Encyclopedia > Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms
This document was prepared by the Second Continental Congress to explain to the world why the British colonies had taken up arms against Great Britain. It is a combination of the work of Thomas Jefferson and Colonel John Dickinson. Jefferson completed the first draft, but it was perceived by the Contenential Congress as too harsh and militant; Dickinson prepared the second. The final document combined the work of the two. This Document was frowned upon by many leaders.
The declaration describes those actions of the British government that had angered the colonists and justifies the need to resist with arms. It does not proclaim a desire to break with the mother country, instead expressing the need to conserve old liberties and the old order "in defence of the freedom that is our birth right and which we ever enjoyed until the late violation of it."
