Introduction
Reading edition
Written by Michael S. Hart for the official re-release:
This file was never copyrighted, Sharewared, etc., and is thus for all to use and copy in any manner they choose. Please feel free to make your own edition using this as a base.
In my research for creating this transcription of our first Etext, I have come across enough discrepancies [even within that official documentation provided by the United States] to conclude that even "facsimiles" of the Declaration of Independence are nary identical to the original, nor of other "facsimiles." There is a plethora of variations in capitalizations, punctuation, and where names appear on the documents [which names I have left out].
The resulting document has several misspellings removed from those parchment "facsimiles" I used back in 1971, and which I should not be able to easily find at this time, including "Brittain."
[JT, Apr 2005: "Brittish" is spelled as in the original.]
[RO, Aug 2025: MH's original justified text widths are restored as closely as possible in the introduction. Minor text alterations were made to do so.]