Editing Declaration of Independence (section)

== Philosophical Significance ==

The Declaration's opening paragraphs articulate principles that have resonated far beyond their immediate context. The assertion that "all men are created equal" and endowed with "unalienable Rights" established ideals against which American society would measure itself for centuries. Abolitionists invoked the Declaration against slavery; suffragists adapted its language for the Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848; civil rights leaders appealed to its promise of equality. Abraham Lincoln called the Declaration "the electric cord" linking Americans to the founders and "the father of all moral principle." The tension between the Declaration's universal ideals and the partial realization of those ideals has driven much of American political history.<ref name="becker">{{cite book |last=Becker |first=Carl |title=The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas |year=1922 |publisher=Harcourt, Brace |location=New York}}</ref>

The Declaration also influenced political movements beyond America's borders. French revolutionaries drew on its language and ideas, as did independence movements in Latin America, Europe, and eventually Africa and Asia. Ho Chi Minh quoted the Declaration in proclaiming Vietnamese independence in 1945. The document's influence reflects its articulation of principles—natural rights, popular sovereignty, the right of revolution—that have proved compelling across cultures and centuries. The Declaration established the United States not merely as a new nation but as an experiment in self-government grounded in universal truths, a framing that has shaped American identity and foreign policy from the founding to the present.<ref name="armitage">{{cite book |last=Armitage |first=David |title=The Declaration of Independence: A Global History |year=2007 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA}}</ref>