, Research Paper

The Declaration of Independence: A Summery of European Thought

When one examines the Declaration of Independence, one inquiries how genuinely radical this so called Prime Minister papers of human rights truly is. In a philosophical sense, many of the thoughts possessed in the Declaration of Independence were far from original. Get downing in the early 1700 & # 8217 ; s and deriving impulse all through the eighteenth century was a period in history normally referred to as the Age of Enlightenment. The ideas that characterized this age included new thoughts on the building of the existence that had gained credence during the Scientific Revolution. As theoreticians began oppugning such widely accepted truths such as the Ptolemaic position of the Universe, philosophers were encouraged to oppugn human nature. Platitudes such as subjugation of the lower category, sole rights of aristocracy, authorization of the clergy and Catholic church, and absolutisms and monarchial type authoritiess were frequently marks of these radical minds. Most notably the ideas and Hagiographas of John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Voltaire are remembered for disputing the old government and ushering in a new age of autonomy, spiritual tolerance, and saving of the rights of citizens. Interestingly plenty, the Declaration of Independence, when viewed in visible radiation of the paperss of these European minds, does non look radical but instead comes across as a plagiarism of new European ideals ( Palmer ) .

The footing of Thomas Jefferson & # 8217 ; s Declaration of Independence was borrowed from John Locke, the philospher attorney of England who pioneered the natural rights of adult male. Locke believed that worlds entered the universe a tabula rasa, or clean page. This thought implied that human existences were innately good and orderly upon birth. Sing worlds from Locke & # 8217 ; s perspective, the traditional intent of authorities could be seen as useless, for it was once believed that authorities was a tool to battle the selfish, immorality, corrupt, helter-skelter nature of adult male. Prosecuting his belief, Locke saw the primary intent of authorities to be the protection of the natural rights of adult male. Locke & # 8217 ; s ideas gained widespread credence in the settlements in the old ages before the revolution. During the period environing the authorship of the Declaration of Independence, the settler & # 8217 ; s main ailment of England was directed towards the oppressive nature of British authorities. Jefferson himself wrote of the English authorities as & # 8220 ; a deliberate, systematic program of cut downing us to slavery & # 8221 ; ( Brodie, 96 ) . Gratuitous to state, the settlers came to hold & # 8220 ; with [ Locke ] in the natural rights of adult male to life, autonomy, and belongings & # 8221 ; ( Brodie, 96 ) . Locke believed that the right to personal belongings was paramount and that people came together in an organized community to protect this right and addition advantages they could non separately come by. The societal contract the people entered into with each other was the footing of the contract of authorities, under which all political power is a trust for the benefit of the people. The province, Locke believed, should be based on a contract between swayer and topics, who give him power to protect their belongings that without the province could be taken away by unprincipled forces. Thomas Jefferson & # 8217 ; s attachment to these ideas is seen in his claim that authorities should be based on & # 8220 ; inalienable rights. & # 8221 ; Most of his Declaration of Independence was a list of grudges and indictments of King George III for his failure to maintain his contract with his American topics. American & # 8217 ; s believed the King had broken his contract, and hence the owed trueness was null.

Jefferson & # 8217 ; s Declaration of Independence was representative of a turning since of patriotism within colonial America. Settlers combined their involvements and held that absolute regulation by a monarchy was against their will. The Gallic philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau inspired this societal bond amongst the settlers that led Jefferson to publish ailments against the King. Rousseau & # 8217 ; s Social Contract published in 1762 qualified authorities as & # 8220 ; an understanding among the people. & # 8221 ; Harmonizing to Rousseau, organized civil society rested upon a corporate autonomy where the volitions of persons are fused and represented in authorities. He believed society must be bound by the common involvement of the people in a given societal group. As trueness to the King was an aberrance from the common involvement of enlightened settlers at the clip the Declaration of Independence was written, Rousseau would hold advocated a separation from the King. Rousseau thought that people should hold a & # 8220 ; sense of rank, of community and family, of responsible citizenship and intimate engagement in public affairs. & # 8221 ; Rousseau & # 8217 ; s most of import part to the American settlers was the thought of patriotism. Peoples of the same cultural, spiritual, and cultural station in life

should come together within a province. In visible radiation of this statement Jefferson believed that Colonial America no longer had ties with England but was instead a separate state and with a new sense of nationality. Jefferson like Rousseau believed that the colonists’ commitment should be directed towards each other instead than towards England ( Palmer ) .

Colonial averment of rights and autonomy characterized America at the stopping point of the eighteenth century. The Declaration of Independence followed the eighteenth century belief that American settlers were entitled to the same rights of their English opposite numbers. Within America, colonists believed that the original English colonists brought with them their English rights in full and had sense passed them down to their posterities. It of course followed that the settlers should bask the same rights and autonomies of an Englishman. However, the settlers became insecure at the stopping point of the 150 old ages of good disregard. The settler harbored intuitions that dictatorship loomed in the close hereafter. The copiousness of new revenue enhancements and recent demand to one-fourth British soldiers put a fire under these intuitions and put a wildfire of insecurity throughout colonial America. Baron de Montesquieu, a Gallic philosopher of the old coevals had developed a doctrine that explained the settlers & # 8217 ; newfound want for political autonomy. He believed that & # 8220 ; the political autonomy of the topic is a repose of head originating from the sentiment each individual has of his safety ( Rakove 290 ) . & # 8221 ; Thus, harmonizing to Montesquieu, colonists believed they no longer had political autonomy because they no longer thought themselves safe from British subjugation. The quest for political autonomy and the natural rights of adult male brought Jefferson to compose the Declaration of Independence.

& # 8220 ; We hold these truths to be axiomatic, that all work forces are created equal, that they are endowed by their Godhead with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the chase of Happiness. That to procure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deducing their merely powers from the consent of the governed ( Jefferson ) . & # 8221 ;

This transition summarizes Jefferson & # 8217 ; s sentiment that authorities is an establishment that & # 8217 ; s intent is the protection of the rights of those governed. However, Jefferson & # 8217 ; s sentiment with respects to the nature of authorities was non original but instead borrowed from the following extract of The Spirit of Laws.

& # 8220 ; In a true province of nature, so, all work forces are born equal, but they can non go on in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it merely by the protection of jurisprudence ( Montesquieu ) . & # 8221 ;

Historians have small uncertainty that Montesquieu mostly influenced Jefferson in his authorship of the Declaration of Independence, as it is known that Jefferson owned a transcript of Montesquieu & # 8217 ; s Spirit of Laws ( Brodie, 97 ) .

The Age of Enlightenment is noticed to hold reached America by the clip the Declaration of Independence was written. The impact that European minds had on the settlers is detected in the dramatic similarities between the linguistic communication and doctrines of Thomas Jefferson and modern-day European philosophers. Yet while the Declaration of Independence was based on a pudding stone of borrowed phrases, the concluding merchandise was a radical measure. Never before had such dramatic forepart and immediate denunciation of a monarchy taken topographic point. The settlers and Jefferson in peculiar were the first to really ordain the extremist thoughts of life, autonomy, and rights of adult male that European philosophers had simply put in authorship. The American experiment set the case in point for patriotism and the claiming of a separate and single province for those of similar backgrounds. The Declaration of Independence likewise attacked those once untouchable endeavors, monarchies, and triggered a concatenation reaction in Europe that would do overthrows of the old government. In fact the footing of the Gallic Revolution, The Declaration of The Rights of Man and Citizen, was an extension of Jefferson & # 8217 ; s work, as Jefferson himself was in France at the clip of the authorship. Thus Jefferson & # 8217 ; s discourse on the mistakes of monarchial authoritiess was read throughout the universe and established America as a new genteelness land of radical and enlightened thought.

55c

Brodie, Fawn M. Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. New York: W.W. Norton & A ;

Company Inc. , 1974

Jefferson, Thomas. Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776

Montesquieu, Baron de. The Spirit of the Laws. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989

Palmer, R. R. , Joel Colton. A History of the Modern World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,

1950

Rakove, Jack N. Original Meanings: Politicss and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997