Show dec declaration la ration firt first in its IW effect on mankind thomas jefferson wrote ae thereda decia ration of independence in 16 a house that formerly stood at cortier corner of seventh and mark market et philadelphia the site bite now occupied by the penn national bank it would be no straining for effect to assert in view of the almost universal acceptance cep tance of the philosophy and principles contained in that great paper that thalme la time to come the site will be regarded ed as the ahe most historic in the world no manifesto ever issued bya by a people has had the far reaching effects of the declaration adopted ln in philadelphia by the continental congress on july 4 1776 beyond all doubt jefferson was the tha most widely read man in the continental n en tal congress he came to philadelphia with the reputation ot of a writer of state papers that had thio the right thought and more papers that were brilliant with ringing sentences jefferson dally daily read in greek latin french and italian as well as ifeng lish elsh the works of the greatest philosophers historians and commentators this circumstance ac accounts counis for the tha presence in the declaration of one of the most lingering phrases that has baa been incorporated in any of our state papers says the milwaukee journal who does not recall the phrase these colonies are and of right ought to be tree free and independent states I 1 professor dunning of Colum columbia bl university some years ago began a hunt to establish its genealogy and mana managed ged to trace it back to the time of pope popa boniface VIII whom lie he found writing arlt to philip the fair of france about 1300 that the french FrenchI lied fed when they in their pride said they had no superior for of right they were and ought to be subject to the roman king and the emperor br dr james sullivan in his at study ady the antecedents of the declaration of independence has shown that three of the ideas ln in the historic r d document oc were known to the w world 0 rid by cicero Cic eros time 43 B C these were he be states first the conscious instituting of government by men held by agoras the sophists Sophis ts and the second the equality of men an idea advanced by the stoles stoics and third the idea of natural rights devel developed 0 ped by cicero it but t it was in the declaration written by jefferson that th these ese ideas were first combined |