A new discovery in the original Declaration of Independence would be challenging Americans to rethink about their responsibility to the United States of America.
According to Danielle Allen, a professor of social science at the Institute of Advanced Study, the common reproduction of the document written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 contains an extra period. Allen said that the extra period changes the meaning of Jefferson's original words, which are all men are created equal; they're endowed with certain unalienable rights; governments derive their authority from the consent of the governed; when government becomes destructive, it's the right of the people to abolish it and create a new system most likely to bring them safety and happiness, Vox reported.
"When you read the whole sentence, all of those points are equally weighted. It moves from the individual to the collective, from me to we. There's a lot more responsibility we all have in building a government. It's not just what do I get, or what's in it for me. It highlights the obligation to participate at all levels," Allen said.
The popular reproduction version only has two self-evident truths, which are all men are created equal, and they're endowed with certain unalienable rights like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Although the original document on display at the National Archives is already faded to double-check what the correct punctuation is, Allen said that the period is not available on the original, nor the rough draft at the Library of Congress, or on any versions with approval of the Continental COngress in 1776. At that time, the period also does not appear on the version copied into the official records of the Congress, she added.
However, the William Stone's famous copperplate engraving of the Declaration created in 1823 has the period. Allen believed that Stone might have made an honest mistake when he was working on the copperplate for three years.
As a result of Allen's discovery and two-year lobbying, the National Archives reportedly told the New York Times that its top priority at the moment is to find out how to safely re-examine the famous document.
