A radio play by Alistair Cooke
Music arranged and conducted by Josef Honti
Produced by Felix Greene
(This programme was recorded in the New York Office of the BBC)

Felix Greene, the BBC's North American Representative, has just arrived in this country bringing with him from New York the discs on which this programme was recently recorded in the States. It was on July 4, 1776, while the American Colonies were at war with Great Britain, that the Declaration of Independence was signed. In it are contained most of the fundamental principles on which American democracy of today is based. The drafting of the Declaration was carried out under Franklin, Jefferson, Sherman, Livingston, and Adams. Tonight's programme is based on historical documents, and will describe in a number of dramatic sequences the events that led up to the war with Great Britain.

Listeners will also hear some of the more notable debates and arguments that took place between the five drafters of the Declaration during the days that immediately preceded it.