Many believe that it was a declaration to England and her King of the colony's intent to be independent. In fact, the Declaration of Independence was written for a universal audience. The colonies were already well beyond the point of explaining themselves to England, and England was well aware of the grievances that were felt. The first paragraph of the Declaration affirms this, "When it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve political bands and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." If said in a more contemporary form: when a citizenry feels that they should throw off one government and establish a !.
new one, they should inform the powers of the world as to the reasons they choose to become a "separate and equal" nation. This in itself shows that England was not the audience for which the Declaration was intended, despite common beliefs to the contrary. Instead, the Founding Fathers had a much higher intention in mind.
The Declaration of Independence, as an entire document, is written in four basic parts. The First, which Americans are most familiar with, sets forth broadly the nature and intent of passing a resolution of independence. This portion of the Declaration of Independence lays out those principles of human rights that were important to the colonies and which they felt were being denied. However, it was also a universal affirmation of the popular opinion of the time, a message to the world that finally a populace was going to take control of an overbearing government and institute a new form that consisted with the will of the governed. .
According to the Declaration, "all men are created equal." At first glance this may seem an impossibly optimistic statement, yet it does prove trues upon later examination.