Choose and analyze a document and explain the document’s relevance within the framework of the historical context in which the document was written.
John Varga
History 111
Class Section # 12345
07-08-2016
Primary Source Analysis
Document’s Name: The Declaration of Independence
Document’s Author: Thomas Jefferson
Year document was written: 1776
Textbook chapter or chapters to which the document is historically relevant:
The Declaration of Independence is directly relevant to Chapters 5-7. It is relevant to Chapter 5 because the Declaration reflects ideals associated with the Enlightenment. It is relevant to Chapter 6 because it is a response to changes in Britain’s imperial ethos as directed by King George III. It is relevant to Chapter 7 because the Declaration serves a major turning point in the Revolution because it reflects how Americans changed their objective from restoring colonial federalism to independence. It is also relevant to those chapters which address, either explicitly or implicitly, the American vision of equality. Thus, the Declaration’s articulation of the American vision of equality is relevant to Chapters 14 (Civil War) and 15 (Reconstruction), respectively.
Analysis:
The Declaration of Independence is best known for its articulation of the American vision of quality as embodied in the phrase “…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Jefferson, 1776). Aside from this well known principle, the Declaration also enunciates the right of revolution based on the principle of the consent of the governed. Moreover, the Declaration provides a lengthy indictment of the putative injustices King George III perpetrated against his North American colonial subjects (Jefferson, 1776).
The Declaration reflects the Enlightenment’s influence. Enlightenment thought emphasized a common human nature, in which people were essentially the same and deserved the same rights. Hence, the acceptance of the idea of a common human nature contoured how Americans conceived and expressed their belief in human equality (Oakes et al., 2015, pp. 150, 198). For Jefferson and his contemporaries, however, equality was not defined as it is in the mathematical sense. Rather it was based on the premise that “equality possessed several layers of meaning. It meant first of all what [one] might call equality of opportunity…”(Wood, 1996, p. 2140). Moreover, Jefferson and his fellow revolutionaries rejected the premise that talent, skills, or faculties were hereditarily guaranteed and that enlightened society should strive to find and promote that talent to develop without restrictions associated with aristocratic privilege (Wood, 1996, 2140). Jefferson and others conceived of a society “in which who one's father was, whom one married, and whom one knew would no longer matter. They anticipated a society in which mobility up and down would be constant” (Wood, 1996, p. 2140). The preceding conceptions reflect a belief in a merit based society in which one’s status is determined by one’s talents and the freedom essential to allowing one’s talent to express itself.
The right of revolution obligates people to eradicate a tyrannical government (Jefferson, 1776) and is closely linked to one of constitutionalism’s cornerstones: consent of the governed. Constitutionalism, which is based upon the rule of law and consent, emerged from centuries long struggles in England. In the Revolutionary Era context, consent meant “one could not be subjected to laws or taxes except by duly elected representatives” (Oakes et al., 2015, p. 177). As such, the colonists did not adhere to the British concept of virtual representation (Oakes et al., 2015, G-13) and rejected Parliament as a duly elected representative entity with the authority to impose direct, internal taxes.
Accordingly, Americans did not declare independence from Britain’s Parliament. Americans declared their independence from the king not for “light and transient causes… [but for] a long train of abuses and usurpations,…, [intended to] reduce [the colonials] under absolute despotism…” (Jefferson, 1776). King George III’s alleged tyrannical polices required the colonials to abolish their existing system government in favor of a new system because ameliorating the existing system was impossible (Jefferson, 1776). Thus, the Declaration coalesced the following: equality, the belief in a common human nature, the consent of the governed, representative government, and the right of the people to abolish a system of government that acted despotically because it failed to protect the public’s fundamental rights (Oakes et al., 2015, p. 198).
Many years passed “before the radical implications of the Declaration became fully evident to the American people” (Oakes et al., 2015, p. 198). Nevertheless, in the midst of the Civil War the Declaration’s most enduring and inspiring principle-equality-transcended the War’s carnage and provided the stirring foundation upon which Abraham Lincoln based his poignant Gettysburg Address.
References :
Jefferson, T. (1776). Declaration of independence. The Avalon project: Documents in law, history and diplomacy. Yale University Law School. Retrieved from: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/declare.asp
Oakes, J., McGerr, M., Lewis, J. E., Cullather, N., Boydston, J., Summers, M., Townshend, C., & Dunak, K. (2015). Of the people: A history of the United States. (3rd ed. Vol. 1) New York, NY: Oxford University Press
Wood, G.S. (1996) Thomas Jefferson, equality, and the creation of a civil society, Fordham Law Review, 64, 2133-2147. Retrieved from http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol64/iss5/1