The primary purpose of the Declaration was not to declare independence, but to proclaim to the world the reasons for declaring independence. It was i… - Carl Lotus Becker

We look about in vain for any semblance of the old authority, the old absolute, for any suitable foothold from which to get a running start.

Scarce a month had elapsed since the law was to have gone into effect before it was clear to the discerning that, for all their professions, most of the "better sort" were not genuine Sons of Liberty at all, but timid sycophants, pliant instruments of despotism, far more intent upon the ruin of Mr. Adams and of America in general than any minister could be shown to be.

The Declaration was essentially an attempt to prove that rebellion was not the proper word for what they were doing.