The Pros And Cons Of The Declaration Of Independence

It’s strange how we tend to value something more after it has been taken from us. Many times, we take for granted what we have. Only when we lose something do we truly see how much it is worth but by then it may be too late. In the United States of America, we enjoy many things that people from other countries can only dream of. Except that these things seem small to some of us and we may not even consider them special in any way. We don’t notice that they’re there but if they were to be taken away from us, we would, without a doubt notice that they’re missing. These things are the four ideals outlined in our Declaration of Independence, equality, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the consent of the governed, and to

Some people believe that the Declaration of Independence is “the most influential document in American history” (Pg. 67 paragraph 1). Whether that is true or not is up for speculation but what is certain is that it took a long time and a lot of work for the declaration to finally become what it is today. The declaration was not a one-man job, it took all of the the Continental Congress to write it. A year into the war, the congress appointed a Committee of 5 to right a draft of the declaration, the five men on the committee were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Thomas Jefferson was the main author of the declaration, he wrote the vast majority of it. When he was done writing the first

This like every other line in the declaration has been subjected to some speculation. Jefferson didn’t explicitly say who he was referring to when he wrote men, he could have meant all men of every race, despite the fact that he was a slave owner or he could have only meant white men. At the time Jefferson wrote this, women were seen as inferior to men and white men say themselves as the superior race so it is likely that the phrase “all men” was only referring to white men. The road to equality was very bumpy for minority groups like women, African Americans, and Native Americans among others. It was not easily handed over, it took constant demands that went unheard and continuous protests that many times involved violence but eventually the efforts of these groups paid off. One of the earliest women’s rights convention was the Seneca Falls COnvention in 1848 in July. Roughly 26 women along with 40 men met here and came up with the Declaration of Sentiments, it was nearly identical to the Declaration of Independence. The only change to was “ We hold these truths to be self- evident that all men and women are created equal,” (Document A) all they did was add a single word, a very simple change but the significance behind it was what was truly important. Most of us take equality for granted because we have never known a life without it but for someone