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Snowden's Response To Thomas Jefferson

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Two hundred and forty years ago, Thomas Jefferson stood before a great many people and issued a declaration that echoed across the world: "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." This proclamation was the culmination of revolutionary sentiment and egalitarianism-catalyzed subversion. Colonists had been evading the taxes levied on them to pay for British wars, harassing British soldiers, tarring and feathering loyalists, and destroying property. All of these actions were illegal and chaotic, but none of them touched what the declaration incited: treason. Our Founding Fathers’ first step in creating this great nation, a beacon for freedom and equality, was to betray their original country. Why? Because the common virtues of the free …show more content…

The case against Edward Snowden is strong. He acted with recklessness and possible self-serving convenience; even so, by shedding light on the invasive government actions taken to deal with terrorism, Snowden did his country a service, demanding accountability from a branch of the government that has been given free reign because of our post-9/11 fears. Still the fear persists that a society that accepts challenges to laws also insights anarchy (Leibman). This argument quickly falls flat: civil disobedience is action taken to fulfill a worthy higher principle, not just a means to benefit oneself. The intricacies of this were exposed when the acting Attorney General refused to allow the Justice Department to defend President Trump’s travel ban until its constitutionality could be affirmed. Sally Yates’s actions emboldened other branches of government and assured the nation that there were still those in the government who would solidly stand for the principles of the Constitution, no matter the political

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Oppressive actions such as the Boston Massacre heavily shook the general public’s view of their British rulers. Unfair policies such as the Stamp Act, in which colonists were forced to pay taxes on almost all paper goods, further agitated unrest in the colonies. If it wasn’t for a mix of oppressive actions and overbearing policies, the Revolution likely would not have gained enough traction to sway the views of the general public, and likely Thomas Jefferson would not have had enough support to write the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson not only used the Declaration of Independence to announce the United States secession from the British Empire, but he also used it to express all of the injustices he saw against colonist’s natural

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1233 Words | 5 Pages

However, there was a severe disconnect between the freedom they fought for and the freedom the state legislatures applied within the colonies. Through their harsh treatment and pushing out of the Native Americans it is evident that the colonists’ had no regard for the freedom of the people they are pushing out. The persistence of slavery within the colonies is contradictory to their blasphemous claim of enslavement by the British. Finally, the oppression of both women and the lower class suggests that the Patriots were fighting for the principle of freedom but had no intention of implementing freedom within the colonies. The propertied men’s fight for freedom is hypocritical to their actions because there is no implementation of freedom as one would assume a colony fighting for freedom would have.

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317 Words | 2 Pages

The British are taking American ships and crewmen. If this non-sense doesn’t stop, I’m not going to be able to send my merchandise abroad. Why doesn’t our navy resist these attacks! I read in the Boston Times that the British tried taking crewmen from the Chesapeake. Why isn’t Jefferson doing anything to prevent this!

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565 Words | 3 Pages

Many, if not all, Americans today continue to cherish the Declaration of Independence, hailing it as one of the most significant artifacts in national history. “It speaks of liberty from Great Britain and sets the framework for the United States of America,” they may explain. This mindset, however, has intensified over the past year, its believers resorting to calls for major control against outsiders seeking a better life and bellowing their disdain for international assistance, yet another resurgence of hegemonic jingoism in the land that is “made for you and me.” Said pseudo patriots also continue to share a consensus regarding the right of revolution, in which they may rebel should the government turn to tyranny or fail to serve the public.

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319 Words | 2 Pages

By pointing out the relation between rebellion and government, Thomas Jefferson made a very interesting statement. He believed that recurring changes in revolution had to exist to obtain a healthy democracy and government. By believing this he also believed in rebellion. Taking from Jefferson’s statement a rebellion corrects the faults of a government and more importantly is necessary to guarantee the strength of a society and supports the public freedom.

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117 Words | 1 Pages

In this essay written by Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson announces the separation of the thirteen colonies from Great Britain because of their controlling manner over their freedoms and life itself. Throughout his statement, Jefferson begins to mention the start of the nation’s new start and how no man should have to be completely controlled by their government or treated differently when every man should secure all their given rights as a human being. Jefferson then went on to explain that when a government becomes destructive or harmful to it’s people, the people should then completely abolish the government or find a way to alter it to create a new fresh government that is for it’s people, not against.

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752 Words | 4 Pages

Acts of treason, actual or supposed, litter American history, but questions of loyalty in American history is determined more often by opinion than facts. The various reactions to treason display a fundamental issue regarding loyalty and disloyalty in American history. Loyalty and disloyalty are driven by a similar, but different, essential driving factor that is mostly determined by public opinion. By using specific examples, it is easily detectable that the fundamental issues with deciding a person’s loyalty, which is intertwined with the roots of loyalty and disloyalty that drive the two principles, are public opinion and cause.

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876 Words | 4 Pages

Jefferson claims it is time to expose the abuses the colonies have undergone and that it is not only their “right” but also their “duty” to throw off a government that oppress their people. He first states twelve abuses that involve King George III’s establishment of a tyrannical authority in place of a representative government. He mentions how King George III interfered with their right to make laws for the public good by rejecting many proposals from the colonies, replacing government representatives with his own ministers, therefore creating a bias government, and interfering with the naturalization of citizens in new regions. Abuses thirteen through twenty-two describe how the parliament’s involvement destroyed the colonist’s right to self-rule. For example the Legislation, passed without colonial consent, the quartering of troops in their colonies, the shutting off of trade with other parts of the world, to force colonist to be tried in England and among these many other.

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153 Words | 1 Pages

Though treason became more specifically defined in the U.S. Constitution, it remained the most serious of crimes in the new democratic republic. The colonists fought a difficult, bloody battle for their freedom. With victory

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1260 Words | 6 Pages

In The Declaration of Independence, Jefferson uses essential logical evidence to back up his claims as to why America is justified in seceding and why the actions King George ||| took against America were wrong. The use of logos within the document also helps the American people realize their freedoms and that they should defend them. His attempts at logos set the basis for the reasons why the 13 colonies should secede. "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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --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." This sentence in the Declaration incorporates logos by explaining that all people have equal rights and the right to demand them.

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805 Words | 4 Pages

The Declaration of Independence: An unsuccessful validation for deceitfulness and treason Thomas Jefferson and the Sons of Liberty failed to justify treason and war when composing the Declaration. Lets begin by clarifying that the colonies had been for long a land of lawlessness, chaos and disorder, where people smuggled to avoid taxes. One perfect example is John Hancock of Massachussetts, who was a very known politician and smuggler. He was even arrested for it and colonist started riots, to set him free so they could be able to purchase his illegal goods (Tea). The Crown, when seeing all the smuggling going on, they decided to sell Tea at a lower cost than the smuggled tea.

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635 Words | 3 Pages

Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested (Paine, 1776)”. Thomas Paine disagrees with the British government and the way they handling business he encouraged Americas to declare their independence. The Declaration of independence was a documented created by Thomas Jefferson that announced the split from the colonies and Great Britain, it. The Declaration of Independence states “we hold these…all men are created equal...with certain unalienable rights...that when any form of government becomes destructive... It is the right of the people to alter or abolish it (Jefferson, 1776)”.

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607 Words | 3 Pages

History has shown that rebellion can be both good and bad. Rebellion can be done as a society or as an individual. In many cases throughout history, rebellion has been not only morally acceptable, but necessary for the greater good. One of history’s most well-known arguments for the necessity of rebellion is the Declaration of Independence of the United States. When the 13 colonies were being oppressed by British rule, the men who would become known as the founding fathers adopted the Declaration, which states that they are rebelling against British rule and gives a detailed argument for why this is necessary.

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1290 Words | 6 Pages

Herbert J. Storing, an Associate Professor of Political Science, in “The Case Against Civil Disobedience,” writes, “One of the practical consequences of this institution [civil disobedience] is to divert disobedience and even revolution into the channel of law” (97). What Storing is saying is that civil disobedience will encourage people to break the laws and they will hide under civil disobedience to avoid the law. Also, civil disobedience might split society by creating disagreements with the people, and it could create a political instability. However, Storing fails to see that those who break an unjust law, as discussed above, do not avoid the law, in fact they show respect to the law as they willingly accept the consequences. By accepting the consequences, they show that they are not acting for their own interests but for society’s.

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726 Words | 3 Pages

During the writing of “The Declaration of Independence”, Thomas Jefferson go to great lengths to describe why the colonies were choosing to separate themselves from Great Britain. This is done not only so readers will have a detailed description of what the American people were facing while being ruled by the King. The vivid depiction of all the cruelty he has shown towards the people. Furthermore, the lengthy, highly descriptive examination of all the wrongs and showing that the colonists made many appeals to the King but also the people of Britain that the reader now feels as if it is wrong for the Colonies to be under Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson begins by detailing the ethical standings of all people that live within the colonies.

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