Declaration Of Independence Vs Amistad Essay

Imagine this: you are in a cage, sweat drizzling down your forehead and neck, and you are malnourished and very weak. Why are you in this cage you may ask? Because you did not agree with the government and how they want you to worship and how to live your life. The biggest American ideal is rights because it gives people the right to live the way they want without the government telling them how to live.

In this essay, I will be using two texts, The Declaration of Independence and the United States V. The Amistad court case. Some background information you may need to know is that for The Declaration of Independence, the people of the American colonies believed that the British parliament was not letting them live how they wanted to live and

One way that The Declaration of Independence embodies the American ideal of rights is that it gives every person the right to live how they want without the government telling them what to do. Thomas Jefferson says in the document, ”...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” (241). This textual evidence shows that if a government is limiting others’ rights, the people can abolish the old government and create a new one to support the people’s views. Another way that The Declaration of Independence embodies the American ideal of rights is that people have unalienable rights and they cannot be taken away. Jefferson explains this by saying, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” (241). This supports my thesis because people have rights that cannot be taken away because they have been created by the Creator. The Declaration of Independence is still important today because it shows how rights are important to people by stating that people should create a

The Amistad also gives great evidence that supports the American ideal of rights. A key way that the United States V. The Amistad embodies this as it gives the idea of whoever steps on American soil, they are given three unalienable rights. John Quincy Adams gives support to this claim when he gives his argument for the defendants, “I will not here discuss the right or the rights of slavery, but I say that the doctrine of Hobbes, that War is the natural state of man, has for ages been exploded, as equally disclaimed and rejected by the philosopher and the Christian. That it is utterly incompatible with any theory of human rights, especially with the rights that the Declaration of Independence proclaims as self-evident truths. The moment you come, to the Declaration of Independence, that every man has a right to life and liberty, an inalienable right, this case is decided. I ask nothing more in behalf of these unfortunate men than this Declaration” (248). Adams’s oral argument for the defendants supports my thesis because he believes that everyone on American soil has three inalienable rights. The United States V. The Amistad also supports the claim that a person should not die because they are exercising their inalienable rights. Adams states this by saying, “That Declaration says that every man is “endowed by his Creator with certain inalienable rights,” and that among these are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” If these rights are