On This Day: A Second Copy of the Declaration of Independence Discovered

On April 24, 2017 a second copy of the Declaration of Independence was discovered in Chichester, England. The copy is believed to have been commissioned by Charles Lennox, Third Duke of Richmond:

“Richmond was a strong critic of Lord North’s American policy. In December 1775, he declared in the House of Lords that the resistance of the colonists was ‘neither treason nor rebellion, but it is perfectly justifiable in every possible political and moral sense.’ It was during a speech made by Richmond in the House of Lords calling for the withdrawal of British troops from America that the Earl of Chatham collapsed and died.”—from Spartacus Educational