Skip to main content

When was the Declaration of Independence passed?

Please note that the Declaration of Independence was not a written law (so the verb "passed" does not quite work here), but instead, a statement proclaiming the purpose of the new nation, the United States, and its literal declaration of independence from England. 


On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed in Congress by representatives from all the former colonies, now states: Georgia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.


The Declaration of Independence, written during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), also described the reasons why the former colonies decided to release themselves from their king. The document accused King George III—and all previous kings—of tyranny and "repeated injuries and usurpations." 


The war ended in 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The new nation then set out to concretize and amend its laws—originally laid out in the Articles of Confederation— in a Constitution that, after two conventions, was ratified in 1787.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more