Analytical Summary of Declaration of Independence
“The Declaration of Independence” written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Continental Congress, states the reasons the British colonies of North America sought independence from the British crown. The Declaration opens by describing the document's necessity in explaining why the colonies have to disconnect with English crown in order to take their place as a separate nation in the world. The Declaration states that all men are created equal and there are certain unalienable rights that governments should never violate. Furthermore, King George III is guilty of specific abuses because he interfered with the colonists' right to self-government and for a fair judicial system. The colonial governments tried to reach a peaceful reconciliation of these differences with Great Britain, but were continually ignored. In conclusion, the new nation will be called the United States of America and will have fewer connections with Great Britain.
Better than defining the Declaration's task as one point of view, which would doubtless raise the defenses of readers as well as imply that there was more than one public view of the British-American conflict, the introduction identifies the purpose of the Declaration as simply to announce publicly in explicit terms the causes forcing American colonies to leave the British empire. This gives the Declaration an impression of objectivity that it will seek to maintain throughout. Rather than presenting one side in a public controversy on which good and decent people could differ, the Declaration suggests to do no more than a natural philosopher would do in reporting the causes of any physical event. The issue it implies is not one of interpretation but of observation.
Like the introduction, the next section of the Declaration is universal in tone and scale. It contains no explicit reference to the British- American conflict, but outlines a general philosophy of government that makes revolution justifiable. The Declaration says, "all men are created equal." This does not mean that they are all equal in all ways. They are equal in some particular way that is the most important way. They have something essential in common. In other words, they have the same "nature”, and therefore they have the same natural rights.
The third and longest part of the text consists of the twenty-seven abuses of the king. Jefferson claims that the colonists have patiently suffered these abuses and that it is now time to expose these abuses to the nations of the world. The first twelve abuses refer about king’s establishment of a tyrannical authority, obstructing the administration of justice, and maintaining a standing army during peacetime. The second group attacks the king for combining with "others" (Parliament) to subject colonies to a variety of unconstitutional measures, including taxing the colonists without agreement, cutting off their trade with the rest of the world, limiting their right to trial by jury, and shifting their charters. The third set of abuses attacks the king's violence and cruelty in waging war against his American subjects, starting with “He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.” Throughout this section of the Declaration, form and content reinforce one another to magnify the treatment of the king.Whereas the first twenty-two grievances describe the king's acts with such moderate verbs as "refused," "dissolved," or "affected," the war grievances use more emotional verbs such as "plundered," "burnt," and "destroyed." This gives more gradation into the document. The emotional intensity of the war grievances was a natural result of the subject. It is hard to write about warfare without using strong language.
The conclusion is important in clarifying the identity of the new nation, as well as defining the powers granted to the new government. Many people saw the Declaration of Independence important because of the message it would send to foreign nations. Therefore, they thought it is necessary to state clearly that they had no allegiance or connection to Great Britain. The new nation is not only named in this conclusion as the United States of America, but its authority is defined as well. The conclusion serves to establish the authority of the Continental Congress over issues of international affairs, war and peace, and trade. With these powers, the Congress is able to run the affairs of government that “have full power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and so all the other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.” However, the conclusion is unclear regarding the individual states' responsibilities to each other. The Declaration describes itself as a union of colonies, each of which is a free and independent state. This is problematic because the statement indicates that the colonies are one united subject, while at the same time stating that each state is free and independent.
The Declaration of Independence is the American’s most respected symbol of liberty for me. Here, in the most explicit phrases, Jefferson expressed confidence in the minds and hearts of the American people. The political philosophy of the Declaration was not new. John Locke and the Continental philosophers had already expressed its ideas of individual liberty. What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in "self-evident truths" and set a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country.