Engaging with American Democracy » August 21st: The Declaration of Independence

August 21st: The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence

Announcements

  • Charlotte Debate Team and Speech Team
    • Charlotte Speech & Debate Interest Meeting
      Wednesday, 8/27, 5:300pm-6:30pm
      Room TBD
    • Debate Practices for Fall 2025: TBA
    • First Tournament is Online
      Friday, September 26th, and Saturday, September 27
    • More than a month to practice!
  • American Studies Minor
  • A heads up on this semester’s readings–varying lengths

Please check out the Debate team. We’re relatively new but have grown out of the long-standing Charlotte Speech Team: Instagram and NinerEngage. Benefits of joining include…

  • Expressing ideas thoughtfully
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  • The pinnacle of intellectual engagement
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Plan for the Day

  • Show the Discussion Post “Introduce Yourself” on Canvas
  • Catch up on anything we missed Tuesday, 8/19
  • More on Rhetoric
    • ethos
    • pathos
    • logos
  • Drafting the Declaration of Independence
  • Democracy/Liberty/Freedom/ETC. quotation:
    “We have a right to [liberty], derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned, and bought it for us, at the expence* of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood. And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know…”
    –John Adams. “V. “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” No. 3, 30 Sept. 1765.
    *old-timey spelling of expense

More on Rhetoric

As mentioned last class, rhetoric is often associated with lying, deception, and political speech, but, time permitting, let’s discuss some more over on the Rhetoric Introduction page or, at least, discuss these major rhetorical appeals:

  • logos: appeal to reason or logic
  • ethos: the presentation of one’s character (usually to show the speaker/author is credible)
  • pathos: appeal to emotions

In other rhetoric courses, we would go into further detail on these (and more rhetorical techniques), but the above definitions can be used to discuss The Declaration of Independence. For now, let’s consider these questions:

  • How did Jefferson et al. justify severing ties with Great Britain?
  • What ethos [credibility] did the writers (and signatories) want to convey?
  • How does the Declaration characterize King George III?

Thomas Jefferson, et al.

The Declaration or Independence is the formal document that established (sure, not totally) the United States of America. Here’s a brief timeline of ratification. Also, Thomas Jefferson is the principle author of The Declaration, but Congress appointed four others: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. They had about three weeks to write, revise, and submit The Declaration to the Second Continental Congress. For more historical context, read up on the American Revolutionary War.

  • People should be able to govern based on the consent of those governed (in fact, they are guaranteed this right by nature).
  • After the preamble: notice the listing of abuses. There aren’t heavy details, but there are many abuses the writers point to for why the colonies ought to separate from Britain.
  • In essence, the listing is a group of sound bites that can be used to gather support for rebellion.
  • The Natives: notice the one group (besides the British) that the writers “call out” as particularly aggressive. They seem like…

Whenever the Declaration of Independence is referred to, the main focus is on the beginning paragraphs: “When in the Course of human events…” and “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” Often, this John Gast painting is discussed.

Key concepts

  • Natural rights
  • Tyranny (an antonym of democracy)
  • Government made legitimate by the “consent of the governed”

Significance

The Declaration of Independence, whose lead author was Thomas Jefferson, takes the form of a substantial (1,300-word) open declaration, addressed implicitly to a global audience. Much of the document consists of a long list of grievances, but the document is bookended by first and last paragraphs that announce the colonies’ separation from the British Empire. 

The best-known part of the document is the long second paragraph, which contains well-remembered phrases, including “all men are created equal.” The historian David Armitage has called the Declaration “an announcement in the form of an argument,” which was the first in what became a “global genre” of political writing (Armitage 26, 16).

Armitage, David. The Declaration of Independence: A Global History. Harvard UP, 2007.

Structure

  • First paragraph: Explains the need to “declare the causes” for separation from Britain
    • “unanimous Declaration”
    • “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”
    • “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
  • Second paragraph: Appeals to natural rights and contains the famous phrases, including “all men are created equal”
    • “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”
      • How was Great Britain’s monarchy legitimized?
    • “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…”
    • Well-thought-out declaration–not spur of the moment
    • Colonists suffered longer than they should have: “the patient sufferance of these Colonies”
  • Middle section: Lists grievances against King George III, including:
    EVIDENCE
    • Dissolution of colonial legislatures
    • Impeding the rule of law
    • “Imposing taxes on us without our Consent”
  • Final paragraphs: Declares the colonies to be “FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES”
    • “A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
    • “the ties of our common kindred”…”They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity”
    • “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world…in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies”
    • “divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Questions for Our Rhetorical Approach

As mentioned, we privilege a rhetorical (as opposed to privileging–not ignoring–a historical or political science) approach to these texts; therefore, I have to ask, in addition to the obvious declaration, what does the Declaration of Independence do?

  • What other genre of writing does this remind you of?
  • Consider the audiences
    • Primary
    • Secondary
    • Tertiary
  • Can you identify a prevailing or major appeal? To what or who?

Time permitting: Drafting the Declaration of Independence.

Next Class

Make sure you do the “Introduce Yourself” Discussion Post on Canvas, so we know there aren’t any problems. Keep up with the reading. We’ll catch up on The Declaration of Independence if needed and compare it to the next two readings: The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (May 20, 1775) and
Abigail Adams to John Adams “Remember the Ladies” (March 31 & April 5, 1776).