of Independence made America. Indeed, that is why we celebrate its adoption by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, as the nation’s birthday. In a legal sense, it is true: The Declaration formally announced to the world that the United States considered themselves a single, sovereign nation. The next seven years of war and treaty established in fact what was declared in law.
The Declaration also made America in a broader philosophical sense. The Declaration’s famous recital laid out the foundations of the American idea:
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