W1SQ: The Declaration of Independence

What are inalienable rights? Which of these rights does the Declaration list?

- Inalienable rights are the rights that all humans naturally share and therefore can't surrender them to another because no human is greater than another in regards to natural rights. - Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

What is the significance of the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence?

- It portrays that the revolution is not just based on any particular principle related to the American people but rather it is based on universal principles that are relevant to any people in human history. (applies to any and all people) - Announces that there will be a dissolution of government from within. And some of the British people (colonists) will separate from the others to establish a new people of their own (the american people). - Explains that the Law of Nature and Nature's God justify the colonists to revolt and separate from Great Britain and to establish a new people of their own. (this encourages other people to take the same action if necessary). These laws are laws that govern right behavior and exist by nature and are therefore unchangeable.

What were some of the actions by the British government that convinced the colonists that they needed to declare independence?

- Passed the Proclamation of 1763 which forbade colonists to purchase land or settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. - Required colonists to pay with gold/silver instead of paper currency. - Denied certain people the right of trial by jury. - Imposed direct taxes which were taxes placed on people instead of their transactions. - Passed the Stamp and Townsend acts and sent British soldiers (some British soldiers took colonists lives.) + There was no colonist representation in government. + ALL OF THIS was done without the consent of the colonists.

What is prudence? What does the Declaration indicate that prudence should keep people from doing? Why?

- Prudence is refers to the idea of practical wisdom; the application of ideals or wisdom to practical circumstances. - Prudence should keep people from having a revolution that is caused by light and transient causes - It does this because a revolution can cause a significant amount of hardship. Instead, these light and transient causes can be resolved by a less serious measures of action like dealing with hardship by letting it pass or to work out how to address it in less radical ways.

What, according to the Declaration, is the just purpose of government? Why is consent a necessary component of just government?

- The purpose of government is to protect our natural rights as human beings. - While the principle that all men possess equal natural rights makes government necessary, the same principle also requires that, in order to be legitimate, government must be based on consent. - Consent is necessary because "if all men are created equal" is follows that government must be based on consent.

What three self-evident truths are listed in the second paragraph of the Declaration?

1. Natural human equality and freedom which leads to certain rights. 2. Limited government based on consent. 3. Right to Revolution

List several of the grievances against the king listed in the Declaration.

He did the following (in summary): taxed the colonists without consent of their elected representatives; interfered with their trade; denied them to the right of trial by jury; and deprived them the right of self-government. - Passed the Proclamation of 1763 which forbade colonists to purchase land or settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. - Required colonists to pay with gold/silver instead of paper currency. - Denied certain people the right of trial by jury. - Imposed direct taxes which were taxes placed on people instead of their transactions. - Passed the Stamp and Townsend acts and sent British soldiers (some British soldiers took colonists lives.) + There was no colonist representation in government. + ALL OF THIS was done without the consent of the colonists. "- He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. - He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. - He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. - He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. - He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. - He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. - He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. - He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. - He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. - He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. - He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. - He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. - He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: - For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: - For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: - For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: - For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: - For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: - For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences - For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: -For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: - For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. - He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. - He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. - He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. - He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. - He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."

What political thinker had the most significant influence on the American beliefs about government? What were some of the main ideas he advocated?

John Locke He established the relationship between the government and natural rights. He believed natural rights were God given rights to life, liberty, and property.

What is the meaning of natural "equality" mentioned in the Declaration?

Natural equality is not he product of government, but something that humans are born with.

What is the difference between the rights protected by Magna Carta and natural rights?

The Magna Carta established the rights of life, liberty, and property, which was granted by the King. Locke's idea of natural rights was that they were granted by God and therefore couldn't be taken away by the King or any government.

What is the social contract?

The implicit agreement between people and government; people give up a small portion of their freedom to the government in exchange for protection of their natural rights.

What commonly mentioned right did Jefferson change to "the pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence?

The right to property.

What do the signers pledge at the conclusion of the Declaration?

They pledge to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Who was the principle author of the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson

Who was the author of the pamphlet "Common Sense"? Why was this pamphlet significant?

Thomas Paine It helped convince colonists that they needed to completely break from Great Britain because it attacked the very nature of hereditary monarchy itself. It also made colonists want to establish a new government based on new principles of justice and human rights.