A Compromise From Word One

Jefferson was bitter about the edits. Congress struck his passage attacking the slave trade — southern planters and New England shippers both objected, for opposite reasons. The document was a compromise from its very first draft. Even a revolution needed dealmaking.

Most of the text is not soaring philosophy. The long list of grievances against King George III is the bulk of it: a point-by-point legal case built to justify rebellion to the courts of Europe, above all France, whose help could decide the war. The famous opening lines gave that case its moral foundation. Both halves were doing real work.