Creating the Declaration of Independence - Softcover

Shestokas, Mr. David J

Softcover

ISBN 10: 099692812X ISBN 13: 9780996928120

Publisher: Constitutionally Speaking, 2017

Synopsis

With Creating the Declaration of Independence DAVID SHESTOKAS takes you into the minds of Richard Henry Lee, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in the weeks before July 4, 1776. Experience Lee's trepidation as he knows when he proposes American Independence to the Second Continental Congress that he is literally risking beheading. Join Adams and Jefferson at City Tavern as they begin crafting the Declaration and follow the story of how Jefferson came to reluctantly draft the Declaration when few others, including Adams thought that Jefferson's assignment was important. You'll even learn a shortcut Jefferson used to craft a document of such immortality on such short notice and how that short cut affects the work of the Supreme Court today.

About this title

From the Author:

2017 is the 30th Anniversary of my admission to practice law. The final part of becoming a lawyer is to swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. As I raised my right hand and placed my left on the-Bible, the thought ran through my mind that at no time during law school was the meaning of this oath explained. I've spent the ensuing thirty years working to figure that out.
What I've discovered is that not only the technical aspects of the Constitution are involved, but there's an underlying philosophy linked to the Constitution that one must support to truly support the Constitution. That philosophy is found inthe Declaration of Independence and its self-evident truths that all men are created equal with inalienable rights that we are born with and are not granted by government. I've discovered that one cannot support the Constitution without study and understanding of the Declaration of Independence. My first book,Constitutional Sound Bites, provides an example of this. That book, while devoted to the Constitution, contains 140 references to the Declaration of Independence.
Since 1987 I've taken the constitutional oath five more times, and each time felt more comfortable as I have studied and gained a deeper understanding of the Declaration. The purpose of Creating the Declaration of Independence is to pass along some of that to the millions of others who take such an oath whether attorneys, law enforcement officers, firefighters, elected officials or new citizens.
It seemed one way to do that is to explain the process of creating the Declaration of Independence taking place in the minds of those involved. This book attempts to do that.
When the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives,fortunes and sacred honor in support of the Declaration it was truly a remarkable act. The possible penalty for that act included being disemboweled,cut into pieces and beheaded. 
Can you imagine being the first one to go out on that limb, or the person assigned to convince millions to join? Creating the Declaration of Independence takes you inside the mind of the man officially proposing independence, Richard Henry Lee and that of the man assigned to justify independence to the world, the soldiers of the Continental Army, and the American people, Thomas Jefferson.The decisions they made and the actions they took changed the world. This book provides insight into how they did it and provides an understanding into how lawyers like Jefferson work.

About the Author:

David Shestokas earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Bradley University and his Juris Doctor from The John Marshall Law School, cum laude, while serving on The John Marshall Law Review. Additionally, he studied comparative le-gal systems at Trinity College in Dublin, Ire-land. He has been admitted to practice law in both state and federal courts in Illinois and Florida. As a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney for more nearly thirty years, he has lived with the Constitution in the courtroom daily. As an Assistant State’s Attorney for Cook County, IL he appeared in court on more than 10,000 criminal prosecutions. While on the Felony Review Unit, he participated in police investigations and made charging decisions in more than 400 felony cases. In 1992, after the Republic of Lithuania regained its independence from the Soviet Union, Mr. Shestokas joined attorneys of Lithuanian heritage from around the world as a member of the First World Congress of Lithuanian Lawyers. The Lithuanian President, government officials, and the Lithuanian Bar worked with that Congress to re-store the rule of law and a constitutional government after four generations of Soviet occupation. Mr. Shestokas is the author of the book, Constitutional Sound Bites, which grew from his weekly radio show, Constitutionally Speaking, and his website, Constitutional Legal Education and News. The website has more than 380,000 annual visitors. His readership is balanced across partisan, economic, ethnic and philosophical persuasions. He resonates with today’s readers, be they scholars, teachers, young students, immigrants, history buffs, or the general public, as his style is direct and easy to understand in twenty-first century phrasing; while retaining the integrity of the American Founders. Along with volunteering at the Salvation Army providing pro bono legal services for the homeless, David has also given his time at the Quality Life Center to educate at-risk youth about the values ingrained in America’s Founding. Mr. Shestokas’ has also collaborated with Dr. Berta Arias, past President, Illinois Latino Council on Higher Education to produce Cápsulas Informativas Constitucionales, the first and only book about the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, designed for the 36,000,000 Americans who are more comfortable reading in Spanish.

About this edition

• Publisher: Constitutionally Speaking
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 099692812X
• ISBN 13: 9780996928120
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 154