The Declaration of Independence of the United States is divided into two main parts. The first contains the philosophical and legal justification of the colonists’ right to separate and independent existence. Then the second contains practical arguments in favor of the necessity and justification of using the right of the people to choose the form of government that will best ensure their security and happiness.
The First Arguments
In the first part, modern commentators find traces of the influence of the text of the Declaration of Rights, which was adopted by the Virginia Constitutional Convention about a month before July 4 and compiled by George Mason, a close friend and fellow countryman of Jefferson (Brannon). In its first section, the following was recorded: “All people are by nature equally free and independent and possess certain inalienable rights, which, after their legitimization by society, they cannot, by any agreement, deprive their offspring: namely, the right to use life and freedom, the means of acquiring and owning property, and the right to seek and find happiness and security”(Jefferson 16). The theme of finding happiness goes back in its ideological origins to the ancient Greek political philosophers. This theme of the property right — to the period of the Second English Revolution, and the formula of inalienable rights of J. Locke — the right to life, liberty, and property.
Now it is easier to understand the peculiarity of Jefferson’s position — it did not include the right of property among the inalienable and innate rights. In response to the accusation of plagiarism, J. Jefferson stated that in addition to Locke, he also reread ancient authors (Thompson). Later, he would advise Lafayette not to include the right to property as a natural human right in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789.
The provision of the Declaration that government power exists from the people’s consent was also used earlier. Locke took his ideas about the contractual origin of state power (from the consent of free-born fellow citizens) from the writings of the English pre-revolutionary priest and publicist Richard Hook (1553-1600). Interpreted the emergence of the state and its structure in the spirit of the theory of social contract (the ancient Greek sophists gave its first formulations), and the laws of humans in the definitive version — as not contradicting the laws of nature and the law of Holy Scripture (Brannon). The Declaration says that every nation has the right to an independent and equal place among other powers according to natural and divine laws.
The Second Arguments
The second part of the US Declaration of Independence stated that the current King of England was a usurper. It taxed the colonists without their consent and tried, together with parliament, to subordinate the colonists to a jurisdiction that was alien to their Constitution and was not recognized by their laws. There is also criticism of the organization of power from the doctrine of separation (separation) of powers. The king placed judges in exclusive dependence on his will in determining their terms of service and the amount of salary (there were other constitutional and legal principles in the metropolis). The main conclusion was that the sovereign, whose character contains all the features of a tyrant, cannot rule a free people.
In the final part of the Declaration of Independence, the delegates expressed the decision to exist “freely and independently”: ” relying on the help of Divine Providence, we mutually commit ourselves to each other to support this Declaration with life, property, and honor” (Jefferson 20).
When the course of events compels a people to break the political link connecting it with other people and take an independent position on an equal footing with different powers, then due respect for the opinion of humanity obliges it to state the reasons that motivate it to secede. The Declaration used abstract expressions about natural human rights, which were in use among the enlighteners of the 18th century. However, at the same time, it relied on practical principles implemented by the British in two revolutions of the 17th century and had long been the basis of colonial self-government.
Works Cited
Brannon, Rebecca. “Thomas Jefferson and the Quest for Legacy.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 110.2 (2022): 313-327.
Jefferson, Thomas. The declaration of independence. Verso Books, 2019.
Thompson, C. Bradley. America’s Revolutionary Mind: A Moral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined It. Encounter Books, 2019.