Thursday 14 June 2012

What were Jefferson's four main arguments in the Declaration of Independence?

Background
Information

Borrowing heavily from John Locke and other
Enlightenment thinkers from Britain and France, Thomas Jefferson was the principal author
amongst the Committee of Five who wrote the Declaration of Independence. Aside from Jefferson
(Virginia), the Committee included John Adams (Massachusetts), Benjamin Franklin (Pennsylvania),
Roger Sherman (Connecticut), and Robert Livingston (New York). Congress further edited it,
completely taking out two entire sections:

  1. a section censuring the
    British, for fear of being too offensive
  2. a section condemning the
    importation of slaves from Africa, for fear of alienating the southern colonies who had no
    interest in halting the slave trade

The final document, finalized
July 3rd (following a formal vote for independence on July 2nd) and adopted July 4th, contained
four sections:

  1. a formal introduction of the document and its
    purpose, and philosophical justification for a people to abolish their government

  2. the political and philosophical ideas framing their intentions and guiding their
    actions (this part borrows heavily from ideas of Enlightenment thinkers)
  3. a
    long list of grievances against King George III and British rule
  4. a basic
    list of rights and powers asserted by the newly created nationa formal declaration of
    independence and sovereignty

Somewhat aligned with that four-part
structure (No. 1 below is explicitly written at the start of Part 2 above), Jefferson et al.
espoused four main ideas throughout the document.

The Four Main
Ideas

  1. "All men are created
    equal."
    This is bluntly asserted, that all are inherently equal to each other,
    but the question of who were included in "men" has been reinterpreted over the years.
    Today's interpretation - as what was likely originally meant in the most
    hypothetical/philosophical sense, but maybe purposely made vague to allow for less shocking
    interpretation/practice in those times of control by only white men - is more liberal to include
    all humans.
  2. All human beings have certain inherent and
    inalienable (cannot be taken away) rights.
    These ideas are heavily borrowed from the
    Enlightenment thinkers of Britain and France, primarily John Locke. These rights include
    "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" (compare to Locke's "life, liberty,
    and estate [property]"), are naturally endowed by virtue of being a human being and should
    not be abridged by any government. This idea is coupled with the previous idea.

  3. A government has certain obligations to the people. Among
    others, a legitimate government must not only abridge or impede those inalienable human rights,
    but actively secure and protect them for the people. To restate the sentiment most directly: The
    purpose of a government is to safeguard the natural rights of its
    citizens.
  4. The people have a right to amend or abolish a
    government that is not properly serving them.
    In conjunction with ideas 2 and 3,
    people are entitled to pursue the protection of their natural rights through control of their
    government. If a government is abridging or impeding said freedomswhether through action or
    inaction the people have the right to change or completely depose the government so that they
    may have their due protection.

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