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Pros And Cons Of The Declaration Of Independence

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One of these such heroes and leaders was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson proved that he was a leader when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. At the time that the document was created, America was on tense relations with Great Britain, and was preparing for all out war. Before they could accomplish this, however, they needed to declare their independence from the tyranny that was the British Empire. Congress in Philadelphia selected five to draft the document in which they would declare their independence- Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Jefferson was immediately selected to draft the Declaration of Independence, for reasons said by John Adams, “Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a …show more content…

Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can” (Philipps, 65-68). And so Jefferson, over a period of two weeks, wrote the Declaration of Independence, beginning with the famous words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” Jefferson did not base the document on any previously written work, making it entirely original (Fradin, 56). In general, the Declaration was a statement of grievances specifically targeted at the British king, who Jefferson declared to be “unfit to be the ruler of a free people” (National Archives and Records). After finishing the writing of the document at the apartment he was residing in in Philadelphia, he presented the document to Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, who made minor revisions, but it was finally presented to Congress virtually untouched. In congress, the document was read, and about one-fifth of it was changed, as many were uncomfortable with some parts in the body that concerned slavery. On July 4, the document was finally signed, first by John Hancock of Massachusetts. The rest of the delegates signed the document on August 2 (History.com

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The authors of the Declaration of independence are John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine. After the first draft all four authors had agreed on the document to be artistic as well as precise. Jefferson out of the four was chosen to do the majority of the document. Today, we know Jefferson had a difficult time writing part of the document because Jefferson’s landlady recorded his painful struggles in her journal. One, day Jefferson set home for his violin and when it had arrived he would pace a little, then play a little, then the house would become silent for some time then he would do it again.

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On 28 June 1776, the committee submitted its draft to Congress, which slowly tabled it for later consideration. Meanwhile, towns, counties, grand juries, and some private groups publicly declared and explained their support for independence. After a while one state after another fell into line, reviewing their Congressional instructions and sometimes also issuing state declarations of independence either as separate documents or as opening sections of their new constitutions. Those documents vary in form and style, but most of them recall the colonists' past affection for the king and cite a familiar set of fairly recent events to explain their change in sentiment, the king's neglect of the colonists' dutiful petitions. His endorsement of the

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The United States of America's Declaration of Independence is a document that was written by Thomas Jefferson. This document describes to England, that the American colonies no longer wish to maintain themselves under British laws and rules. They wish to be a nation on their own. The colonists were tired and fed up of living under British rule. The taxes were becoming unbearable and seen as unfair for them to pay.

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Throughout the years there has been many individuals whom have helped shape The United States of America into the independent country it is today. It’s hard to believe that this country was at one point governed by a distant British king, and that before Americans claimed equal rights, they were subject to British tyranny. Americans were in desperate need of a leader who would step up for his people and declare independence, Americans were in desperate need of Thomas Jefferson. ‘ Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 at his family home in Shadwell, not far from Charlottesville. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a planter while his mother, Jane Randolph, was a stay at home mom.

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Jefferson spent the next seventeen days writing the rough draft of the document before submitting it to the rest of the committee and then presenting it to the Second Continental Congress. Bernstein states that only Franklin and Adams made significant edits to the draft, while the Congress made numerous changes, offending Jefferson by cutting out sections he believed to be vital parts of the document (Bernstein 31-33). The actual rough draft demonstrates the edits Franklin and Adams made, showing that some phrases were changed to become phrases that are well-known today, such as the change from “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent…” to “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal…” (Rough Draft of Declaration of Independence). On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress officially approved the Declaration of Independence that is known today (Bernstein

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The Suffrage of Conventional Circumstance Blood, sweat, and tears, are shed to savor a bearable routine and deflect the unknown. In American history, a group of men observed suffering provoked by Great Britain as the current mother country had taken their jurisdiction over the Unites States and abused it. In desperate need of adjustment, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, John Adams, and Robert R. Livingston wrote the Declaration of Independence. Partaking in the creation of this document was as dangerous of an act as betting one 's life with the flip of a coin.

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Keshaun Jones Van Lieshout English 11 Junior Research Paper 2/19/15 Thomas Jefferson the author of declaration of independence. He also was the 3rd. president o American helping merge states together. I argue Thomas Jefferson change life America.

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Drafting the Declaration of Independence in early may, 1776 became the defining event that shapes Thomas Jefferson's life. Despite Jefferson's desire to return to Virginia to help write that state's constitution, the Continental Congress appointed him to the five-person committee for drafting the declaration of independence. That committee assigned him the task of producing a draft document for its consideration. Drawing on documents, such as the Virginia Declaration of Rights, state and local calls for independence, and his own draft of the Virginia constitution, Jefferson wrote a statement of the colonists right to rebel against the British government and establish their own based on the premise that all men are created equal and have the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Through the many revisions made by Jefferson, the committee, and then by Congress, Jefferson retained his prominent role in writing the document of the American Revolution and, indeed, of the United States.

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It was a revolutionary document written at revolutionary times. Written by only a few men, the Declaration was unanimously accepted and ratified by all thirteen states and adopted into law in Philadelphia on July 4th of that year. It declares that the thirteen American states have united to form a new nation, the United States of America, and declare themselves free from British rule. The Declaration goes on to list the twenty-eight

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Civic Virtues and Founding Fathers During the Revolutionary War, American victory would not have been successful without the civic virtues of each courageous founding father. Many of the monuments throughout America were devoted to these valiant men that each played a substantial role in bettering our economy. Throughout this paper we will establish the views of Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and George Washington are the five founding fathers that are like the building blocks of our nation.

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Starting in June 1775, Jefferson served as an instrumental member to the Second Continental Congress, the second organized meeting of Founding Fathers in Pennsylvania who established America’s militia and George Washington as its leader. Due to Jefferson’s vast knowledge of literature, science, and composition, he was chosen as the man to draft the Declaration. After creating a rough draft of the document, it was sent to John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, two members of the Second Continental Congress who reviewed the document and made only minor changes. One of Thomas Jefferson’s largest impacts on society was through the Declaration’s preamble and clauses which established a clear division between the oppressive British government and the democratic American government, while also listing the “inalienable” rights of man and the limits of

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In a few days, Jefferson created the document that changed American lives forever. He created the Declaration of Independence. The document first starts off as with the preamble. The preamble states, “We hold these truths to be self­evident, 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.”.

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While some fighting had already taken place in the colonies and most certainly changed opinions and rushed the process of writing the declaration, Jefferson pulled many pieces of text and ideas from the constitution. The general and widespread ideas of equality and natural rights sparked many small declarations of independence across the country, the difference being that in many instances pointed fingers at not only the king, but at Parliament as well. One of the greatest difference between the first draft and the completed document is the longwinded paragraph that Jefferson attempted to put in on the subject of slavery, which Congress undoubtedly redacted in an attempt to unify the colonies instead of potentially splitting them on a social issue before the

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The Declaration of Independence is an extremely important document to the United States. Thomas Jefferson receives the most credit for writing the declaration, however he was assisted by five other men that were apart of the Constitutional Congress. They wrote the declaration to persuade the colonist to break free from Britain. The Declaration of Independence uses numerous persuasive appeals and language, including parallelism, pathos, and ethos. Parallelism is “a pattern in writing in which words and phrases are similar in structure, one echoing another.”

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He was elected to write because of his ability to express patriotism and his past writing, such as, “A Summary View of the Rights of British America.” He gave the draft to Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to review before handing the official document over for review. Jefferson began writing in mid-June of seventeen seventy-four. He came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with three slaves, so he could draft the Declaration of Independence. The reason to why it was written is that the colonist’s needed a formal statement claiming the much needed separation away from the British crown.

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