The Declaration of Independence - Essay Example

Introduction Thomas Jefferson was one of the principle of the Declaration of independence. This occurred at appoint in history when the thirteen States that would later became the United States of America were still considered British Colonies. The Americans were discontent with this state of affairs and wrote down the Declaration of independence. Jefferson worked with a number of other authors but many respected him as one of the major proponents. However, there are some striking resemblances between Jefferson's work and British author John Locke. However, there are also some differences between their pieces of work. The essay shall examine the similarities and differences between works written by three authors on the Declaration of Independence; these are the latter mentioned authors and Frederick Douglas. These comparisons will be done in relation to political issues, religious issues, equality and other issues. (Barthelmas, 2003) How the three authors depict equality Jefferson highlights his views about equality by asserting that all men are created equal in the first paragraph of the declaration. Additionally, he believes that they have three major rights that come with this equality Pursuit of happiness Liberty Life Some people have claimed that Jefferson simply paraphrased what another author in the eighteenth century had written; John Locke. Locke in his 'Second Treatise of government' asserts that there are some fundamental rights that all human beings should be granted and these include; Property, liberty and life. As it can be seen from the bulleted list above, these are the exact words used by Jefferson except for the world property. It has been reported that Jefferson had used the word property in his first draft but other members of the Committee he was working with urged him to change it to 'pursuit of happiness'. In light of all these striking similarities between Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and other previous writings, Jefferson's supporters have defended him and his writings by claiming that the declaration was not a creation of new philosophies. He was simply trying to air out what people believed already and was not trying to come up with a new ideology. Equality is a concept that stands through out Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. He talks about how the British government has demonstrated their lack of respect for the American people. Jefferson achieves this by citing 20 instances when this occurred. For example, he says that the British government prevented them from trading with other countries of the world. Additionally, he has problems with the imposition of taxes and the imposition of military forces amongst them. By speaking against these injustices, Jefferson was trying to show how the British did not consider the rest of their colonial states equal to them. (Armitage, 2004) Locke echoes similar sentiments. He believed that all human beings had the right to preserve their own lives. He also asserted murderers did not act in unison to the law of reason because they were contravening the right to life. Furthermore, Locke adds that all people are supposed to have the right to make their own decisions in an effort to exercise liberty. However, he believes that liberty should be exercised in such a manner that it does not impede other people's liberty. While Jefferson and Locke believed that no man was superior to another and that all people should be granted their due rights, these sentiments were mostly theoretical. This is fact brought out by Frederick Douglas. Douglas believed that most of the sentiments expressed in Jefferson's declaration of independence simply referred to a portion of the population while the slaves were ignored completely. Douglas explains that the black person in America did not share some of the liberties and freedoms proclaimed in the Declaration of independence. He goes on to add that not all men are equal in the United States. The slaves in the nation were living proof that equality was still very far from the people. He called slavery a shame on the nation. Douglas gave examples of such forms of treatment; slaves faced the danger of receiving the death sentence if they committed any of the seventy crimes listed in the laws. However, non-slaves were only eligible to death sentences if the committed one of the two crimes listed in the law. These were clear indications on ho the nation ii not practice equality. (Hazelton, 2008) How the authors depicted political factions Jefferson also argued that when people' rights had been blatantly, abused, they had a right to do away with their ruler. In the opening paragraphs of the Declaration, Jefferson affirms the importance of leadership. However, he points out that if certain people are oppressed for too long by their ruler, then it is their right to eliminate that ruler. These sentiments are quite similar to those expressed by the British author John Locke. John Locke explains the government's role. He says that the need to protect their citizens' rights. The citizens themselves must also fulfill their end of the bargain through obedience and submission to the law. Locke gives the prerequisites necessary to form a new political system. He explains that when there is persistent because of power by the government and when they continually oppress their people, then the latter have a right to abolish their government or to resist it. How the authors depicted race Locke and Jefferson did not address the issue of race specifically perhaps because their writings were addressed to people from one race. However, one can deduce their views about race from their arguments for humanity. Both Locke and Jefferson believed that everyone should be accorded their rights regardless of their race. The main between Jefferson and Locke was that Jefferson elaborated more on the issue of race. One can deduce that he had very firm convictions about this because he attacked King George the forth. He asserted that the British King was a tyrant for allowing the slave trade to continue for all these years. Jefferson believed that the black people were getting a raw deal. The King would only grant them freedom when they joined Britain in battling American rebels. It was also recorded that in Jefferson's first draft (before presenting it to Congress for editing) had numerous arguments against the ill treatment of the black people and slave trade in general. Jefferson blamed the entire British nation for perpetuating this unfair trade. Therefore in some ways, Jefferson's writings bore some semblance to Douglas' beliefs on racial issues. (Philip, 1950) However, Douglas was more passionate about the issue. While the other two authors simply hinted about it in their writings, Douglas bases most of his work around it. He claims that the black man was forbidden from doing a number of things within his own country. For instance, he was not allowed to acquire education and any man who was found educating the black man would be give severe penalties. To Douglas, the equality of the black man to the white man was rather obvious yet America had refused to acknowledge this. He goes on to point out the mistreatments faced by black people and how these atrocities were blatantly wrong. Some of them include the back lashes that the black men got for their labor and the fact that they received no compensation for their work. Black men were to be chased by dogs if they were found guilty of escaping and they did not receive the treatment they deserved. How the authors depicted freedom of religion Douglass claimed that all people had the right to practice their religion. But the significant difference between how Douglas speaks about the freedom of religion and how Jefferson and Locke bring it out is in the approach. Douglas uses religion as a way of validating the fact that slaves are just as equal as the white man since they can worship the Christian God and they have the ability to understand religious teachings. Consequently, they should be accorded all other rights that their religious counterparts are getting. On the other hand, Jefferson uses the issue of religion to denounce the actions of the British against the Americans. He believes that if the British followed the teachings of their Christian God, they were obliged to meet the rights of the colonized through granting them the necessary freedoms. (Barthelmas, 2003) Role of media in politics During Jefferson's time, media played an important role in articulating some of the views put forward by the Declaration of Independence. However, the media also served to criticize these views. One of the newspapers that first published the Declaration of Independence in London was called 'The Gentleman's magazine'. This magazine spoke against the latter portion of Jefferson's writings. It asserted that men cannot be equal in all realms so Jefferson should have specified which aspects i.e. moral, situational or size. The magazine also explains how every person cannot have the liberty to do whatever they please otherwise it would defeat the whole purpose of establishing a government or setting up religious institutions. The magazine also brought out the contradiction between the declarations' words and the fact that there was still slavery in the US. Douglas used the media to advance his coz. He did this through the Abolitionist newspaper called 'The North Star'. Through this newspaper, he was able to write his sentiments about the role of the black man in eighteenth century America and what the government should do. (Philip, 1950) Conclusions As it can be seen, most of Jefferson's sentiments in the Declaration were quite similar to those ones expressed in Locke's work. However, the agenda behind the pieces of writings differed between these two authors. Douglas shared some of the above sentiments concerning equality but he felt that there was a lot of hypocrisy in the nation. Reference: Barthelmas, G. (2003): The Signers of the Declaration of Independence: A Biographical and Genealogical Reference. McFarland, p 334 Armitage, D. (2004): The Declaration of Independence in World Context; Magazine of History, 18, 3, 61-66 Hazelton, J. (2008): Who Wrote the Declaration of Independence The New York Times (2008-03-08) Philip F. (1950): The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Volume II, p 67 Pre-Civil War Decade 1850-1860; International Publishers Co., Inc., New York Read More