Thomas Jefferson's The Declaration Of Independence

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These well-known words hold very true today and are the ones most people remember”.1 Considering to be one of the most essential documents in American history, The Declaration of Independence was written in July of 1776 by five individuals, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, John Adams and Robert R. Livingston. They composed The Declaration of Independence with robust ideas of sovereignty and equality. Their strong will for freedom was to disconnect from the dictatorship of King George III additionally, it started a …show more content…
This was equally a great act of rebellion and the forming of a new state which covered a huge piece of territory. Jefferson was extremely anxious to provide a logical explanation for what was being done and he generated his version using a model from Mr. John Locke’s defense of the 1688-89 Revolution in Britain. In the defense Locke had justified the deposition of King James II by stating that the government rested on the agreement between government and the governed and that, if the government didn’t have the capability to provide the ends which had been influenced the people to enter contract, it might have been overturned. Jefferson explained this out in full detail in the Declaration of Independence. “Men had rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute 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.” The idea that governments get their authority from the agreement of the governed was still in 1776 an argumentative and challenging notion which ran counter to many traditional ideas on monarchy. However, something that was more revolutionary then this was, the impression that all men are created equal and have inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Most considered rights as specific privileges which had been established to only a particular group of people. For example, in England, 40-shilling freeholders had the capability to vote in the election of county MPs. However, to claim that a right was common to the whole of mankind, that society had certain rights
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