Adams concentrated on Hercules, the mythical figure of strength, “resting on his club,” gazing towards a figure of virtue, and impervious to sloth and vice. Benjamin Franklin, Adams wrote, suggested “Moses lifting up his wand, and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharoah, in his chariot overwhelmed with the waters,” and the following motto, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” Thomas Jefferson imagined Americans as “the children of Israel in the wilderness…led by a pillar of fire by night,” alongside representations of early Britons “whose political principles and form of government” the United States assumed. In an Augletter to his wife Abigail, John Adams recounted some of the debate. These illustrious founders proposed several fascinating preliminary concepts for a seal to represent the new nation, drawing on classical and biblical imagery. Jefferson, be a committee, to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America.” Members of the Continental Congress also recognized that the new nation needed a formal seal to affix on official documents and passed a resolution on July 4, 1776, before adjourning. American leaders quickly sent copies to European nations, and it was translated into many languages and widely distributed. While the Declaration did serve to inform the American people of the colonies’ determination to form a separate and independent nation from Great Britain, it was, as John Adams later wrote, “…a formal and solemn announcement to the world, that the colonies had ceased to be dependent communities, and become free and independent States.” This formal proclamation demonstrated globally that this “rebellion” was no civil war between Britons rather, it was a pronouncement that the United States intended to join and engage with the world as an equal, sovereign nation. There is perhaps no better-known document in American history than the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. Most Americans, however, do not know that it is our country’s first foreign policy document.
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