The sun of Great Britain will set whenever she acknowledges the independence of America… the independence of America would end in the ruin of England.
Declaration of Independence Quotes
What is revolutionary about the Declaration of Independence, then, is not that a particular group of Americans declared their independence under particular circumstances but that they did so by appealing to – and promising to base their particular government on – a universal standard of justice.
Yesterday, the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.
The die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Sink or swim, lie or die, survive or perish with my country, was my unalterable determination. (After deciding to cast his vote for the adoption of the Declaration of Independence)
