Declaration+of+Independence

The Delaration of Independence. Painting of the signing of The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull.


 * Declaration of Indipendence Trivia:** [|Click Here!]


 * INTRODUCTION**

The Declaration of Independence was written in the year 1776. It was made to be a statement to the British and to the other countries of the world that American colonies were going to be an independent country. One of the main reasons that the colonies created the Declaration of Independence was because the colonies felt like Great Britain was giving them unfair taxes without their representation in Parliament. The colonies were threatening to seperate from Great Britian.

The document stated how and why America should be considered independent. This document is modeled like a court case and has three main parts: introduction, the evidence (grievances), and the conclusion. The introduction explained why America wanted to be independent. The grievances talked about the many ways that King George had broken the social contract. The conclusion summed up the document and stated what the colonies were going to do.

You can see the original copy and an enhanced version of this document at [|The Declaration at National archives.com.]


 * OPENING ARGUMENTS**

In the opening arguments the writer, Thomas Jefferson, states several important things. First he states that people need to move away from oppressive governments. When a government is unfair the people don't need to obey it, and it is their right and duty to overthrow the government and institute a better one. Secondly, he states that every person has 3 unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unalienable rights are rights that every human gets that can't be taken away. The original unalienable rights of the [|enlightenment thinkers] were actually life, liberty and property, or the right of owning land. The founding fathers changed this because they didn't think women or slaves should own land, although slaves didn't necessarily apply to these rights because they weren't considered humans.


 * GRIEVANCES**

In the grievances Thomas Jefferson stated the reasons for breaking away from England. The Americans blamed King George III because it is easier to blame one person than a group of people, like Parliament, who were the ones that had really been imposing the taxes. Some of the statements claimed that the king had destroyed their society and others claimed that their courts and systems were being corrupted.


 * CLOSING ARGUMENTS**

In the last part of the Declaration of Independence, he states that the people are officially a new country apart from Britain. They gave up all allegiance to Great Britain and give themselves the power to "levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, and establish commerce". This was an extremely risky thing to do, because without Britain, they had no government, almost no money, and no navy. Through all of this, they still had to fight in a war against a very powerful country. See the Revolutionary War page to find out more.


 * IMPACT OF THE AGE OF REASON ON THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE**

During the Age of Reason (Enlightenment Era) there were philosophers who had ideas on how a government should be run. Some of those people are John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Baron de Montesquieu. Some were "deists," which means they believe in one god, but not a trinity. They believe that God made the universe and natural laws for it to live by, and let those laws run the universe. They also believe that once we learn these laws and the right method, perfection is possible. Anything the Bible said they would compare with reason.

John Locke had the important idea of a "social contract" between the government and the people. A social contract is an unspoken agreement between the government and the people. If the government broke the social contract then the people had the responsibility, even the right to overthrow the government. He also had the idea of "natural rights" which are rights that humans have just by living on the Earth. In the Declaration of Independence the Americans showed that King George III had broken the social contract. That's why they thought they had the right to break away from England and become independent.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that citizens should have direct participation in government. This included voting. He also thought that man is essentially good; meaning that he thought that deep down we were perfect, or good beings. He also advocated in the use of a written constitution. At this time no government had a written constitution and he thought this would be a good thing to have, as it would be easier to ceck things with the constitution if it was written down. (The Founding Fathers used this idea!)

Baron de Montesquieu believed that the power of government should be divided. He supported it because he had lived under a monarchy and it was too easier for power and rights to be abused when only one person had control over the governmental power.This is where we got the idea of executive, legislative, and judicial branches for our government. This is called the Separation of Powers. Another way the government is divided in the United States today is through the Division of Powers; federal, state, and local governments. This division prevents the abusive rule of a monarchy.


 * CONCLUSION**

The Declaration of Independence was a turning point for the American colonies. They had been feeling oppressed for a long time, and they were finally able to state their Independence. Something the colonies were not planning on; however, was Britian's response to this document. They figured Britian would let them go more or less quite quickley and easily, but Britian saw the colonies as an annoying bug who wouldn't leave them alone and took further actions. This, of course, led to the Revolutionary war.

The Enlightenment Thinkers had a great deal of influence on our nation and especially our founding father, as is seen in many, if not all of our nations important documents.