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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | June 6, 2022 12:08 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Doug Mastriano |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Resolution to recognize the Declaration of Independence |
| In the near future, I will offer a Resolution recognizing the Declaration of Independence. America’s quest for freedom and the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 was spurred by events that occurred on the evening of March 5,1770 when British troops fired into a crowd of American colonists in Boston as tensions over repressive British tax laws had reached a boiling point. Five colonists were killed in the Boston Massacre. Among those killed by the British was a middle-aged sailor and rope-maker of mixed African American and American Indian descent named Crispus Attucks. Attucks was one of the first martyrs in what would become the fight for American independence and he became a symbol of African Americans’ struggle for freedom and equality. The outbreak of the Revolutionary war in April 1775 and the armed hostilities that followed inspired political activist and author, Thomas Paine, to pen a 47-page pamphlet titled, “Common Sense.” The pamphlet inspired colonists to consider a different path. A path towards a new sort of government in which people were free with the power to rule themselves. Paine encouraged colonists to realize that "they weren’t British, that they were Americans". The Declaration of Independence is our nation’s conscious, reminding us that the American spirit cannot be quenched. In spite of our trials and struggles, we shall prevail and continue to walk as a free people. I do hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this resolution. |