y 15, 1776, which was
the basis of the Declaration, read:

"That the delegates ... be instructed to propose to [the
Continental Congress] to declare the United Colonies free
and independent states, absolved from all ... dependence
upon the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain."

A comparison of the words used by the Congress with those used by the
Virginia Convention and those used by Jefferson in the first draft,
shows how much the judgment of the Congress was clarified by the great
debate which occurred between May 15 and June 10, 1776, when the
wording above quoted was agreed upon.

The wording of the Virginia resolution, if it had been adopted, would
have implied that the Colonies had theretofore been "dependent upon
the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain," and that their statehood,
their free statehood, and their independent statehood came into
existence by virtue of their declaring themselves free and independent
states.

The wording of Jefferson's first draft, if it had been adopted, would
have implied that a "political connection" might or might not have
theretofore existed between the American people and "the people or
Parliament of Great Britain," and that if such a political connection
had existed, the American people had the right to secede from it,
whenever they considered that the terms of the connection were not
observed by the people or Parliament of Great Britain, and that by
such act of secession, and by their Declaration, their rights of
statehood, of free statehood and of independent statehood came into
existence.

The wording of the Declaration which was actually adopted implied that
the Colonies had always been free states or free and independent
states, and that, by the Declaration, at most their right of
independent statehood came into existence, that they had theretofore
at all times been in political connection, either as free states under
the law of nature and of nations, or as free and independent states by
implied treaty, with the free and independent state of Great Britain,
that the dissolution of the connection had not come about by an act of
secession on their part, but was due to the violation, by the State of
Great Britain, either of the law of nature and of nations, or of the
implied treaty on which the political connection was based.

The term "connection" was an apt term to express a relationship of
equality and dignity. "Connection" implies two things,