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Retired teacher Art Dolan traces path to the Declaration of Independence and leads public reading
Summary
At the Lacey Museum’s January History Talks, Art Dolan outlined events from 1774–1776, credited Thomas Paine’s Common Sense with shifting public opinion, and led descendants in a public reading of the Declaration of Independence followed by audience discussion on the document’s modern relevance.
Art Dolan, a retired science teacher who relocated to Olympia in 2005, told a full house at the Lacey Museum’s January History Talks that the road to the Declaration of Independence ran through a series of escalating events in 1775–76 and that Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense helped make independence politically possible.
Dolan said he would frame the evening in three parts — background, readings, and discussion — and began with a short narrative that traced conflicts from late 1774 through Lexington and Concord in April 1775. He described Lord Dunsmore’s seizure of gunpowder and the Continental Congress convening at Carpenters’ Hall as moments that hardened positions…
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