<P> The Declaration was neglected in the years immediately following the American Revolution, having served its original purpose in announcing the independence of the United States . Early celebrations of Independence Day largely ignored the Declaration, as did early histories of the Revolution . The act of declaring independence was considered important, whereas the text announcing that act attracted little attention . The Declaration was rarely mentioned during the debates about the United States Constitution, and its language was not incorporated into that document . George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights was more influential, and its language was echoed in state constitutions and state bills of rights more often than Jefferson's words . "In none of these documents", wrote Pauline Maier, "is there any evidence whatsoever that the Declaration of Independence lived in men's minds as a classic statement of American political principles ." </P> <P> Many leaders of the French Revolution admired the Declaration of Independence but were also interested in the new American state constitutions . The inspiration and content of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) emerged largely from the ideals of the American Revolution . Its key drafts were prepared by Lafayette, working closely in Paris with his friend Thomas Jefferson . It also borrowed language from George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights . The declaration also influenced the Russian Empire . The document had a particular impact on the Decembrist revolt and other Russian thinkers . </P> <P> According to historian David Armitage, the Declaration of Independence did prove to be internationally influential, but not as a statement of human rights . Armitage argued that the Declaration was the first in a new genre of declarations of independence that announced the creation of new states . </P> <P> Other French leaders were directly influenced by the text of the Declaration of Independence itself . The Manifesto of the Province of Flanders (1790) was the first foreign derivation of the Declaration; others include the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence (1811), the Liberian Declaration of Independence (1847), the declarations of secession by the Confederate States of America (1860--61), and the Vietnamese Proclamation of Independence (1945). These declarations echoed the United States Declaration of Independence in announcing the independence of a new state, without necessarily endorsing the political philosophy of the original . </P>

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