The Real Declaration

After reading the pages in Convergences, I learned a little bit about The Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. The history of the Declaration was actually interesting. The Declaration you can view today is at the National Archives in Washington. However, it is not the actual declaration,it is the third copy. Jefferson composed the text, but it was revised by committee members before being presented to congress. The declaration was then sent to John Dunlap. We celebrate that day with the forth of July. I feel that we celebrate independence on the day of the printing rather then the day it was signed because it took so long to finally get a readable and efficient draft. The draft was going to be signed anyways, so we just celebrate on the day where the declaration was finished. After looking at the pictures of the revised copy, it shows that the committee took the time to revise it a number of times. There a multiple things scratched out and rewritten.
In the Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln made many drafts as well. I feel that both of these documents were rewritten so many times to ensure proper ideas and statements. Both documents where a major time in history. If we looked back at history with no revisions made to the documents,we might not have the same positive outlook on our leaders that we do today. The declaration was more formal and concise after the revisions, as well as the Gettysburg Address. I believe the revisions were made because of the same reasons as Obama made them in his speech. Just like we discussed in class, all documents should be revised. it just depends on the person revising.