Newly Discovered Version of Declaration of Independence Raises Questions

A second parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence was recently discovered in a records office in Southern England.  The only other parchment copy is in the National Archives in Washington D.C. There are several differences between the two documents; the most obvious is that the newly discovered version is printed horizontally rather than the vertical version in the National Archives. However the most important difference is that the signatures at the bottom are seemingly in random order rather than being grouped by state. In fact there is no mention of which state each of the signers belonged to at all. This raises the question about whether America was founded as a single sovereign republic or as a collection of thirteen separate colonies.   

After analyzing the newly discovered Declaration it was dated to the 1780s. This was a period of much debate over how to govern our young nation between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists as the inherent problems in the Articles of Confederation were increasingly becoming apparent.  The lack of signatures grouped by states suggests a Federalist leaning towards a strong central government of the US Constitution rather than the Anti-Federalist Articles of Confederation.

Another question raised by this newly discovered document is how it came to be in England. It is believed to have been commissioned by founding father James Wilson who later went on to be one of the six original Supreme Court justices appointed by George Washington. It may have been given to Charles Lennox, the Third Duke of Richmond, often called “Radical Duke” due to his support of the American Revolution. However it got there it remained tucked away in a records office in Sussex for over two centuries. Surprisingly, it is in better condition than the one in the National Archives which has faded over time to the extent that portions are no longer legible. No word on whether this copy will remain in England or if it will ever find its way back to the United States.

Reply to a Colleague's Blog

In her blog post titled "The Defunding of Planned Parenthood", Reanne Becerra made some valid points about a recent Senate vote to allow states to block Federal funding from going to Planned Parenthood. Mike Pence broke the tie in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood. 

If only Mike Pence could have known about the unintended consequences of stripping funding from Planned Parenthood… Oh yeah, when Mike Pence was Governor of Indiana he defunded Planned Parenthood. In many rural counties Planned Parenthood was the only clinic that did STD testing.  In the following years many of these counties had an epidemic rise in HIV and syphilis. The HIV outbreak was escalated by Governor Pence’s moral objection to needle exchange programs for intravenous drug users. Pence incorrectly believed that if drug addicts didn’t have clean needles they would simply choose not to inject drugs. The result was the biggest HIV outbreak in Indiana’s history. Not only were the drug users sharing dirty needles but with Planned Parenthood shut down many of them no longer had access to HIV testing.