The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson

About the Author

• Thomas Jefferson was an accomplished founding father, as he was active in the cause for independence, served as governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War, and was the U.S. minister in France.
• He was also the first secretary of state, the second vice-president, and the third president.
• He made the Louisiana Purchase.
• He was the son of a farmer and practiced law.
• He served in colonial Virginia legislature and distinguished himself by his legal writing.
• He had a "canine apetite for reading" about history, classics, law, science, and philosophy.
• He taught himself architecture from books, designing his estate at Monticello and the buildings at the University of Virginia.
• However, Jefferson was a slave owner (600+), so his image of being the "apostle of liberty" is tarnished.
• He played the violin and was an amateur inventor.
• He developed the policy of separation of church and state, and favored states' rights over those of the federal government.
• Died on July 4, the same day as his political rival, John Adams.

Summary

• The Declaration of Independence is a public document
• While reading this, it's important to keep in mind these are British colonies, not the United States yet. This document lets them become the U.S.
• In September 1774, 56 delegates met in Philadelphia at the First Continental Congress to issue a declaration of colonial rights, agreeing to meet again in May 1775 if their demands weren't met by the British.
• After their demands weren't met, the Second Continental Congress occurred and Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams formed a committee to write the Declaration of Independence.
• Jefferson was the one who actually wrote it, and Congress made many changes to the list of grievances, but the declaration of rights wasn't touched.
• It was published in Congress on July 4, 1776.
• Jefferson begins by saying that they want to become independent and will respectfully declare the reasons in that document.
• They hold some self-evident truths:
• All men are created equal.
• Men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights:
• life
• liberty
• pursuit of happiness
• Just governments are instituted to secure these rights and derive their power from the people
• Whenever any government becomes destructive, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute a new government, laying its foundations on these principles and organizing its power so that they'll have the best effect on safety and happiness.
• Prudence will dictate that governments should not change for light and transient causes, and people are more disposed to suffer than to abolish what makes them suffer.
• When a long train of abuses and usurpations pursues the same object and despotism appears (unlimited power held by one person), it's people's right and duty to throw off such a government, as was the case of the colonies.
• They complain because King George III of England (reigned 1760-1820):
• Has established an absolute tyranny.
• Has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good (didn't approve laws that would help the colonies).
• Has forbidden Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation until his assent is obtained (when so suspended, he has neglected to attend them).
• Has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless these people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature (shows he's a tyrant because he takes inestimable rights)
• Has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measure
• Has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people 
• Has refused for others to be elected after he dissolves representative houses, leaving the State exposed to all dangers of invasion from outside and uprisings within.
• Has tried to stop population growth, for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
• Has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
• Has made judges dependent on him for tenure (job security) and payment of salary (if judges wouldn't agree with him, they'd get fired or not paid).
• Has erected offices and sent swarms of officers to harass people and "eat out their substance" (use their resources).
• Has kept standing armies among us in times of peace, without consent of their legislature (army complaint).
• Has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. 
• Has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to their constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent (approval) to what they say (Parliament and the King would make laws for the colonies, but they wouldn't have a say)
• They complain about the laws Parliament has passed:
• For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us (army complaint).
• For protecting the soldiers, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States (army complaint).
• For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world.
• For imposing taxes on us without our consent.
• For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury.
• For transporting us beyond the seas, to be tried for pretended offenses.
•  For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province (Quebec), establishing there an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies (Using Quebec like another absolutist regime).
• For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments.
• For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
• Then, a list of complaints against the king continues:
• He has abdicated government here (given up responsibility), by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.
• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people (army complaint).
• He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy (treachery) scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation (army complaint).
• He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren (British brothers of the same nation), or to fall themselves by their hands.
• He has excited domestic insurrection amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
• The colonies have petitioned for redress (correction/compensation) in humble terms at every stage, but answered with repeated injury.
• "A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."
• They have also warned their British brothers, but they've been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity (shared history and ancestry).
• They declare their independence from the British, making them "enemies in war, in peace friends."
• The "Representatives of the United States of America" appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world (God) so their United Colonies become Free and Independent states, absolved from all allegiance to the British crown.
• They grant themselves the power to:
• levy war
• conclude peace
• contract alliances
• establish commerce
• do all things independent states do
• Through "Divine Providence," they pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor in support of the declaration.
• The tone, diction, choice of material, and arrangement of this document is what makes it a valuable literary piece.
• The tome of the declaration is clear, concise, and factual, NOT emotional.
• The language is eloquent and sophisticated.