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Good Friday Agreement
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Not to be confused with Anglo-Irish Agreement.
Multi-Party Agreement
Type
Multilateral agreement
Signed
10 April 1998 (1998-04-10)
Location
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Effective
2 December 1999 (1999-12-02)
Parties
British Government
Irish Government
Political parties of Northern Ireland
British-Irish Agreement
Type
Bilateral international agreement
Signed
10 April 1998 (1998-04-10)
Location
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Effective
2 December 1999 (1999-12-02)
Original
signatories
United Kingdom
Republic of Ireland
Ratifiers
United Kingdom
Republic of Ireland
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement (Irish: Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or Comhaontú Bhéal Feirste; Ulster-Scots: Guid Friday Greeance or Bilfawst Greeance)[1] was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on the agreement. The agreement also created a number of institutions between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The agreement is made up of two inter-related documents, both agreed in Belfast on Good Friday, 10 April 1998:
a multi-party agreement by most of Northern Ireland's political parties (the Multi-Party Agreement);
an international agreement between the British and Irish governments (the British-Irish Agreement).
The agreement set out a complex series of provisions relating to a number of areas including:
The status and system of government of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. (Strand 1)
The relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. (Strand 2)
The relationship between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. (Strand 3)
Issues relating to sovereignty, civil and cultural rights, decommissioning of weapons, demilitarisation, justice and policing were central to the agreement.
The agreement was approved by voters across the island of Ireland in two referendums held on 22 May 1998. In Northern Ireland, voters were asked in the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum, 1998 whether they supported the multi-party agreement. In the Republic of Ireland, voters were asked whether they would allow the state to sign the agreement and allow necessary constitutional changes (Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland) to facilitate it. The people of both jurisdictions needed to approve the agreement in order to give effect to it.
The British-Irish Agreement came into force on 2 December 1999.[2][3] The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was the only major political group in Northern Ireland to oppose the Good Friday Agreement.[4]
Contents
[hide]
1 Parties and structure
2 Status of Northern Ireland
3 New institutions
3.1 Strand 1
3.2 Strand 2
3.3 Strand 3
4 Decommissioning and normalisation
5 Equality and human rights
6 Referendums
7 Implementation
8 Comparison to the Sunningdale Agreement
9 Constitutional relevance
10 See also
11 Notes
12 References
13 External links
Parties and structure[edit]
The agreement was made between the British and Irish governments and eight political parties or groupings from Northern Ireland: the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn Féin,[5][6] the Alliance Party, the Progressive Unionist Party, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, the Ulster Democratic Party and Labour.
The agreement comprises two elements:
the legal agreement between the two governments, signed by the leaders of the two governments; and
a more substantial agreement between the eight political parties and the two governments.
The former text has just four articles; it is that short text that is the legal agreement, but it incorporates in its schedules the latter agreement.[3] Technically, this scheduled agreement can be distinguished as the Multi-Party Agreement, as opposed to the Belfast Agreement itself.[3]
The vague wording of some of the provisions, described as "constructive ambiguity",[7] helped ensure acceptance of the agreement and served to postpone debate on some of the more contentious issues. Most notably these included paramilitary decommissioning, police reform and the normalisation of Northern Ireland.
Status of Northern Ireland[edit]
The agreement acknowledged:
that the majority of the people of Northern Ireland wished to remain a part of the United Kingdom;
that a substantial section of the people of Northern Ireland, and the majority of the people of the island of Ireland, wished to bring about a united Ireland.
Both of these views were acknowledged as being legitimate. For the first time, the Irish government accepted in a binding international agreement that Northern Ireland was part of the United Kingdom.[8] The Irish Constitution was also amended to implicitly recognise Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom's sovereign territory,[3] conditional upon the consent for a united Ireland from majorities of the people in both jurisdictions on the island. On the other hand, the language of the agreement reflects a switch in the United Kingdom's statutory emphasis from one for the union to one for a united Ireland.[8] The agreement thus left the issue of future sovereignty over Northern Ireland open-ended.[9]
The agreement reached was that Northern Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, and would remain so until a majority of the people both of Northern Ireland and of the Republic of Ireland wished otherwise. Should that happen, then the British and Irish governments are under "a binding obligation" to implement that choice.
Irrespective of Northern Ireland's constitutional status within the United Kingdom, or part of a united Ireland, the right of "the people of Northern Ireland" to "identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both" (as well as their right to hold either or both British and/or Irish citizenship) was recognised. By the words "people of Northern Ireland" the Agreement meant "all persons born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British citizen, an Irish citizen or is otherwise entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence."[10]
The two governments also agreed, irrespective of the position of Northern Ireland:
the power of the sovereign government with jurisdiction there shall be exercised with rigorous impartiality on behalf of all the people in the diversity of their identities and traditions and shall be founded on the principles of full respect for, and equality of, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, of freedom from discrimination for all citizens, and of parity of esteem and of just and equal treatment for the identity, ethos and aspirations of both communities.
As part of the agreement, the British parliament repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920 (which had established Northern Ireland, partitioned Ireland and asserted a territorial claim over all of Ireland) and the people of the Republic of Ireland amended Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland, which asserted a territorial claim over Northern Ireland.
In its white paper on Brexit, the United Kingdom government reiterated its commitment to the Belfast Agreement. With regard to Northern Ireland's status, it said that the UK Government's "clearly-stated preference is to retain Northern Ireland's current constitutional position: as part of the UK, but with strong links to Ireland".[11]
New institutions[edit]
Good Friday Agreement
Strand 1
Northern Ireland Assembly
Strand 2
North/South Ministerial Council
Strand 3
British–Irish Council
British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference
Additional bodies
British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly
North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association
North/South Consultative Forum
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Parliament Buildings in Belfast, seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly
The agreement sets out a framework for the creation and number of institutions across three "strands".
Strand 1[edit]
Strand 1 dealt with the democratic institutions of Northern Ireland and established two major institutions:
Northern Ireland Assembly
Northern Ireland Executive
The Northern Ireland Assembly is a devolved legislature for Northern Ireland with mandatory cross-community voting on certain major decisions. The Northern Ireland Executive is a power-sharing executive with ministerial portfolios to be allocated between parties by the d'Hondt method.
Strand 2[edit]
Strand 2 dealt with "north-south" issues and institutions to be created between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. These are:
North/South Ministerial Council
North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association
North/South Consultative Forum
The North/South Ministerial Council is made up of ministers from the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland. It was established "to develop consultation, co-operation and action" in twelve areas of mutual interest. These include six areas where the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland form common policies but implement these separately in each jurisdiction, and six areas where they develop common policies that are implemented through shared all-Ireland institutions.
The various "institutional and constitutional arrangements" set out in the Agreement are also stated to be "interlocking and interdependent".
As part of the Agreement, the newly created Northern Ireland Assembly and the national parliament of Ireland (the Oireachtas) agreed to consider creating a joint parliamentary forum made up of equal numbers from both institutions. In October 2012, this forum was created as the North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association.
The Northern Ireland political parties who endorsed the agreement were also asked to consider the establishment of an independent consultative forum representative of civil society with members with expertise in social, cultural, economic and other issues and appointed by the two administrations. An outline structure for the North/South Consultative Forum was agreed in 2002 and in 2006 the Northern Ireland Executive agreed it would support its establishment.
The offices of the North/South Ministerial Council on Upper English Street, Armagh, Northern Ireland
Strand 3[edit]
Strand 3 dealt with "east-west" issues and institutions to be created between Ireland and Great Britain (as well as the Crown dependencies). These are:
British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference
British–Irish Council
An expanded British–Irish Interparliamentary Body
The British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference was agreed to replace the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Council and the Intergovernmental Conference created under the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.
The conference takes the form of regular and frequent meetings between the British and Irish ministers to promote co-operation at all levels between both governments. On matters not devolved to Northern Ireland, the Government of Ireland may put forward view and proposals. All decisions of the conference will be by agreement between both governments and the two governments agreed to make determined efforts to resolve disagreements between them.
The British–Irish Council is made up of ministerial representatives from the British and Irish governments, the UK's devolved administrations (Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales), as well as from the Crown dependencies, the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey. The purpose of the council is to promote co-operations and pose a forum for the creation of common policies.
Under the agreement, it was proposed that the already-existing British–Irish Interparliamentary Body would be built upon. Prior to the agreement, the body was composed of parliamentarians from the British and Irish parliaments only. In 2001, as suggested by the agreement, it was expanded to incorporate parliamentarians from all of the members of the British–Irish Council.
These institutional arrangements created across these three strands are set out in the agreement as being "interlocking and interdependent". In particular, the functioning of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the North/South Ministerial Council are stated to be "so closely inter-related that the success of each depends on that of the other" and participation in the North/South Ministerial Council is "one of the essential responsibilities attaching to relevant posts in [Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland]."
In the opinion of analyst Brendan O'Leary, the institutions established by the deal "made Northern Ireland bi-national" and reinforced "imaginative elements of co-sovereignty."[9]
Decommissioning and normalisation[edit]
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Against the background of political violence during the Troubles, the agreement committed the participants to "exclusively democratic and peaceful means of resolving differences on political issues". This took two aspects:
decommissioning of weapons held by paramilitary groups;
the normalisation of security arrangements in Northern Ireland.
The participants to the agreement comprised two sovereign states (the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) with armed and police forces involved in the Troubles. Two political parties, Sinn Féin and the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), were linked to paramilitary organisations: the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) respectively. The Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), which was linked to the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), had withdrawn from the talks three months previously.
The multi-party agreement committed the parties to "use any influence they may have" to bring about the decommissioning of all paramilitary arms within two years of the referendums approving the agreement. The process of normalisation committed the British government to the reduction in the number and role of its armed forces in Northern Ireland "to levels compatible with a normal peaceful society". This included the removal of security installations and the removal of special emergency powers in Northern Ireland. The Irish government committed to a "wide-ranging review" of its Offences against the State legislation.
The agreement called for the establishment of an independent commission to review policing arrangements in Northern Ireland "including [the] means of encouraging widespread community support" for those arrangements. The British government also committed to a "wide-ranging review" of the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland.
Both the British and Irish governments committed to the early release of prisoners serving sentences in connection with the activities of paramilitary groups, provided that those groups continued to maintain "a complete and unequivocal ceasefire". Cases were reviewed individually.[12] There was no amnesty for crimes which had not been prosecuted.
A date of May 2000 was set for total disarming of all paramilitary groups. This was not achieved leading the assembly to be suspended on a number of occasions as a consequence of unionist objections.[13] A series of rounds of decommissioning by the IRA took place (in October 2001, April 2002 and October 2003) and in July 2005 the IRA announced the formal end of its campaign. Loyalist decommissioning did not follow immediately. In June 2009, the UVF announced it had completed decommissioning and the UDA said it had started to decommission its arsenal.[14]
Equality and human rights[edit]
The agreement affirmed a commitment to "the mutual respect, the civil rights and the religious liberties of everyone in the community". The multi-party agreement recognised "the importance of respect, understanding and tolerance in relation to linguistic diversity", especially in relation to the Irish language, Ulster Scots, and the languages of Northern Ireland's other ethnic minorities, "all of which are part of the cultural wealth of the island of Ireland".
The British government committed to incorporate the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) into the law of Northern Ireland and to the establishment of a Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. Setting statutory obligations for public authorities in Northern Ireland to carry out their work "with due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity was set as a particular priority." The Irish government committed to "[taking] steps to further the protection of human rights in its jurisdiction" and to the establishment of an Irish Human Rights Commission.
Referendums[edit]
Main articles: Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum, 1998 and Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland
A 'Yes' campaign poster for the Good Friday Agreement during simultaneous referendums in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland.
Under the agreement, the British and Irish governments committed to organising referendums on 22 May 1998, in Northern Ireland and in the Republic respectively. The Northern Ireland referendum was to approve the agreement reached in the multi-party talks. The Republic of Ireland referendum was to approve the British-Irish Agreement and to facilitate the amendment of the Constitution of Ireland in accordance with the Agreement.
The result of these referendums was a large majority in both parts of Ireland in favour of the agreement. In the Republic, 56% of the electorate voted, with 94% of the votes in favour of the amendment to the constitution. The turnout in Northern Ireland was 81%, with 71% of the votes in favour of the agreement.
In the Republic, the electorate voted upon the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution of Ireland. This amendment both permitted the state to comply with the Belfast Agreement and provided for the removal of the "territorial claim" contained in Articles 2 and 3. A referendum on the Amsterdam Treaty (Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland) was held on the same day.
Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum, 1998
Choice
Votes
%
Yes 676,966 71.1
No 274,979 28.9
Valid votes 951,945 99.82
Invalid or blank votes 1,738 0.18
Total votes 953,683 100.00
Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland referendum
Choice
Votes
%
Yes 1,442,583 94.39
No 85,748 5.61
Valid votes 1,528,331 98.90
Invalid or blank votes 17,064 1.10
Total votes 1,545,395 100.00
Implementation[edit]
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Direct London rule came to an end in Northern Ireland when power was formally devolved to the new Northern Ireland Assembly, the North/South Ministerial Council and the British–Irish Council, as the commencement orders for the British-Irish Agreement came into effect on 2 December 1999.[15][16][17] Article 4(2) of the British-Irish Agreement (the Agreement between the British and Irish governments for the implementation of the Belfast Agreement) required the two governments to notify each other in writing of the completion of the requirements for the entry into force of the British-Irish Agreement; entry into force was to be upon the receipt of the latter of the two notifications.[18] The British government agreed to participate in a televised ceremony at Iveagh House in Dublin, the Irish department of foreign affairs. Peter Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, attended early on 2 December 1999. He exchanged notifications with David Andrews, the Irish foreign minister. Shortly after the ceremony, at 10:30 am, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, signed the declaration formally amending Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution. He then announced to the Dáil that the British-Irish Agreement had entered into force (including certain supplementary agreements concerning the Belfast Agreement).[3][19]
Speaking at the 1998 commemoration of the Easter Rising of 1916, Ahern said:
The British Government are effectively out of the equation and neither the British parliament nor people have any legal right under this agreement to impede the achievement of Irish unity if it had the consent of the people North and South... Our nation is and always will be a 32-county nation. Antrim and Down are, and will remain, as much a part of Ireland as any southern county.[20]
The assembly and executive were eventually established in December 1999 on the understanding that decommissioning would begin immediately, but were suspended within two months due to lack of progress, before being re-established in May 2000 as Provisional IRA decommissioning eventually began. Aside from the decommissioning issue, however, ongoing paramilitary activity (albeit relatively low-level compared to the past) by the Provisional Irish Republican Army—e.g., arms importations, smuggling, organised crime, "punishment beatings", intelligence-gathering and rioting—was also a stumbling block. The loyalist paramilitaries also continued similar activity although as they were not represented by a significant political party, their position was less central to political change.[citation needed]
The overall result of these problems was to damage confidence among unionists in the agreement, which was exploited by the anti-agreement DUP, which eventually overtook the pro-agreement Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in the 2003 Assembly election. The UUP had already resigned from the power-sharing Executive in 2002 following the Stormontgate scandal, which saw three men charged with intelligence-gathering. These charges were eventually dropped in 2005 on the controversial grounds that pursuit would not be "in the public interest". Immediately afterwards, one of the accused Sinn Féin members, Denis Donaldson, was exposed as a British agent.
In 2004, negotiations were held between the two governments, the DUP, and Sinn Féin on an agreement to re-establish the institutions. These talks failed, but a document published by the governments detailing changes to the Belfast Agreement became known as the "Comprehensive Agreement". On 26 September 2005, however, it was announced that the Provisional Irish Republican Army had completely decommissioned its arsenal of weapons and "put them beyond use". Nonetheless, many unionists, most notably the DUP, remained sceptical. Of the loyalist paramilitaries, only the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) had decommissioned any weapons.[21] Further negotiations took place in October 2006, leading to the St Andrews Agreement.
In May 2007, a power-sharing executive was again established to govern Northern Ireland in devolved matters. The second Northern Ireland Executive had Ian Paisley of the DUP as First Minister and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin as Deputy First Minister. Although Paisley was the official head of the government, he and Martin McGuinness held equal powers.
Paisley retired from the office of First Minister and from the leadership of the DUP on 5 June 2008 and was succeeded in both functions by Peter Robinson. In the third Northern Ireland Executive, the same political relationship existed between Robinson and McGuinness as existed formerly between Paisley and McGuinness. After Robinson resigned as First Minister on 11 January 2016, he was replaced by Arlene Foster. Upon McGuinness's resignation on 9 January 2017, the devolved government in Stormont collapsed, as the Agreement demands when no new leader is appointed. An election was called by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire, whereby the DUP and Sinn Féin were returned as the largest parties, and so began a countdown of talks between both leaders before devolved government could be restored. Currently, Stormont is not in session and no government is in power.
Comparison to the Sunningdale Agreement[edit]
Main article: Sunningdale Agreement
Some commentators have referred to the Agreement as "Sunningdale for slow learners", which suggests that it was nothing more than what was on offer in the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973.[22] This assertion has been criticised by some political scientists, one of whom stated that "there are... significant differences between them [Sunningdale and Belfast], both in terms of content and the circumstances surrounding their negotiation, implementation, and operation".[23]
The main issues omitted by Sunningdale and addressed by the Belfast Agreement are the principle of self-determination, the recognition of both national identities, British-Irish intergovernmental cooperation and the legal procedures to make power-sharing mandatory, such as the cross-community vote and the d'Hondt system to appoint ministers to the executive.[24][25] Former IRA member and journalist Tommy McKearney says that the main difference is the intention of the British government to broker a comprehensive deal by including the IRA and the most uncompromising unionists.[26] Regarding the right to self-determination, two qualifications are noted by the legal writer Austen Morgan. Firstly, the cession of territory from one state to another state has to be by international agreement between the UK and Irish governments. Secondly, the people of Northern Ireland can no longer bring about a united Ireland on their own; they need not only the Irish government but the people of their neighbouring state, Ireland, to also endorse unity. Morgan also pointed out that, unlike the Ireland Act 1949 and the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973, devised under Sunningdale, the 1998 agreement and the consequent British legislation did expressly foresee the possibility of a united Ireland.[27]
As well as the number of signatories,[Note 1] Stefan Wolff identifies the following similarities and differences between the issues addressed in the two agreements:[28]
Sunningdale Agreement
Belfast Agreement
Consent principle
Self-determination
Reform of the policing system
Prisoners
Bill of Rights
Abandonment of violence
Security co-operation
Cross-border co-operation
Recognition of both identities
Inter-governmental co-operation
Institutional role for the RoI
Power-sharing ( )
Inter-island co-operation
Devolution of powers
Wolff identifies this issue as being implicitly addressed in the Sunningdale Agreement
Constitutional relevance[edit]
Because the Good Friday Agreement binds the British government on several points of law in Northern Ireland, it has de facto become a part of Constitution of the United Kingdom. Legal commentator David Allen Green described it as "a core constitutional text of the UK, and of Ireland [...] of more everyday importance than hallowed instruments such as, say, Magna Carta of 1215 or the 1689 Bill of Rights".[29]
Because the Agreement commits the government to enshrine the European Convention on Human Rights in law and allows Northern Irish residents access to the European Court of Human Rights, it required enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998. Consequently, the Agreement was a significant factor preventing the repeal of that Act and its replacement with the proposed British Bill of Rights that Prime Minister David Cameron had promised.[29]
The Agreement also makes reference to the UK and Ireland as "partners in the European Union", and it was argued in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union that the Agreement meant that the consent of Northern Ireland's voters was required to leave the European Union. The UK Supreme Court unanimously held that this was not the case, but the Agreement has nevertheless strongly shaped the form of Brexit.
During the negotiations on Britain's planned 2019 withdrawal from the European Union, the EU produced a position paper on its concerns regarding support of the Good Friday Agreement by the UK during Brexit. The position paper address topics including the avoidance of a hard border, the North-South cooperation between Ireland and Northern Ireland, the birthright of all of the people of Northern Ireland (as set out in the Agreement), and the Common Travel Area.[30] Anyone born in Northern Ireland, and thus entitled to an Irish passport by the Good Friday Agreement, will also be able to retain EU citizenship after Brexit.[31] Under the European Union negotiating directives for Brexit, the UK was asked to satisfy the other EU members that these topics had been addressed in order to progress to the second stage of Brexit negotiations. In order to protect North-South co-operation and avoid controls on the Irish border, the UK agreed to protect the Agreement in all its parts and "in the absence of agreed solutions, the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement."[29]
See also[edit]
Ireland portal
David Trimble
John Hume
Downing Street Declaration
George J. Mitchell
Sentence Review Commission
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Wolff identifies the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Unionist Party, SDLP, Alliance Party as signatories to the Sunningdale Agreement. He identifies the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Ulster Unionist Party, Ulster Democratic Party, Progressive Unionist Party, Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, Labour, Alliance Party, Sinn Féin and the SDLP as signatories to the Belfast Agreement.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ North-South Ministerial Council: Annual Report (2001) in Ulster Scots
Jump up ^ "Address by Mr David Andrews, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs at the Exchange of Notifications ceremony at Iveagh House, Dublin, 2 December 1999". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Austen Morgan (2000). "The Belfast Agreement - a practical legal analysis". Conflict Archive on the INternet (CAIN). Retrieved 28 October 2011.
Jump up ^ "BBC - History - The Good Friday Agreement". Retrieved 2017-06-10.
Jump up ^ "SINN FEIN ENDORSES PEACE PACT". Washington Post. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
Jump up ^ "Sinn Féin's delegates endorse North Ireland peace agreement". 11 May 1998. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
Jump up ^ Aughey, Arthur: The politics of Northern Ireland: beyond the Belfast Agreement. Routledge, 2005, p. 148. ISBN 0-415-32788-1
^ Jump up to: a b Austen Morgan, The Hand of History? Legal Essays on the Belfast Agreement, The Belfast Press Limited, 2011 pg. 7
^ Jump up to: a b Lerner, Hanna (2011). Making Constitutions in Deeply Divided Societies. Cambridge University Press. p. 188. ISBN 1139502921.
Jump up ^ Annex 2 of the British-Irish Agreement (Good Friday Agreement)
Jump up ^ HM Government The United Kingdom's exit from and new partnership with the European Union; Cm 9417, February 2017
Jump up ^ "Prisoner Release: Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement | Peace Accords Matrix". peaceaccords.nd.edu. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
Jump up ^ Janine A. Levy (2007), Terrorism Issues and Developments, Nova Publishers, p. 192
Jump up ^ Loyalist weapons put 'beyond use', BBC News, 27 June 2009
Jump up ^ "BRITISH-IRISH AGREEMENT ACT, 1999 (COMMENCEMENT) ORDER, 1999, S.I. No. 377 of 1999". Irishstatutebook.ie. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
Jump up ^ "BRITISH-IRISH AGREEMENT (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1999 (COMMENCEMENT) ORDER, 1999". Irishstatutebook.ie. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
Jump up ^ "The Northern Ireland Act 1998 (Appointed Day) Order 1999". Opsi.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
Jump up ^ "The Agreement" (PDF). Department of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 17 June 2012. . The British-Irish Agreement begins at p. 35
Jump up ^ "Constitutional issues". BBC website - A State Apart. BBC. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
Jump up ^ "The Irish Times", April 27, 1998
Jump up ^ "Paramilitary arms destroyed". BBC News. 18 December 1998. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
Jump up ^ Ó Ceallaigh, Daltún, Along The road to Irish unity?
Jump up ^ Wilford, Rick (2001).Context and Content: Sunningdale and Belfast Compared. Oxford University Press, p.1
Jump up ^ Wilford, pp. 4-5
Jump up ^ Daugherty Rasnic, Carol (2003). Northern Ireland: can Sean and John live in peace? Brandylane Publishers Inc, p. 173. ISBN 1-883911-55-9
Jump up ^ McKearney, Tommy (2011) The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament. Pluto Press, p. 184. ISBN 978-0-7453-3074-7
Jump up ^ Austen Morgan, 'From Belfast to St. Andrews', included in 'The Northern Ireland Question: the peace process and the Belfast Agreement', Bassingstoke, 2009, p. 385
Jump up ^ Stefan Wolff, ed. (2004), Peace at Last?: The Impact of the Good Friday Agreement on Northern Ireland, Berghahn Books, p. 18, ISBN 1571816585
^ Jump up to: a b c Green, David Allen (15 December 2017). "How Ireland is shaping Britain's post-Brexit trade". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
Jump up ^ "Guiding Principles for the dialogue on Ireland/Northern Ireland" (PDF). 7 September 2017.
Jump up ^ "Northern Irish will be able to remain EU citizens under Brexit deal". The Independent. 2017-12-08. Retrieved 2017-12-16.
External links[edit]
Full text of the Good Friday Agreement, UN Peacemaker
Full text of the Agreement, in Irish, Department of the Taoiseach
All peace agreements for the United Kingdom, UN Peacemaker
North-South Ministerial Council
British-Irish Council
Irish Government - British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference
Inside Out: An Integrative Critique of the Northern Ireland Peace Process U.S. Institute of Peace, July 2006
Address given at the Exchange of Notifications ceremony, whereby the Republic of Ireland dropped its territorial claim to Northern Ireland, Iveagh House, Dublin, 2 December 1999
Morgan, Austen (2000). The Belfast Agreement: A Practical Legal Analysis (PDF). The Belfast Press. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
[show]
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Steps in the Northern Ireland peace process
Sunningdale Agreement (1973)
Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (1975)
Atkins Talks (Constitutional Conference) (1980)
Northern Ireland Assembly (1982) ("rolling devolution")
Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985)
Brooke/Mayhew inter-party talks (1991–92)
Downing Street Declaration (1993)
Establishment of the IICD (1997)
Good Friday Agreement (1998)
Amendment of Articles 2 and 3 (1999)
Establishment of the Independent Monitoring Commission (2003)
IRA Ceasefire & Decommissioning (2005)
St Andrews Agreement (2006)
Hillsborough Castle Agreement (2010)
Stormont House Agreement (2014)
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External Relations Act (1936)
Republic of Ireland Act (1948)
Human Rights Act (2003)
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European Convention (1950)
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Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence
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The signed, Engrossed Copy of the Declaration, now badly faded, is on display at the National Archives in Washington, DC.
The United States Declaration of Independence, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were no longer a part of the British Empire, exists in a number of drafts, handwritten copies, and published broadsides.
Contents
1 Drafts and pre-publication copies
1.1 Composition Draft
1.2 Rough Draft
1.3 Fair Copy
2 Broadsides
2.1 Dunlap broadside
2.1.1 List of extant Dunlap broadsides
2.2 Goddard broadside
2.3 Other broadsides
3 Parchment copies
3.1 The Matlack Declaration
3.2 The Sussex Declaration
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Drafts and pre-publication copies[edit]
Composition Draft[edit]
The Composition Draft
The earliest known draft of the Declaration of Independence is a fragment known as the "Composition Draft."[1] The draft, written in July 1776, is in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration. It was discovered in 1947 by historian Julian P. Boyd in the Jefferson papers at the Library of Congress. Boyd was examining primary documents for publication in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson when he found the document, a piece of paper that contains a small part of the text of the Declaration, as well as some unrelated notes made by Jefferson.[2] Prior to Boyd's discovery, the only known draft of the Declaration had been a document known as the "Rough Draft" (below). The discovery confirmed speculation by historians that Jefferson must have written more than one draft of the text.[2]
Many of the words from the Composition Draft were ultimately deleted by Congress from the final text of the Declaration. Phrases from the fragment to survive the editing process include "acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation" and "hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends."[2]
Forensic examination has determined that the paper of the Composition Draft and the paper of the Rough Draft were made by the same manufacturer.[3] In 1995, conservators at the Library of Congress undid some previous restoration work on the fragment and placed it in a protective mat. The document is stored in a cold storage vault. When it is exhibited, the fragment is placed in a temperature and humidity controlled display case.[3]
Rough Draft[edit]
The first page of Jefferson's rough draft.
Thomas Jefferson preserved a four-page draft that late in life he called the "original Rough draught."[4][5] Known to historians as the Rough Draft, early students of the Declaration believed that this was a draft written alone by Jefferson and then presented to the Committee of Five drafting committee. Some scholars now believe that the Rough Draft was not actually an "original Rough draught", but was instead a revised version completed by Jefferson after consultation with the committee.[4] How many drafts Jefferson wrote prior to this one, and how much of the text was contributed by other committee members, is unknown.
Jefferson showed the Rough Draft to John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and perhaps other members of the drafting committee. Adams and Franklin made a few more changes.[4] Franklin, for example, may have been responsible for changing Jefferson's original phrase "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "We hold these truths to be self-evident."[6] Jefferson incorporated these changes into a copy that was submitted to Congress in the name of the committee. Jefferson kept the Rough Draft and made additional notes on it as Congress revised the text. He also made several copies of the Rough Draft without the changes made by Congress, which he sent to friends, including Richard Henry Lee and George Wythe, after July 4. At some point in the process, Adams also wrote out a copy.[4]
Fair Copy[edit]
In 1823, Jefferson wrote a letter to James Madison in which he recounted the drafting process. After making alterations to his draft as suggested by Franklin and Adams, he recalled that "I then wrote a fair copy, reported it to the Committee, and from them, unaltered, to Congress."[7] If Jefferson's memories were correct, and he indeed wrote out a fair copy which was shown to the drafting committee and then submitted to Congress on June 28, this document has not been found.[8] "If this manuscript still exists," wrote historian Ted Widmer, "it is the holy grail of American freedom."[9]
The Fair Copy was presumably marked up by Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress, while Congress debated and revised the text.[10] This document was the one that Congress approved on July 4, making it what Boyd called the first "official" copy of the Declaration. The Fair Copy was sent to John Dunlap to be printed under the title "A Declaration by the Representatives of the united states of america, in General Congress assembled." Boyd argued that if a document was signed in Congress on July 4, it would have been the Fair Copy, and probably would have been signed only by John Hancock with his signature being attested by Thomson.[11]
The Fair Copy may have been destroyed in the printing process,[12] or destroyed during the debates in accordance with Congress's secrecy rule.[13]
Broadsides[edit]
The Declaration was first published as a broadside printed by John Dunlap of Philadelphia. One broadside was pasted into Congress's journal, making it what Boyd called the "second official version" of the Declaration.[14] Dunlap's broadsides were distributed throughout the thirteen states. Upon receiving these broadsides, many states issued their own broadside editions.[15]
Dunlap broadside[edit]
The Library of Congress's copy of the Dunlap broadside.
The Dunlap broadsides were the first published copies of the Declaration of Independence, printed on the night of July 4, 1776. It is unknown exactly how many broadsides were originally printed, but the number is estimated at about 200.[16] John Hancock's eventually famous signature was not on this document, but his name appeared in large type under "Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress", with secretary Charles Thomson listed as a witness ("Attest").
On July 4, 1776, Congress ordered the same committee charged with writing the document to "superintend and correct the press", that is, supervise the printing. Dunlap, an Irish immigrant then 29 years old, was tasked with the job; he apparently spent much of the night of July 4 setting type, correcting it, and running off the broadside sheets.[17]
"There is evidence it was done quickly, and in excitement—watermarks are reversed, some copies look as if they were folded before the ink could dry and bits of punctuation move around from one copy to another," according to Ted Widmer, author of Ark of the Liberties: America and the World. "It is romantic to think that Benjamin Franklin, the greatest printer of his day, was there in Dunlap's shop to supervise, and that Jefferson, the nervous author, was also close at hand."[17] John Adams later wrote that, "We were all in haste."[17] The Dunlap broadsides were sent across the new United States over the next two days, including to Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington, who directed that the Declaration be read to the troops on July 9. Another copy was sent to England.[17]
In 1949, 14 copies of the Dunlap broadside were known to exist.[15] The number had increased to 21 by 1975.[18] There were 24 known copies of the Dunlap broadside in 1989, when a 25th broadside was discovered behind a painting bought for four dollars at a flea market.
On July 2, 2009, it was announced that a 26th Dunlap broadside was discovered in The National Archives in Kew, England. It is currently unknown how this copy came to the archive, but one possibility is that it was captured from an American coastal ship intercepted during the War of Independence.[19][20]
List of extant Dunlap broadsides[edit]
#
Location
Owner
Notes
Reference
1 New Haven, Connecticut Beinecke Library, Yale University [17]
2 Bloomington, Indiana Lilly Library, Indiana University previous owner was Henry N. Flynt of Greenwich, Connecticut. [17]
3 Portland, Maine Maine Historical Society given to the society in 1893 at the bequest of John S. H. Fogg. [17]
4 Chicago, Illinois Chicago Historical Society signed by John Steward (1747–1829) of Goshen, New York; sold July 2, 1975, at auction, by Christie's, London; later sold to the Chicago Historical Society. [17]
5 Baltimore, Maryland Maryland Historical Society fragment of upper left area of the document, including the first 36 lines. [17]
6 Boston, Massachusetts Massachusetts Historical Society [17]
7 Cambridge, Massachusetts Houghton Library, Harvard University donated in 1947 by Carleton R. Richmond. [17]
8 Williamstown, Massachusetts Williams College previously owned by the Wood family; sold at auction, April 22, 1983, by Christie's, New York. [17]
9 Princeton, New Jersey Scheide Library, Firestone Library, Princeton University currently owned by William R. Scheide; bought by John H. Scheide from A. S. W. Rosenbach. [17]
10 New York, New York
(last known location) Private collector sold by the New-York Historical Society to a private collector in the United States. [17]
11 New York, New York New York Public Library [17]
12 New York, New York Morgan Library once owned by the Chew family; sold April 1, 1982, at auction at Christie's, New York. [17]
13 Exeter, New Hampshire American Independence Museum copy discovered in 1985 in the Ladd-Gilman House in Exeter. [17]
14 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania American Philosophical Society acquired from the Library of Congress in 1901 in a trade for Benjamin Franklin's Passy imprint of The Boston Independent Chronicle "Supplement." [17]
15 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Historical Society of Pennsylvania fragment including the first 32 lines, thought to be likely an uncorrected proof, from the Frank M. Etting collection; Etting asserted it was this document that had been read in public. However, Charles Henry Hart wrote in 1900: "The endorsement is in the handwriting of the late Frank M. Etting, who died insane, one of the most inexact and inaccurate of collectors." [17]
16 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Independence National Historical Park previously owned by Col. John Nixon, appointed by the sheriff of Philadelphia to read the Declaration of Independence to the public on July 8, 1776, in the State House yard; presented to the park by his heirs in 1951. [17]
17 Dallas, Texas Dallas Public Library "The Leary Copy" discovered in 1968 amid the stock of Leary's Book Store of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a crate that had been unopened since 1911. Ira G. Corn Jr. and Joseph P. Driscoll of Dallas bought the manuscript on May 7, 1969. A group of 17 people later sold it to the Dallas city government. [17]
18 Charlottesville, Virginia University of Virginia 1/2. Found in 1955 in an attic in Albany, New York, where it had been used to wrap other papers. Bought by Charles E. Tuttle Company of Rutland, Vermont; later sold to David Randall, who sold it in 1956 to the university. [17]
19 Charlottesville, Virginia University of Virginia 2/2. "The H. Bradley Martin Copy"; exhibited at the Grolier Club in 1974; sold on January 31, 1990 to Albert H. Small, who gave it to the university. [17]
20 Washington, D.C. Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division [17]
21 Washington, D.C. Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, Washington Papers fragment copy with 54 lines; thought to be the copy George Washington read to the troops on July 9, 1776, in New York. [17]
22 Washington, D.C. National Archives inserted into the Continental Congress manuscript journal, previously attached with a seal. [17]
23 Roving copy Norman Lear Found in the back of a picture frame bought at a yard sale for $4.00 at an Adamstown, Pennsylvania, flea market; now owned by a consortium which includes Norman Lear; sold in 2000 for $8.14 million; previously sold for $2.42 million on June 4, 1991. [21][22]
24 London, United Kingdom The National Archives, Colonial Office Papers General William Howe and Vice Admiral Richard Howe from the flagship Eagle, off Staten Island, sent this copy with a letter dated August 11, 1776, which stated, "A printed copy of this Declaration of Independency came accidentally to our hands a few days after the dispatch of the Mercury packet, and we have the honor to enclose it." [17]
25 London, United Kingdom The National Archives, Admiralty Papers Vice Admiral Richard Howe sent this copy from the flagship Eagle, then "off Staten Island" with a letter dated July 28, 1776. [17]
26 London, United Kingdom The National Archives, Colonial Office Papers Discovered in box of documents in 2008. Exact provenance is currently unknown. [19][20]
Goddard broadside[edit]
The Goddard broadside.
In January 1777, Congress commissioned Mary Katherine Goddard to print a new broadside that, unlike the Dunlap broadside, listed the signers of the Declaration.[23][24] With the publication of the Goddard broadside, the public learned for the first time who had signed the Declaration.[24] One of the eventual signers of the Declaration, Thomas McKean, is not listed on the Goddard broadside, suggesting that he had not yet added his name to the signed document at that time.
In 1949, nine Goddard broadsides were known to still exist. The reported locations of those copies at that time were:[25]
Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.)
Connecticut State Library (Hartford, Connecticut)
Library of the late John W. Garrett
Maryland Hall of Records (Annapolis, Maryland)
Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore, Maryland)
Massachusetts Archives (Dorchester, Massachusetts)
New York Public Library (New York, New York)
Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Rhode Island State Archives (Providence, Rhode Island)
Other broadsides[edit]
A rare four-column broadside at Lauinger Library, Georgetown University.
In addition to the broadsides authorized by Congress, many states and private printers also issued broadsides of the Declaration, using the Dunlap broadside as a source. In 1949, an article in the Harvard Library Review surveyed all the broadsides known to exist at that time and found 19 editions or variations of editions, including the Dunlap and Goddard printings. The author was able to locate 71 copies of these various editions.[15]
A number of copies have been discovered since that time. In 1971, a copy of a rare four-column broadside probably printed in Salem, Massachusetts was discovered in Georgetown University's Lauinger Library.[26] In 2010, there were media reports that a copy of the Declaration was located in Shimla, India, having been discovered sometime during the 1990s. The type of copy was not specified.[27]
Parchment copies[edit]
The Matlack Declaration[edit]
The copy of the Declaration that was signed by Congress is known as the engrossed or parchment copy. This copy was probably handwritten by clerk Timothy Matlack, and given the title of "The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America".[28] This was specified by the Congressional resolution passed on July 19th, 1776:
Resolved, That the Declaration passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on parchment, with the title and stile of "The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America," and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress.[29]
Throughout the Revolutionary War, the engrossed copy was moved with the Continental Congress,[30] which relocated several times to avoid the British army. In 1789, after creation of a new government under the United States Constitution, the engrossed Declaration was transferred to the custody of the secretary of state.[30] The document was evacuated to Virginia when the British attacked Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812.[30]
National Bureau of Standards preserving the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence in 1951.
After the War of 1812, the symbolic stature of the Declaration steadily increased even though the engrossed copy's ink was noticeably fading.[16] In 1820, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned printer William J. Stone to create an engraving essentially identical to the engrossed copy.[30] Stone's engraving was made using a wet-ink transfer process, where the surface of the document was moistened, and some of the original ink transferred to the surface of a copper plate, which was then etched so that copies could be run off the plate on a press. When Stone finished his engraving in 1823, Congress ordered 200 copies to be printed on parchment.[30] Because of poor conservation of the engrossed copy through the 19th century, Stone's engraving, rather than the original, has become the basis of most modern reproductions.[31]
From 1841 to 1876, the engrossed copy was publicly displayed on a wall opposite a large window at the Patent Office building in Washington, D.C. Exposed to sunlight and variable temperature and humidity, the document faded badly. In 1876, it was sent to Independence Hall in Philadelphia for exhibit during the Centennial Exposition, which was held in honor of the Declaration's 100th anniversary, and then returned to Washington the next year.[30] In 1892, preparations were made for the engrossed copy to be exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but the poor condition of the document led to the cancellation of those plans and the removal of the document from public exhibition.[30] The document was sealed between two plates of glass and placed in storage. For nearly 30 years, it was exhibited only on rare occasions at the discretion of the Secretary of State.[32]
In 1921, custody of the Declaration, along with the United States Constitution, was transferred from the State Department to the Library of Congress. Funds were appropriated to preserve the documents in a public exhibit that opened in 1924.[33] After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the documents were moved for safekeeping to the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox in Kentucky, where they were kept until 1944.[34]
For many years, officials at the National Archives believed that they, rather than the Library of Congress, should have custody of the Declaration and the Constitution. The transfer finally took place in 1952, and the documents, along with the Bill of Rights, are now on permanent display at the National Archives in the "Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom." Although encased in helium, by the early 1980s the documents were threatened by further deterioration. In 2001, using the latest in preservation technology, conservators treated the documents and re-encased them in encasements made of titanium and aluminum, filled with inert argon gas.[35] They were put on display again with the opening of the remodeled National Archives Rotunda in 2003.[36]
The Sussex Declaration[edit]
On April 21, 2017, the Declaration Resources Project at Harvard University announced that a second parchment manuscript copy had been discovered at West Sussex Record Office in Chichester, England.[37] Named the "Sussex Declaration" by its finders, Danielle Allen and Emily Sneff, it differs from the National Archives copy (which the finders refer to as the "Matlack Declaration") in that the signatures on it are not grouped by States. How it came to be in England is not yet known, but the finders believe that the randomness of the signatures points to an origin with signatory James Wilson, who had argued strongly that the Declaration was made not by the States but by the whole people.[38][39]
The finders identify the Sussex Declaration as a transcription of the Matlack Declaration, probably made between 1783 and 1790 and likely in New York City or possibly Philadelphia. They propose that the Sussex Declaration "descended from the Matlack Declaration, and it (or a copy) served, before disappearing from view, as a source text for both the 1818 Tyler engraving and the 1836 Bridgham engraving".[40]
See also[edit]
Pennsylvania Evening Post, the first newspaper to print the Declaration, on July 6, 1776.
Notes[edit]
Publication information for sources mentioned in brief here can be found in References" section below.
Jump up ^ Boyd, Papers of Jefferson, 1:421.
^ Jump up to: a b c Gerald Gawalt (July 1999). "Jefferson and the Declaration: Updated Work Studies Evolution of Historic Text". Information Bulletin. Library of Congress. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b Mark Roosa (July 1999). "Preservation Corner: Piecing Together Fragments of History". Information Bulletin. Library of Congress. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Boyd, "Lost Original", 446.
Jump up ^ Kaufman, Mark (July 2, 2010). "Jefferson changed 'subjects' to 'citizens' in Declaration of Independence". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 3, 2010.
Jump up ^ Becker, Declaration of Independence, 142 note 1. Boyd (Papers of Jefferson, 1:427–28) casts doubt on Becker's belief that the change was made by Franklin.
Jump up ^ Maier, 100.
Jump up ^ Becker, 139.
Jump up ^ Widmer.
Jump up ^ Boyd, "Lost Original", 449.
Jump up ^ Boyd, "Lost Original", 450.
Jump up ^ Boyd, "Lost Original", 448–50.
Jump up ^ Ritz, "From the Here", speculates that the Fair Copy was immediately sent to the printer so that copies could be made for each member of Congress to consult during the debate. All of these copies were then destroyed, theorizes Ritz, to preserve secrecy.
Jump up ^ Boyd, "Lost Original", 452.
^ Jump up to: a b c Walsh, Michael J. "Contemporary Broadside Editions of the Declaration of Independence". Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume III, Number 1 (Winter 1949), 31–43.
^ Jump up to: a b Phillips, Heather A., Safety and Happiness; The Paradox of the Declaration of Independence. The Early America Review, Vol. VII No. 4. http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/2007_summer_fall/preserving-documents.html
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab Illustration for Widmer, Ted, "Looking for Liberty", oped commentary article, The New York Times, July 4, 2008, accessed July 7, 2008
Jump up ^ Boyd, "Lost Original", 453.
^ Jump up to: a b Katz, Gregory (July 2, 2009). "Rare Copy of Declaration of Independence Found". Huffington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b "Rare copy of United States Declaration of Independence found in Kew". The Daily Telegraph. July 3, 2009. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
Jump up ^ "Projects - The Norman Lear Center".
Jump up ^ McSorley, Joshua. "Reliam: Maintenance Page".
Jump up ^ "The Declaration of Independence: A History". Charters of Freedom. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b Ann Marie Dube (May 1996). "The Declaration of Independence". A Multitude of Amendments, Alterations and Additions: The Writing and Publicizing of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States. National Park Service. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
Jump up ^ Ann Marie Dube (May 1996). "Appendix D". A Multitude of Amendments, Alterations and Additions: The Writing and Publicizing of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States. National Park Service. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
Jump up ^ Heller, Chris (6 July 2010). "Lauinger Library owns a very expensive document". The Georgetown Voice. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
Jump up ^ "Copy of US Declaration found in Shimla". The Times Of India. April 1, 2010. Retrieved July 6, 2010.
Jump up ^ This copy of the Declaration renders the "u" in United States in small case, i.e. "united States", one of several variations in capitalization and punctuation that historians Boyd and Becker believed to be of no significance; Boyd, Evolution, 25–26. In his notes and Rough Draft, Jefferson capitalized variously as "United states" (Boyd, Papers of Jefferson, 1:315) and "United States" (ibid., 1:427).
Jump up ^ "Journals of the Continental Congress --FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1776".
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Gustafson, "Travels of the Charters of Freedom".
Jump up ^ National Archives.
Jump up ^ Malone, Story of the Declaration, 257.
Jump up ^ "Charter of Liberties Finds a Home". New York Times Magazine. 1924-04-06. p. SM7.
Jump up ^ Malone, Story of the Declaration, 263.
Jump up ^ "National Archives Press Release". Archives.gov. Retrieved 2010-12-11.
Jump up ^ "A New Era Begins for the Charters of Freedom". Archives.gov. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
Jump up ^ Wang, Amy B. (April 24, 2017). "A rare copy of the Declaration of Independence has been found — in England". Washington Post. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
Jump up ^ Yuhas, Alan (April 22, 2017). "Rare parchment copy of US Declaration of Independence found in England". The Guardian. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
Jump up ^ "The Sussex Declaration". Declaration Resources Project. Harvard University. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
Jump up ^ Allen, Danielle; Sneff, Emily (April 20, 2017). "The Sussex Declaration: Dating the Parchment Manuscript of the Declaration of Independence Held at the West Sussex Record Office (Chichester, UK) (Under final revision and preparation for publication at Papers of the Bibliographic Society of America)" (PDF). Retrieved April 22, 2017.
References[edit]
Becker, Carl. The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas. 1922. Available online from The Online Library of Liberty and Google Book Search. Revised edition New York: Vintage Books, 1970. ISBN 0-394-70060-0.
Boyd, Julian P. The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text. Originally published 1945. Revised edition edited by Gerard W. Gawalt. University Press of New England, 1999. ISBN 0-8444-0980-4.
Boyd, Julian P., ed. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1. Princeton University Press, 1950.
Boyd, Julian P. "The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 100, number 4 (October 1976), 438–467.
Hazelton, John H. The Declaration of Independence: Its History. Originally published 1906. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970. ISBN 0-306-71987-8. 1906 edition available on Google Book Search
Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Knopf, 1997. ISBN 0-679-45492-6.
Malone, Dumas. The Story of the Declaration of Independence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Phillips, Heather A. "Safety and Happiness; The Paradox of the Declaration of Independence". The Early America Review, Vol. VII No. 4.
Ritz, Wilfred J. "From the Here of Jefferson's Handwritten Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence to the There of the Printed Dunlap Broadside". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 116, number 4 (October 1992), 499–512.
Further reading[edit]
Goff, Frederick R. The John Dunlap Broadside: the first printing of the Declaration of Independence. Washington: Library of Congress, 1976.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Draft of the United States Declaration of Independence.
"Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents" from the Library of Congress
"Declaration Resources Project". Harvard University.
Three copies of the Dunlap Broadside are held by the UK National Archives.
The Declaration of Independence Home Page from Duke University features the evolution of the text through the drafts
PBS/NOVA: The Preservation and History of the Declaration
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