Thomas Jefferson wrote the Dec. of Ind. in the first six sentences – he has two big ideas he wrote about. Read the it below…the word in parenthesis – help with meaning.
Those two big ideas were all men were created equal and rights given by God not from the King. The Declaration of Independence remains one of the greatest persuasive essays in history.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, July 4, 1776
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve (end) the political bands (ties) which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station (level) to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle (allow) them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel (force) them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident (obvious), that all men are created equal, that they are endowed (given) by their Creator (God) with certain unalienable (unbreakable) Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted (started) among Men, deriving (getting) their just powers from the consent (permission) of the governed (people), –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive (hurtful) of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter (change) or to abolish (end) it, and to institute (begin) new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence (intelligence), indeed, will dictate (say) that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient (easy) causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations (use of force), pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism (power), it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance (suffering) of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains (chains) them to alter (change) their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations (use of force), all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny (one ruler) over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid (open) world.
Below are two other declarations (Haiti and Mexico) compare/contrast the two of them to Jefferson’s. What is similar? What is different? Can you recognize the tone of each declaration? Have a discussion at your table comparing the three different declarations. Then post your response as a group/table.
First the Declaration of Independence of Haiti January 1, 1804
Citizens:
It is not enough to have expelled the barbarians who have bloodied our land for two centuries; it is not enough to have restrained those ever-evolving factions that one after another mocked the specter of liberty that France dangled before you. We must, with one last act of national authority, forever assure the empire of liberty in the country of our birth; we must take any hope of re-enslaving us away from the inhuman government that for so long kept us in the most humiliating torpor. In the end we must live independent or die.
Independence or death… let these sacred words unite us and be the signal of battle and of our reunion.
Citizens, my countrymen, on this solemn day I have brought together those courageous soldiers who, as liberty lay dying, spilled their blood to save it; these generals who have guided your efforts against tyranny have not yet done enough for your happiness; the French name still haunts our land.
The Declaration of Mexico 1821
Declaration of the independence of the Mexican Empire, issued by its Sovereign Junta, assembled in the Capital on September 28, 1821.
The Mexican Nation, which for three hundred years had neither had its own will, nor free use of its voice, leaves today the oppression in which it has lived.
The heroic efforts of its sons have been crowned today, and consummated in an eternal and memorable enterprise, which a spirit superior to all admiration and praise, out of love and for the glory of its Country started in Iguala, continued, and brought to fruition, overcoming almost insurmountable obstacles.
Restored then this part of the North to the exercise of all the rights given by the Author of Nature and recognized as unalienable and sacred by the civilized nations of the Earth, in liberty to constitute itself in the manner which best suits its happiness and through representatives who can manifest its will and plans, it begins to make use of such precious gifts and solemnly declares by means of the Supreme Junta of the Empire that it is a Sovereign nation and independent of old Spain with which henceforth it will maintain no other union besides a close friendship in the terms prescribed by the treaties; that it will establish friendly relationships with other powers, executing regarding them whatever declarations the other sovereign nations can execute; that it will constitute itself in accordance to the bases which in the Plan of Iguala and the Treaty of Córdoba the First Chief of the Imperial Army of the Three Guarantees wisely established and which it will uphold at all costs and with all sacrifice of the means and lives of its members (if necessary); this solemn declaration, is made in the capital of the Empire on the twenty-eighth of September of the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, first of Mexican Independence
Amen.
