The Declaration of Independence is disappearing, and it has nothing to do with the country's current divides. The document at the center of the nation's 250th birthday has faded so badly over two and a half centuries that large sections of it read as blank parchment. The bold "In Congress, July 4, 1776" at the top still holds up, and John Hancock's signature is still there. Past that, a lot of the text disappears into the page.Â
It's the actual condition of the actual document, and it's been getting worse since roughly the 1820s, decades before anyone now alive was born to argue about it.
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