American History Series: After the Revolution, the Nation Faces a Weak Political System
We begin the story of the U.S. Constitution. It replaced the Articles of Confederation, which created a Congress but not much else. Transcript of radio broadcast: 16 January 2008
MP3 - Download Audio Listen to MP3 Listen in RealAudio
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson with Richard Rael.
This week in our series, we begin the story of a document that defined a nation: the United States Constitution.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Delegates from all 13 states signed the Articles of Confederation. The document was approved on March 1, 1781.The thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Britain in seventeen seventy-six. But they had to win their independence in a long war that followed. During that war, the colonies were united by an agreement called the Articles of Confederation.
The Union was a loose one. The Articles of Confederation did not organize a central government. They did not create courts or decide laws. They did not provide an executive to carry out the laws. All the Articles of Confederation did was to create a Congress. But it was a Congress with little power. It could only advise the separate thirteen states and ask them to do some things. It could not pass laws for the Union of states.
The weakness of this system became clear soon after the war for independence ended.
British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in seventeen eighty-one. A messenger brought the Congress news of the victory. The Congress had no money. It could not even pay the messenger. So money had to be collected from each member of the Congress.
VOICE ONE:
Even before the war ended, three men called for a change in the loose confederation of states. They urged formation of a strong central government. Those three men were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.
George Washington commanded America's troops during the revolution. He opposed the Articles of Confederation because they provided little support for his army. His soldiers often had no clothes or shoes or food. They had no medicines or blankets or bullets.
During the war, Washington wrote many angry letters about the military situation. In one letter, he said: "Our sick soldiers are naked. Our healthy soldiers are naked. Our soldiers who have been captured by the British are naked!"
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
General Washington's letters produced little action. The thirteen separate states refused to listen when he told them the war was a war of all the states. He learned they were more interested in themselves than in what his soldiers needed.
After the war, there was much social, political, and economic disorder. General Washington saw once again that there was no hope for the United States under the Articles of Confederation. He wrote to a friend: "I do not believe we can exist as a nation unless there is a central government which will rule all the nation, just as a state government rules each state."
VOICE ONE:
Alexander Hamilton agreed. He was a young lawyer and an assistant to General Washington during the revolution. Even before the war ended, Hamilton called for a convention of the thirteen states to create a central government. He expressed his opinion in letters, speeches, and newspaper stories.
Finally, there was James Madison. He saw the picture clearly. It was an unhappy picture.
There were thirteen governments. And each tried to help itself at the cost of the others. Nine states had their own navy. Each had its own army. The states used these forces to protect themselves from each other.
For example, the state of Virginia passed a law which said it could seize ships that did not pay taxes to the state. Virginia did not mean ships from England and Spain. It meant ships from Maryland, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.
James Madison often said most of the new nation's political problems grew out of such commercial problems.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
In the seventeen eighties, many people in America and Europe believed the United States was on the road to anarchy.
One sign was the money system. There was no national money. Many Americans thought of money as the pounds and shillings of the British system. There was an American dollar. But it did not have the same value everywhere. In New York, the dollar was worth eight shillings. In South Carolina, it was worth more than thirty-two shillings.
This situation was bad enough. Yet there also were all kinds of other coins used as money: French crowns, Spanish doubloons, European ducats.
VOICE ONE:
In seventeen eighty-six, representatives from Maryland and Virginia met to discuss opening land for new settlements along the Potomac River. The Potomac formed the border between those two states.
The representatives agreed that the issue of settling new land was too big for just two states to decide. "Why not invite Delaware and Pennsylvania to help?" someone asked. Someone else said all the states should be invited. Then they could discuss all the problems that were giving the new nation so much trouble.
The idea was accepted. And a convention was set for Annapolis, Maryland.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
The convention opened as planned. It was not much of a meeting. Representatives came from only five states. Four other states had chosen representatives, but they did not come. The remaining four states did not even choose representatives.
The men who did meet at Annapolis, however, agreed it was a beginning. They agreed, too, that a larger convention should be called. They appointed the representative from New York, Alexander Hamilton, to put the agreement in writing.
So Hamilton sent a message to the legislature of each state. He called for a convention in Philadelphia in May of the next year, seventeen eighty-seven. The purpose of the convention, he said, would be to write a constitution for the United States.
VOICE ONE:
Detail of a painting by Junius Brutus Stearns of George Washington in Virginia where he livedMany people believed the convention would not succeed without George Washington. But General Washington did not want to go. He suffered from rheumatism. His mother and sister were sick. He needed to take care of business at his farm, Mount Vernon. And he already said he was not interested in public office. How would it look if -- as expected -- he was elected president of the convention?
George Washington was the most famous man in America. Suppose only a few states sent representatives to the convention? Suppose it failed? Would he look foolish?
Two close friends -- James Madison and Edmund Randolph -- urged General Washington to go to Philadelphia. He trusted them. So he said he would go as one of the representatives of Virginia. From that moment, it was clear the convention would be an important event. If George Washington would be there, it had to be important.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
The first man to arrive in Philadelphia for the convention was James Madison. Madison was thirty-five years old. He was short and was losing his hair. He was not a good speaker. But he always knew what he wanted to say. He had read everything that had been published in English about governments, from the governments of ancient Greece to those of his own time.
James Madison wrote this letter to George Washington on the night before the Philadelphia Convention. It describes measures that should be taken to rescue the nation from its difficulties.Madison believed the United States needed a strong central government. He believed the governments of the thirteen states should be second to the central government.
Madison knew he should not push his ideas too quickly, however. Many representatives at the convention were afraid of a strong central government. They did not trust central governments with too much power. So Madison planned his work quietly. He came to the convention with hundreds of books and papers. He was prepared to answer any question about government that any other representative might ask him.
That will be our story next week.
(MUSIC)
Our program was narrated by Richard Rael and Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English, on radio or online. Internet users can download transcripts and MP3s of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com.
(MUSIC)

American History Series: How the Constitution Came to Life
One cannot truly understand the United States without understanding this document. In the coming weeks we will tell its story. Transcript of radio broadcast: 09 January 2008
MP3 - Download Audio Listen to MP3 Listen in RealAudio
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
The United States became a nation in seventeen seventy-six. Less than a century later, in the eighteen sixties, it was nearly torn apart. A civil war took place, the only one in the nation's history. States from the North and the South fought against each other. The conflict involved the right of the South to leave the Union and deal with issues -- especially the issue of slavery -- its own way.
This week in our series, Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs describe how the Constitution survived this very troubled time in American history.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Detail of a Civil War drawing by Alfred R. Waud published in Harper's Weekly in October 1863America's Civil War lasted four years. Six hundred thousand men were killed or wounded. In the end, the slaves were freed, and the Union was saved.
Abraham Lincoln was president during the Civil War. He said the southern states did not have the right to leave the Union. Lincoln firmly believed that the Union of states was permanent under the Constitution. In fact, he noted, one of the reasons for establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union. His main goal was to save what the Constitution had created.
VOICE ONE:
One cannot truly understand the United States without understanding its Constitution. That political document describes America's system of government and guarantees the rights of all citizens. Its power is greater than any president, court or legislature.
In the coming weeks, we will tell the story of the United States Constitution. We will describe the drama of its birth in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven. And we will describe the national debate over its approval. Before we do, however, we want to tell how that document provides for change without changing the basic system of government.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
If you ask Americans about their Constitution, they probably will talk about the Bill of Rights. These are the first ten changes, or amendments, to the Constitution. They contain the rights of all people in the United States. They have the most direct effect on people's lives.
Among other things, the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech, religion, and the press. It also establishes rules to guarantee that a person suspected of a crime is treated fairly.
VOICE ONE:
U.S. ConstitutionThe Bill of Rights was not part of the document signed at the convention in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven. The delegates believed that political freedoms were basic human rights. So, some said it was not necessary to express such rights in a Constitution.
Most Americans, however, wanted their rights guaranteed in writing. That is why most states approved the new Constitution only on condition that a Bill of Rights would be added. This was done, and the amendments became law in seventeen ninety-one.
VOICE TWO:
One early amendment involved the method of choosing a president and vice president. In America's first presidential elections, the man who received the most votes became president. The man who received the second highest number of votes became vice president. It became necessary to change the Constitution, however, after separate political parties developed. Then ballots had to show the names of each candidate for president and vice president.
VOICE ONE:
The 15th Amendment gave male citizens the right to vote regardless of race, color or previous condition of slaveryThere were no other amendments for sixty years. The next one was born in the blood of civil war. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. That document freed the slaves in the states that were rebelling against the Union. It was not until after Lincoln was murdered, however, that the states approved the Thirteenth Amendment to ban slavery everywhere in the country.
The Fourteenth Amendment, approved in eighteen sixty-eight, said no state could limit the rights of any citizen. And the Fifteenth, approved two years later, said a person's right to vote could not be denied because of his race, color, or former condition of slavery.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
By the eighteen nineties, the federal government needed more money than it was receiving from taxes on imports. It wanted to establish a tax on earnings. It took twenty years to win approval for the Sixteenth Amendment. The amendment permits the government to collect income taxes.
Another amendment proposed in the early nineteen hundreds was designed to change the method of electing United States Senators. For more than one hundred years, senators were elected by the legislatures of their states. The Seventeenth Amendment, approved in nineteen thirteen, gave the people the right to elect senators directly.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen nineteen, the states approved an amendment to ban the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol. Alcohol was prohibited. It could not be produced or sold legally anywhere in the United States.
The amendment, however, did not stop the flow of alcohol. Criminal organizations found many ways to produce and sell it illegally. Finally, after thirteen years, Americans decided that Prohibition had failed. It had caused more problems than it had solved. So, in nineteen thirty-three, the states approved another constitutional amendment to end the ban on alcohol.
VOICE TWO:
Other amendments in the twentieth century include one that gives women the right to vote. It became part of the Constitution in nineteen twenty.
Another amendment limits a president to two four-year terms in office. And the Twenty-sixth Amendment gives the right to vote to all persons who are at least eighteen years old.
The Twenty-seventh Amendment has one of the strangest stories of any amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment establishes a rule for increasing the pay of senators and representatives. It says there must be an election between the time Congress votes to increase its pay and the time the pay raise goes into effect.
The amendment was first proposed in seventeen eighty-nine. Like all amendments, it needed to be approved by three-fourths of the states. This did not happen until nineteen ninety-two. So, one of the first amendments to be proposed was the last amendment to become law.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
The twenty-seven amendments added to the Constitution have not changed the basic system of government in the United States. The government still has three separate and equal parts: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The three parts balance each other. No part is greater than another.
The first American states had no strong central government when they fought their war of independence from Britain in seventeen seventy-six. They cooperated under an agreement called the Articles of Confederation. The agreement provided for a Congress. But the Congress had few powers. Each state governed itself.
VOICE TWO:
When the war ended, the states owed millions of dollars to their soldiers. They also owed money to European nations that had supported the Americans against Britain.
The new United States had no national money to pay the debts. There was an American dollar. But not everyone used it. And it did not have the same value everywhere.
The situation led to economic ruin for many people. They could not pay the money they owed. They lost their property. They were put in prison. Militant groups took action to help them. They interfered with tax collectors. They terrorized judges and burned court buildings.
VOICE ONE:
The situation was especially bad in the northeast part of the country. In Massachusetts, a group led by a former soldier tried to seize guns and ammunition from the state military force.
Shays' Rebellion, as it was called, was stopped. But from north to south, Americans were increasingly worried and frightened. Would the violence continue? Would the situation get worse?
VOICE TWO:
Many Americans distrusted the idea of a strong central government. After all, they had just fought a war to end British rule. Yet Americans of different ages, education, and social groups felt that something had to be done. If not, the new nation would fail before it had a chance to succeed.
These were the opinions and feelings that led, in time, to the writing of the United States Constitution. That will be our story in the coming weeks of THE MAKING OF A NATION.
(MUSIC)
ANNOUNCER:
Our program was written by Christine Johnson and read by Tony Riggs and Frank Oliver. Transcripts and MP3s of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION, an American history series in VOA Special English.

US History: After the American victory at Saratoga, the French decided to enter the Revolutionary War on the American side. Transcript of radio broadcast: 02 January 2008
MP3 - Download Audio Listen to MP3 Listen in RealAudio
VOICE ONE:
This is Rich Kleinfeldt.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we complete the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late seventeen seventies.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
It is December, seventeen seventy-six. British General William Howe has decided to stop fighting during the cold winter months. The general is in New York. He has already established control of a few areas near the city, including Trenton and Princeton in New Jersey.
Detail from ''Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge'' painted by John DunsmoreGeneral George Washington and the Continental Army are on the other side of the Delaware River. The Americans are cold and hungry. They have few weapons. Washington knows that if Howe attacks, the British will be able to go all the way to Philadelphia. They will then control two of America's most important cities. He decides to attack.
His plan is for three groups of troops to cross the Delaware River separately. All three will join together at Trenton. Then they will attack Princeton and New Brunswick. Washington wants to surprise the enemy early in the morning the day after the Christmas holiday, December twenty-sixth.
VOICE TWO:
On Christmas night, two thousand four hundred soldiers of the Continental Army get into small boats. They cross the partly-frozen Delaware River. The crossing takes longer than Washington thought it would. The troops are four hours late. They will not be able to surprise the enemy at sunrise.
Yet, after marching to Trenton, Washington's troops do surprise the Hessian mercenaries who are in position there. The enemy soldiers run into buildings to get away. The Americans use cannons to blow up the buildings. Soon, the enemy surrenders. Washington's army has captured Trenton. A few days later, he marches his captured prisoners through the streets of the city of Philadelphia.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Washington's victory at Trenton changed the way Americans felt about the war. Before the battle, the rebels had been defeated in New York. They were beginning to lose faith in their commander. Now that faith returned. Congress increased Washington's powers, making it possible for the fight for independence to continue.
Another result of the victory at Trenton was that more men decided to join the army. It now had ten thousand soldiers. This new Continental Army, however, lost battles during the summer to General Howe's forces near the Chesapeake Bay. And in August, seventeen seventy-seven, General Howe captured Philadelphia.
VOICE TWO:
Following these losses, Washington led the army to the nearby area called Valley Forge. They would stay there for the winter. His army was suffering. Half the men had no shoes, clothes, or blankets. They were almost starving. They built houses out of logs, but the winter was very cold and they almost froze. Many suffered from diseases such as smallpox and typhus. Some died.
General Washington and other officers were able to get food from the surrounding area to help most of the men survive the winter. By the spring of seventeen seventy-eight, they were ready to fight again.
VOICE ONE:
General Howe was still in Philadelphia. History experts say it is difficult to understand this British military leader. At times, he was a good commander and a brave man. At other times, he stayed in the safety of the cities, instead of leading his men to fight. General Howe was not involved in the next series of important battles of the American Revolution, however. The lead part now went to General John Burgoyne. His plan was to capture the Hudson River Valley in New York State and separate New England from the other colonies. This, the British believed, would make it easy to capture the other colonies.
The plan did not succeed. American General Benedict Arnold defeated the British troops in New York. General Burgoyne had expected help from General Howe, but did not get it. Burgoyne was forced to surrender at the town of Saratoga.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
British general John Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga, New York, in October 1777, as painted by Percy MoranThe American victory at Saratoga was an extremely important one. It ended the British plan to separate New England from the other colonies. It also showed European nations that the new country might really be able to win its revolutionary war. This was something that France, especially, had wanted ever since being defeated by the British earlier in the French and Indian War.
The French government had been supplying the Americans secretly through the work of America's minister to France, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was popular with the French people and with French government officials. He helped gain French sympathy for the American cause.
VOICE ONE:
After the American victory at Saratoga, the French decided to enter the war on the American side. The government recognized American independence. The two nations signed military and political treaties. France and Britain were at war once again.
The British immediately sent a message to America's Continental Congress. They offered to change everything so relations would be as they had been in seventeen sixty-three. The Americans rejected the offer. The war would be fought to the end.
In seventeen seventy-nine, Spain entered the war against the British. And the next year, the British were also fighting the Dutch to stop their trade with America.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
The French now sent gunpowder, soldiers, officers, and ships to the Americans. However, neither side made much progress in the war for the next two years.
A French blockade of the Chesapeake Bay during the Revolutionary War prevented British forces from reaching YorktownBy seventeen eighty, the British had moved their military forces to the American South. They quickly gained control of South Carolina and Georgia, but the Americans prevented them from taking control of North Carolina. After that, the British commander moved his troops to Yorktown, Virginia.
The commander's name was Lord Charles Cornwallis. Both he and George Washington had about eight thousand troops when they met near Yorktown. Cornwallis was expecting more troops to arrive on British ships.
What he did not know was that French ships were on their way to Yorktown, too. Their commander was Admiral Francois Comte de Grasse. De Grasse met some of the British ships that Cornwallis was expecting, and he defeated them. The French ships then moved into the Chesapeake Bay, near Yorktown.
VOICE ONE:
On this page in his diary, George Washington recorded the British surrender at YorktownThe Americans and the French began attacking with cannons. Then they fought the British soldiers hand-to-hand. Cornwallis knew he had no chance to win without more troops. He surrendered to George Washington on October seventeenth, seventeen eighty-one.
The war was over. American and French forces had captured or killed one-half of the British troops in America. The surviving British troops left Yorktown playing a popular British song called, "The World Turned Upside Down."
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
How were the Americans able to defeat the most powerful nation in the world? Historians give several reasons:
The Americans were fighting at home, while the British had to bring troops and supplies from across a wide ocean. British officers made mistakes, especially General William Howe. His slowness to take action at the start of the war made it possible for the Americans to survive during two difficult winters.
Another reason was the help the Americans received from the French. Also, the British public had stopped supporting the long and costly war. Finally, history experts say America might not have won without the leadership of George Washington. He was honest, brave, and sure that the Americans could win. He never gave up hope that he would reach that goal.
VOICE ONE:
The peace treaty ending the American Revolution was signed in Paris in seventeen eighty-three. The independence of the United States was recognized. Western and northern borders were set.
Thirteen colonies were free. Now, they had to become one nation.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. ____

A declaration for life

US History:
A Declaration for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of HappinessA 33-year-old Virginia planter, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration of Independence in 17 days. America’s colonial leaders wanted the world to understand why they were rebelling against Britain.
Transcript of radio broadcast: 19 December 2007
MP3 - Download Audio Listen to MP3 Listen in RealAudio
VOICE ONE:
This is Rich Kleinfeldt.VOICE TWO:And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late seventeen hundreds.
(SOUND)
VOICE ONE:
Battles had been fought between Massachusetts soldiers and British military forces in the towns of Lexington and Concord. Yet, war had not been declared. Even so, citizen soldiers in each of the thirteen American colonies were ready to fight.George Washington's commission as commander-in-chief, signed by John Hancock and Charles ThompsonThis was the first question faced by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Who was going to organize these men into an army? Delegates to the Congress decided that the man for the job was George Washington. He had experience fighting in the French and Indian War. He was thought to know more than any other colonist about being a military commander. Washington accepted the position. But he said he would not take any money for leading the new Continental Army. Washington left Philadelphia for Boston to take command of the soldiers there.
VOICE TWO:
Delegates to the Second Continental Congress made one more attempt to prevent war with Britain. They sent another message to King George. They asked him to consider their problems and try to find a solution. The king would not even read the message.You may wonder: Why would the delegates try to prevent war if the people were ready to fight? The answer is that most members of the Congress -- and most of the colonists -- were not yet ready to break away from Britain. They continued to believe they could have greater self-government and still be part of the British Empire. But that was not to be.
VOICE ONE:
Detail from a drawing made shortly after the Battle of Bunker Hill by British Lieutenant Thomas PageTwo days after the Congress appointed George Washington as army commander, colonists and British troops fought the first major battle of the American Revolution. It was called the Battle of Bunker Hill, although it really involved two hills: Bunker and Breed's. Both are just across the Charles River from the city of Boston.Massachusetts soldiers dug positions on Breed's Hill one night in June, seventeen seventy-five. By morning, the hill was filled with troops. The British started to attack from across the river. The Americans had very little gunpowder. They were forced to wait until the British had crossed the river and were almost on top of them before they fired their guns. Their commander reportedly told them: Do not fire until you see the whites of the British soldiers' eyes.
VOICE TWO:
The British climbed the hill. The Americans fired. A second group climbed the hill. The Americans fired again. The third time, the British reached the top, but the Americans were gone. They had left because they had no more gunpowder. The British captured Breed's Hill. More than one thousand had been killed or wounded in the attempt. The Americans lost about four hundred.That battle greatly reduced whatever hope was left for a negotiated settlement. King George declared the colonies to be in open rebellion. And the Continental Congress approved a declaration condemning everything the British had done since seventeen sixty-three.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
General George Washington in 'The Prayer at Valley Forge,' painted by H. BruecknerThe American colonists fought several battles against British troops during seventeen seventy-five. Yet the colonies were still not ready to declare war. Then, the following year, the British decided to use Hessian soldiers to fight against the colonists. Hessians were mostly German mercenaries who fought for anyone who paid them. The colonists feared these soldiers and hated Britain for using them.At about the same time, Thomas Paine published a little document that had a great effect on the citizens of America. He named it, "Common Sense." It attacked King George, as well as the idea of government by kings. It called for independence.About one hundred fifty thousand copies of "Common Sense" were sold in America. Everyone talked about it. As a result, the Continental Congress began to act. It opened American ports to foreign shipping. It urged colonists to establish state governments and to write constitutions. On June seventh, delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a resolution for independence.
VOICE TWO:

The resolution was not approved immediately. Declaring independence was an extremely serious step. Signing such a document would make delegates to the Continental Congress traitors to Britain. They would be killed if captured by the British.The delegates wanted the world to understand what they were doing, and why. So they appointed a committee to write a document giving the reasons for their actions. One member of the committee was the Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. He had already written a report criticizing the British form of government. So the other committee members asked him to prepare the new document. They said he was the best writer in the group. They were right. It took him seventeen days to complete the document that the delegates approved on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. It was America's Declaration of Independence.(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
From Thomas Jefferson's first attempt at writing the Declaration of IndependenceJefferson's document was divided into two parts. The first part explained the right of any people to revolt. It also described the ideas the Americans used to create a new, republican form of government. The Declaration of Independence begins this way:
ANNOUNCER:
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
VOICE ONE:
Jefferson continued by saying that all people are equal in the eyes of God. Therefore, governments can exist only by permission of the people they govern. He wrote:
ANNOUNCER:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
VOICE ONE:
The next part states why the American colonies decided to separate from Britain:
ANNOUNCER:
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it.
VOICE ONE:
This is why the Americans were rebelling against England. The British believed the Americans were violating their law. Jefferson rejected this idea. He claimed that the British treatment of the American colonies violated the natural laws of God. He and others believed a natural law exists that is more powerful than a king.The idea of a natural law had been developed by British and French philosophers more than one hundred years earlier. Jefferson had studied these philosophers in school. In later years, however, he said he did not re-read these ideas while he was writing the Declaration. He said the words came straight from his heart.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
The second part of the Declaration lists twenty-seven complaints by the American colonies against the British government. The major ones concerned British taxes on Americans and the presence of British troops in the colonies. After the list of complaints, Jefferson wrote this strong statement of independence: ANNOUNCER:That 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 the full Power to levy War, conduct Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
VOICE TWO:
The last statement of the Declaration of Independence was meant to influence the delegates into giving strong support for that most serious step -- revolution:ANNOUNCER:And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Shep O’Neal read the Declaration of Independence. This is Rich Kleinfeldt.VOICE TWO:And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.