The Purpose of the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is what our Nation was founded upon, as written by Thomas Jefferson himself and declared from there the freedom of breaking ties with Great Britain of the Thirteen American Colonies. It was specifically written to declare our Independence and create America. The Declaration of Independence plays an important role in our American democracy seeing as it lists the ideals or goals of our nation. We had to find a way to show the other foreign nations our reasoning behind separating ourselves from Great Britain. Congress had an idea of how to separate and decided to put a vote to it. They then decided to create a committee of five members to draft the Declaration itself to have as a base for future America. Thomas Jefferson was chosen from the bunch to write the letter, and he did so in a single day. The other four members were a part of the committee alongside Jefferson to help during this process. Jefferson had explained that a large group of people have the right to change congress if they ever feel it became unfair or unreasonable. When Popular Sovereignty came into the picture, as states by Jefferson in the declaration, that's when a lot changed. We the people, for the people, by the people is what America became. All the power congress began to have was solely based on how and what the people chose. The people voices and their votes is what made America. Not every country to this day has popular sovereignty. It allows the system to go beyond the system, allowing Americans to have the right to vote for who they believe should be in office, and ultimately deciding who should run America. In large, the people are the source of all political power. The Universal truth about government regardless of its time, form or place. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness are what these universal truths are also lied upon. Life, providing us with the best life in government. Liberty, allowing us as citizens of the United States of America to embrace our rights. Lastly, the Pursuit of Happiness. Set to ensure our happiness as American citizens, placing security on our stance to love our country. These are universal truths because they might not always be profound, but they are indeed true. Liberty is our freedom, and by having that freedom we can live in America and have the freedom to use our voices. The very phrase used in the Declaration of Independence that says Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, is a saying that is showing us three different examples of unalienable rights. In the Declaration, it specifically points out that all humans that have been made by their creator, have also been given the unalienable rights. That is the purpose of governments, to protect our unalienable rights. Rights that we are unable to give up are referred to as Inalienable rights, even if we wanted to. In the Declaration of Independence, where the inalienable rights are found according to the concept of them, Liberty is such a right. In other terms, this basically means that we wouldn't be obligated to keep our word to a contact that we signed to be a slave, even though the contract was a part of the deal, no one would have a right to the persons services. People that have rights that are unalienable does not mean that one cannot be under attack in being imprisoned, arbitrarily killed, or otherwise, oppressed. In means that in being morally justified, such acts are not, and that we have ground for complaint in a moral sense. When referring to the idea that All Men are Created Equal, as a community it is often hard to understand what is truly meant here. However, it is known that Thomas Jefferson wrote that in the Declaration of Independence for good reason. It states that there are essentially two different ways in which all men”all persons, may be created equally. One of the ways, is the simple idea that we are all born into this world with our own rights or are politically equal together. This is a rule that essentially mirrors each other. No one person is by their birth, a subject to a ruler as well as no one person is by birth the ruler of others. The second way is that human equality goes much deeper than just the political equality. In this view, all people are considered of equal worth and equal value, or in the eyes of God, an equal as well. In the broad spectrum of things, the meaning we refer to, is all are created as moral equals. When Jefferson wrote the Declaration, he actually intended natural equality in both of these senses. Letter in the life of Jefferson he stated that when he was writing the Declaration he indeed did not voice any of his own views or opinions within it. He had to take a new perspective, and had to write as if it was an expression of the one and only American mind. According to the colonial Americans in 1776, common beliefs in both senses were part of natural human equality. With the term Pursuit of Happiness, we have to remember and really put forth the thought that when Thomas Jefferson did indeed write the Declaration of Independence, he made a very strong point to not use any of his own personal opinions, philosophy or emotions before the Declaration itself. As I had stated before, he made sure he could use it as an expression of the American mind instead. However, all else aside, it was hard to really understand if most of the American population had any idea as to what the pursuit of happiness really meant back then. Many may not know, but Jefferson himself did not invent the phrase, Pursuit of Happiness. Jefferson had instead read about this saying in one of John Locke's essay--Concerning Human Understanding (1690), in where Locke talks about how the human mind tends to operate. In our modern American culture, the Declaration of Independence is still at our core. Without the start of the Declaration, we would not have had America. We certainly would not have the government or political rules we have now. Freedom is a questionable thing, we may or may not have had it. Nowadays, the Declaration still has a position in America because it is there to remind the American people that it is part of their duty and it is their responsibility to take part in the Government. It is also a gentle reminder as to why we did decide to separate from England all those years ago. The Declaration signifies the start of our Nation, it also tends to remind the people to abolish or alter any government when, or if it becomes destructive or fails the people. The document known as the Declaration of Independence is what America was built up from, and it continues to stay so symbolic and be one of the most widely known document because of all it has done for our country. Along with this, Thomas Jefferson and the others that helped him in the process of creating this document had to take everything into account that they wished for the American people, both then and now. It was never meant to be a temporary thing, and it will continue to go down in history as a permanent thing for all the reasons I listed in this essay.

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