The Pros And Cons Of The American Declaration Of Independence

Although the Declaration of Independence is now viewed as the official document that wholly released the United States from the political grasp of Great Britain, this was not the initial intended purpose of this document. In fact, at the time the first draft was written, the Colonists merely desired better treatment from the then supreme political power. Yet certain events inspired the American colonists to rethink their proposal for negotiation- events that led to revisions present in the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. As a means to ridicule Britain on its unjust principles, the Colonists imitated the British Declaration to expose Britain on its hypocritical views of equality. Therefore, it is easy to conclude that the American

Yet while the Colonists tried to mock the King, they also needed to find a way to express their views about England and its unjust actions. The result was that the American Declaration placed a strong emphasis on the negatives of the previous tyrannical ruler, similar to how the English Declaration points out the negatives of the previous English ruler(King James II). In fact, in both documents, the flaws of King James II and the flaws of King George III are mentioned first and foremost to demonstrate how any change could be better than past circumstances. For example, in the English Declaration, the document uses anaphora of the word “By” followed by a flaw in King James’ kingdom (“Avalon” Avalon). Similarly, the American Declaration repeats the words “He has” followed by the unjust ruling King George III (“Declaration” Ushistory). By repeating what the English Declaration does to a great extent, the American Declaration is adding pressure to the fact that the English have done to others what they did not want to be done to them. Moreover, the two documents do not simply give a few examples of the wrongdoings of both Kings. In fact, the English Declaration points out fifteen flaws and the American Declaration points out eighteen. Not surprisingly, the American Declaration includes examples of wrongs committed by King George III that are similar to the wrongs of King James II. For instance, one of the flaws mentioned in the English Declaration is, “By raising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom in time of peace without consent of Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to law” and “ excessive fines have been imposed; illegal and cruel punishments inflicted” (“Avalon” Avalon). In order to show the similar tyrannical characteristics of King George III, the writers included, “He has