Answers to Quiz
on the
Declaration of Independence
1. By July 4, 1776, there were thirteen
North American colonies.
2. Thomas Paine
wrote the January 1776 document proclaiming the
inevitability of American independence from Great Britain
entitled Common Sense.
3. On July 4, 1776, the second Continental
Congress was the governing body that adopted
the formal document known as the Declaration of
Independence.
4. By the time this document was
adopted, the English Parliament had already declared the
colonies in rebellion and had forbidden English trade
with the American Colonies. True
5. On June 7, 1776, Richard
Henry Lee introduced a resolution that called
for independence.
6. Thomas Jefferson was the Virginian
who was the main author of the Declaration of
Independence.
7. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams
also contributed to the writing of the Declaration
of Independence, which reflects the ideas of
17th and 18th-century political philosophers, particularly
those of the philosopher John Locke.
8. There were fifty-six
signers of the Declaration of Independence.
9. Thomas Jefferson,
who owned slaves all his life, submitted a passage which
was deleted containing a grievance against the King for
aiding and abetting the slave trade and forbidding
colonial governments to suppress it.
10. Philadelphia was the city in which
the second Continental Congress met behind closed doors
and windows in the dead of summer without air-conditioning
to debate and adopt the Declaration of Independence.
11. According to the Declaration
of Independence governments derive their
powers from the consent of the governed
(i.e., the people agree to be governed by said government).
12. The Declaration of
Independence has two parts: the first is an
eloquent preamble describing the
theory of political revolution.
13. The document states: "We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal,..." (the same).
14. The author continues, "that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness.
15. The Declaration of Independence
continues, "That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends [of life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness], it is the Right of the People
to alter or abolish that government, and to institute a
new government. True
16. The document then states that this
newly formed government should be founded on such
principles [as life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness] and organized in ways that they
believe will best bring about their Safety
and Happiness.
17. The document continues that it is
the right and duty of the people to throw off a
government and "provide new Guards for their future
security" a government that has shown through
repeated abuses that its aim is to reduce the people
under absolute despotism (government
by a king or queen having unlimited power).
18. One of the abuses the King is
accused of is "render[ing] the Military independent
of and superior to the Civil power." True
19. The document further accuses the
King: "He has incited insurrections amongst us, and
has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our
frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages,
whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."
20. Declaring themselves to be "free
and independent states" with " the 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 Declaration
of Independence ends with this pledge, "with
firm reliance on the protection of Divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other
our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
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