Before there was that seminal Declaration of Independence, so agreed upon on July 4, 1776, there was a previous declaration, as entitled above, so agreed to by the Second Continental Congress of the thirteen colonies, so signed on July 6, 1775, or nearly a year before that Declaration of Independence. This particular Declaration made it clear that those thirteen colonies felt they had a justified cause as well as the urgent necessity of taking up arms against Great Britain, in order to assert and to protect their right to civil and religious freedom. So too, those colonies felt that they had no good choice but to fight for their independence, because, for instance, their pleas for governmental representation went unanswered, along with their strong desire to see that there be the removal of oppressive unrepresented taxation, in addition to the ending of the interference and unwarranted interdiction of trade and property, as well as to answer to the suspension of the legislature in some of the colonies, along with ending the suffering from the quartering of soldiers upon those colonists; these all, warranted action against the tyranny so impressed upon them.
It is somewhat ironic, that as part of that Declaration, it so stated, that “We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery,” but these were indeed the words so chosen by those colonists in that Declaration, of which, it can be said, that they felt the oppressive boot of the British empire upon their neck, and cared not for it, especially in consideration that the colonists had a right to feel, justifiably, that the economic growth and strength of those thirteen colonies, came primarily from the people dedicating themselves to that task, and believing wholly that they should be the beneficiaries of that labor, and of that blood, sweat and tears, so done, for the greater good of the members of that society.
Additionally, the cause of that revolution, was a cause, in which the colonists, desired to see that the people were firm supporters to that justification of that revolution, and further to the point, recognized the dangers, travails, and trials, yet to come; along with the full understanding that by throwing off the shackles of British tyranny, that there would be a new birth of freedom and liberty, and thereby the creation of a government, so meant for the beneficence of the people.
So too, the colonists understood well that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” and in a world in which Great Britain was seen as an European power that prudently needed to be checked, or else, such a power could conceivably unduly influence or conquer western European nations, it made sense, to have a Declaration so printed, that other western European nations, would take good notice of, and thereby possibly lend a helping hand, through financial means, through trade, through armaments, or even through foreign soldiers, aligned on behalf of those colonists.
The steps so taken for American independence, were never haphazard, but were instead seriously debated upon, of which, the perception of the colonists, was that without that necessary fight for colonial independence, that the colonists were in imminent danger of losing their birthright, of life, liberty, religious freedom, and their pursuit of happiness.