1.
Geneva
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Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic, the municipality has a population of 198,072, and the canton has 484,736 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France, within Swiss territory, the commuter area named Métropole lémanique contains a population of 1.25 million. This area is essentially spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, Geneva was ranked as the worlds ninth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, ahead of Frankfurt, and third in Europe behind London and Zürich. A2009 survey by Mercer found that Geneva has the third-highest quality of life of any city in the world, the city has been referred to as the worlds most compact metropolis and the Peace Capital. In 2009 and 2011, Geneva was ranked as, respectively, the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava, probably from a Celtic toponym *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis, the name takes various forms in modern languages, Geneva /dʒᵻˈniːvə/ in English, French, Genève, German, Genf, Italian, Ginevra, and Romansh, Genevra. The city in origin shares its name, *genawa estuary, with the Italian port city of Genoa, Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. It became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, around this time the House of Savoy came to dominate the city. In the 15th century, a republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council. In 1541, with Protestantism in the ascendancy, John Calvin, by the 18th century, however, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France also tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, in 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, in 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12 North, 6°09 East, at the end of Lake Geneva. It is surrounded by two chains, the Alps and the Jura
2.
Ethics
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Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. The term ethics derives from the Ancient Greek word ἠθικός ethikos, the branch of philosophy axiology comprises the sub-branches of ethics and aesthetics, each concerned with values. As a branch of philosophy, ethics investigates the questions What is the best way for people to live, and What actions are right or wrong in particular circumstances. In practice, ethics seeks to resolve questions of morality by defining concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice. As a field of enquiry, moral philosophy also is related to the fields of moral psychology, descriptive ethics. Richard William Paul and Linda Elder define ethics as a set of concepts, the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy states that the word ethics is commonly used interchangeably with morality. And sometimes it is used narrowly to mean the moral principles of a particular tradition. Paul and Elder state that most people confuse ethics with behaving in accordance with social conventions, religious beliefs, the word ethics in English refers to several things. It can refer to philosophical ethics or moral philosophy—a project that attempts to use reason in order to various kinds of ethical questions. As bioethicist Larry Churchill has written, Ethics, understood as the capacity to think critically about moral values, Ethics can also be used to describe a particular persons own idiosyncratic principles or habits. For example, Joe has strange ethics, the English word ethics is derived from an Ancient Greek word êthikos, which means relating to ones character. The Ancient Greek adjective êthikos is itself derived from another Greek word, meta-ethics asks how we understand, know about, and what we mean when we talk about what is right and what is wrong. An ethical question fixed on some particular practical question—such as, Should I eat this particular piece of chocolate cake. —cannot be a meta-ethical question, a meta-ethical question is abstract and relates to a wide range of more specific practical questions. For example, Is it ever possible to have knowledge of what is right. Meta-ethics has always accompanied philosophical ethics, meta-ethics is also important in G. E. In it he first wrote about what he called the naturalistic fallacy, moore was seen to reject naturalism in ethics, in his Open Question Argument. This made thinkers look again at second order questions about ethics, earlier, the Scottish philosopher David Hume had put forward a similar view on the difference between facts and values. Studies of how we know in ethics divide into cognitivism and non-cognitivism, non-cognitivism is the claim that when we judge something as right or wrong, this is neither true nor false
3.
Natural law
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Natural law is a philosophy that certain rights are inherent by virtue of human nature endowed by God or another Divine source, and can be understood universally through human reason. Historically, natural law refers to the use of reason to human nature to deduce binding rules of moral behavior from Gods creation of humans. The law of nature, as determined by nature, is universal, although natural law is often confused with common law, the two are distinct. Natural law is often contrasted with the laws of a given state. In legal theory, the interpretation of a law requires some reference to natural law. On this understanding of law, natural law can be invoked to criticize judicial decisions about what the law says. Some philosophers, jurists and scholars use natural law synonymously with natural justice or natural right, modern natural law theories were further developed during the Era of Enlightenment, while combining inspiration from the Roman law, and alongside philosophies like social contract theory. The use of law, in its various incarnations, has varied widely through history. There are a number of theories of law, that differ from each other with respect to the role that morality plays in determining the authority of legal norms. This article deals with its usages separately rather than attempt to unify them into a single theory, although Plato did not have an explicit theory of natural law, his concept of nature, according to John Wild, contains some of the elements found in many natural law theories. According to Plato, we live in an orderly universe, the basis of this orderly universe or nature are the forms, most fundamentally the Form of the Good, which Plato describes as the brightest region of Being. The Form of the Good is the cause of all things, in the Symposium, the Good is closely identified with the Beautiful. In the Symposium, Plato describes how the experience of the Beautiful by Socrates enabled him to resist the temptations of wealth, in the Republic, the ideal community is. a city which would be established in accordance with nature. Greek philosophy emphasized the distinction between nature on the one hand and law, custom, or convention on the other, what the law commanded would be expected to vary from place to place, but what was by nature should be the same everywhere. A law of nature would therefore have the more of a paradox than something that obviously existed. Of these, Aristotle is often said to be the father of natural law, Aristotles association with natural law may be due to the interpretation given to his works by Thomas Aquinas. But whether Aquinas correctly read Aristotle is in dispute, according to some, Aquinas conflates natural law and natural right, the latter of which Aristotle posits in Book V of the Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle notes that justice is a species of political justice, viz. Specifically, he quotes Sophocles and Empedocles
4.
University of Geneva
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The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary and it remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it dropped its religious affiliations and became officially secular, today, the university is the second-largest university in Switzerland by number of students. In 2009, the University of Geneva celebrated the 450th anniversary of its founding, at least 40% of the students come from foreign countries. In 2015, it was ranked 58th worldwide by the Shanghai ranking, in 2011, it was ranked 73rd worldwide by the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and 69th in the QS World University Rankings. UNIGE is a member of the League of European Research Universities the Coimbra Group, the University of Geneva is located in several districts in the eastern part of the city and in the nearby city of Carouge, and the different buildings are sometimes very distant from each other. The oldest building is the Collège Calvin, and is not anymore a university building, built between 1868 and 1871, Uni Bastions is the symbol of Genevas academic life. It is located in the middle of a park and is host to the faculty of Protestant Theology and its architecture was inspired by Le Corbusier. It hosts the Rectorat and the administration of the University and it is Switzerlands biggest building dedicated to social sciences. It currently hosts the Faculty of Law, of Economics and Social Sciences, of Psychology and Education, the University of Geneva is structured in various faculties which are representing teaching, research and service to society in the various disciplines. Founded in 1876, ranked one of the top 100 medical schools in the world and it is one of the larger faculties of the University of Geneva in terms of budget and number of employees. Notable research areas include neuroscience, genetics, and transplantation and it is closely associated with Switzerlands largest hospital complex, the University Hospitals of Geneva. Since 1981, the Faculty of Medicine is located in the buildings of CMU in Champel, the faculty of Humanities and Arts has various departments and research centers. GSEM is a new faculty and exists since January 2014, the creation of the GSEM faculty is a result of a merger between two former departments, Economics and HEC. Students of the GSEM Faculty benefit from a degree in English. This new curriculum is in place since fall 2015, the GSEM counts more than 1.700 students and 200 lecturers. The Executive Education counts more than 1.500 participants and over 45 programs (including an Executive MBA, a number of research institutes provide avenues for graduate studies at Master’s and Doctoral levels. The Faculty Geneva School of Social Sciences, was founded on 1 January 2014, the faculty was created in 1890
5.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
6.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
7.
Hugo Grotius
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Hugo Grotius, also known as Huig de Groot or Hugo de Groot, was a Dutch jurist. Along with the works of Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili, Grotius laid the foundations for international law. A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was imprisoned for his involvement in the intra-Calvinist disputes of the Dutch Republic and he wrote most of his major works in exile in France. Because of his theological underpinning of free trade, he is considered an economic theologist. Born in Delft during the Dutch Revolt, Hugo was the first child of Jan de Groot, a prodigious learner, Hugo entered the University of Leiden when he was just eleven years old. There he studied some of the most acclaimed intellectuals in northern Europe, including Franciscus Junius, Joseph Justus Scaliger. Omnes, & emendati, & Notis, siue Februis Hug, in Holland, Grotius earned an appointment as advocate to The Hague in 1599 and then as official historiographer for the States of Holland in 1601. The Dutch were at war with Spain and Portugal when the merchant ship Santa Catarina. The scandal led to a judicial hearing and a wider campaign to sway public opinion. It was in this context that representatives of the Company called upon Grotius to draft a polemical defence of the seizure. The result of Grotius efforts in 1604/05 was a long, theory-laden treatise that he provisionally entitled De Indis, Grotius sought to ground his defense of the seizure in terms of the natural principles of justice. In this, he had cast a net much wider than the case at hand, his interest was in the source, the treatise was never published in full during Grotius lifetime, perhaps because the court ruling in favor of the Company preempted the need to garner public support. In The Free Sea Grotius formulated the new principle that the sea was international territory, Grotius, by claiming free seas, provided suitable ideological justification for the Dutch breaking up of various trade monopolies through its formidable naval power. In 1608 he married Maria van Reigersbergen, with whom he would have eight children and who would be invaluable in helping him and the family to weather the storm to come. The domestic dissension resulting over Arminius professorship was overshadowed by the war with Spain. The new peace would move the focus to the controversy. The controversy expanded when the Remonstrant theologian Conrad Vorstius was appointed to replace Jacobus Arminius as the chair at Leiden. Vorstius was soon seen by Counter-Remonstrants as moving beyond the teachings of Arminius into Socinianism, leading the call for Vorstius removal was theology professor Sibrandus Lubbertus
8.
Founding Fathers of the United States
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Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin were members of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay were authors of the The Federalist Papers, Jay, Adams and Franklin negotiated the Treaty of Paris that would end the American Revolutionary War. Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and was President of the Constitutional Convention, according to the CIA, Washington, Jay and Franklin helped define the powers of the Executive Branch All held additional important roles in the early government of the United States. The term Founding Fathers is sometimes used to refer to the Signers of the version of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Of the 55 Framers, only 39 were signers of the Constitution, a further subset of Founding Founders includes those who signed the Continental Association or the Articles of Confederation. The phrase Founding Fathers is a twentieth century appellation and was first coined by Warren G. Harding in 1916, the First Continental Congress met briefly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1774 and consisted of fifty-six delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that became the United States of America. On the list of attendees was George Washington, who would soon be out of military retirement to command the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Also in attendance was Patrick Henry, and John Adams, who were elected by their respective colonial assemblies, other notable delegates included Samuel Adams from Massachusetts, John Dickinson from Pennsylvania and New Yorks John Jay. This congress in addition to formulating appeals to the British crown, when the Second Continental Congress came together on May 10,1775, it was, in effect, a reconvening of the First Congress. Many of the same 56 delegates who attended the first meeting participated in the second, notable new arrivals included Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, John Hancock of Massachusetts, and John Witherspoon of New Jersey. Hancock was elected Congress President two weeks into the session when Peyton Randolph was summoned back to Virginia to preside over the House of Burgesses, Thomas Jefferson replaced Randolph in the Virginia congressional delegation. The second Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, Witherspoon was the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration. He also signed the Articles of Confederation and attended the New Jersey convention that ratified the Federal Constitution, the newly founded country of the United States had to create a new government to replace the British Parliament. The Americans adopted the Articles of Confederation, a declaration that established a government which was made up of a one-house legislature. Its ratification by all thirteen colonies gave the second Congress a new name, the Congress of the Confederation, later, the Constitutional Convention took place during the summer of 1787, in Philadelphia. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the Convention, the result of the Convention was the United States Constitution. The Founding Fathers represented a cross-section of 18th-century American leadership, almost all of them were well-educated men of means who were leaders in their communities. Many were also prominent in national affairs, virtually every one had taken part in the American Revolution, at least 29 had served in the Continental Army, most of them in positions of command
9.
Natural and legal rights
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Natural and legal rights are two types of rights. Legal rights are those bestowed onto a person by a legal system. Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any culture or government. The concept of law is closely related to the concept of natural rights. Conversely, the concept of rights is used by others to challenge the legitimacy of all such establishments. Natural rights, in particular, are considered beyond the authority of any government or international body to dismiss, the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an important legal instrument enshrining one conception of natural rights into international soft law. Natural rights were traditionally viewed as exclusively negative rights, whereas human rights also comprise positive rights, even on a natural rights conception of human rights, the two terms may not be synonymous. The proposition that animals have natural rights is one that gained the interest of philosophers and legal scholars in the 20th century, the existence of natural rights has been asserted by different individuals on different premises, such as a priori philosophical reasoning or religious principles. For example, Immanuel Kant claimed to derive natural rights through reason alone, the United States Declaration of Independence, meanwhile, is based upon the self-evident truth that all men are. Endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, likewise, different philosophers and statesmen have designed different lists of what they believe to be natural rights, almost all include the right to life and liberty as the two highest priorities. H. L. A. Hart argued that if there are any rights at all, there must be the right to liberty, for all the others would depend upon this. T. H. Green argued that “if there are things as rights at all, then, there must be a right to life and liberty, or, to put it more properly to free life. ”John Locke emphasized life. However, despite Lockes influential defense of the right of revolution, leaders are seen as representative of God on earth, but they deserve allegiance only as long as they have farr, a kind of divine blessing that they must earn by moral behavior. The Stoics held that no one was a slave by nature, of fundamental importance to the development of the idea of natural rights was the emergence of the idea of natural human equality. Carlyle notes, There is no change in theory so startling in its completeness as the change from the theory of Aristotle to the later philosophical view represented by Cicero. We think that this cannot be better exemplified than with regard to the theory of the equality of human nature, charles H. Cicero argues in De Legibus that we are born for Justice, and that right is based, not upon opinions, but upon Nature. Centuries later, the Stoic doctrine that the part cannot be delivered into bondage re-emerged in the Reformation doctrine of liberty of conscience. Martin Luther wrote, Furthermore, every man is responsible for his own faith, preservation of the natural rights to life, liberty, and property was claimed as justification for the rebellion of the American colonies
10.
Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Previously, he was elected the second Vice President of the United States, Jefferson was primarily of English ancestry, born and educated in colonial Virginia. He graduated from the College of William & Mary and briefly practiced law and he became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, and subsequently the nations first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System, as President, Jefferson pursued the nations shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies. He also organized the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the countrys territory, as a result of peace negotiations with France, his administration reduced military forces. Jeffersons second term was beset with difficulties at home, including the trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr, American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807, responding to British threats to U. S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began a process of Indian tribe removal to the newly organized Louisiana Territory. Jefferson mastered many disciplines, which ranged from surveying and mathematics to horticulture and he was a proven architect in the classical tradition. Jeffersons keen interest in religion and philosophy earned him the presidency of the American Philosophical Society and he shunned organized religion, but was influenced by both Christianity and deism. He was well versed in linguistics and spoke several languages and he founded the University of Virginia after retiring from public office. He was a letter writer and corresponded with many prominent and important people throughout his adult life. His only full-length book is Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson owned several plantations which were worked by hundreds of slaves. Most historians now believe that, after the death of his wife in 1782, he had a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered at least one of her children. Various modern scholars are more critical of Jeffersons private life, pointing out the discrepancy between his ownership of slaves and his political principles, for example. Presidential scholars, however, consistently rank Jefferson among the greatest presidents, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13,1743, at the family home in Shadwell in the Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children. He was of English and possibly Welsh descent and was born a British subject and his father Peter Jefferson was a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen, his mother was Jane Randolph. Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in 1745 upon the death of a friend who had named him guardian of his children, the Jeffersons returned to Shadwell in 1752, where Peter died in 1757, his estate was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph. Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres of land, including Monticello and he assumed full authority over his property at age 21
11.
United States Declaration of Independence
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Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was passed on July 2 with no opposing vote cast, a committee of five had already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress voted on independence. The term Declaration of Independence is not used in the document itself, John Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress would edit to produce the final version. The next day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, but Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4, the date that the Declaration of Independence was approved. After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms and it was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for printing has been lost. Jeffersons original draft, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, the best known version of the Declaration, a signed copy that is popularly regarded as the official document, is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D. C. This engrossed copy was ordered by Congress on July 19, the sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. Having served its purpose in announcing independence, references to the text of the Declaration were few in the following years. Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his rhetoric, and his policies and this has been called one of the best-known sentences in the English language, containing the most potent and consequential words in American history. The passage came to represent a standard to which the United States should strive. Believe me, dear Sir, there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose, and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America. By the time that the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, relations had been deteriorating between the colonies and the mother country since 1763. Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase revenue from the colonies, such as the Stamp Act of 1765, Parliament believed that these acts were a legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs to keep them in the British Empire. Many colonists, however, had developed a different conception of the empire, the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, and colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them. This tax dispute was part of a divergence between British and American interpretations of the British Constitution and the extent of Parliaments authority in the colonies. In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that the British Constitution recognized certain fundamental rights that no government could violate, after the Townshend Acts, some essayists even began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 836.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 