2.05A AP English Declaration Questions Essay examples

For homework, read the Declaration of Independence and write answers to the following questions on your own paper.

In Jefferson’s declaration, both the organization and the use of logic are effective and adequate. He begins with the colonists’ fundamental beliefs that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” He addresses that the role of the government is to secure and protect the rights of the people. As he proceeds, he states that if the government fails to “secure these rights,” then “it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and institute new Government.” Jefferson then creates a list of ways in which the British government has violated and stripped the colonists of their rights. Through the inductive proof, he explains the reason in which the colonists must become independent from Britain to gain freedom and to be treated fairly.

-- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

The next section suggests the basic human rights that the founding fathers believed every government should allow their subjects. "…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…."(Jefferson 428) Giving the citizens these basic rights would allow everyone the chance to achieve above their born status, and to strive for whatever might give them happiness.

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” - The Declaration of Independence

CM: The striking similarity to Jefferson’s claim to “certain unalienable Rights... [of] Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” is blatantly obvious; the parallels in these two pieces that guarantee these irrevocable rights are almost word for

     The year was sixteen hundred and eighty-nine and a man by the name of John Locke wrote Second Treatise on Government (Zinn 73). In it, Locke wrote that in a natural state everyone, all people, are born free and equal, and possess certain rights. He said that these “natural rights” were life, liberty, and property. He also said that the evildoers who conspired to deprive others of their life, liberty, or property ruined the good life of the state of nature (Locke). The only way to protect these rights is by joining together to form governments. The power of government, then, stems from the consent of the governed, which entrust the government with responsibility for protecting

“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.”

1) What reasons did Thomas Paine give in his pamphlet Common Sense for why the American Colonies should declare full and complete independence from Great Britain in 1776?

In this essay, I will prove how Jefferson uses a rhetorical structure in his work to attract his audience about the usurpations of the King of Great Britain (King George III). I feel that Jefferson’s rhetoric is justly what makes the Declaration of Independence so significant because he emotionally draws in his readers by presenting them with a lengthy list of grievances that Great Britain had on the United States colonies. I will then show how Jefferson uses literary terms such as the warrant to state his belief on the conflict with Britain, gives supporting facts (list of grievances) to support his belief, and then makes a claim for independence after his exhausting list of grievances to make a solution to the conflict with the British. By having such an effective rhetorical structure in the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson eventually leads the U.S. colonies to independence from Great Britain.

Jefferson wanted a separation of powers within the government in order to prevent one person or group having a tyrannical hold over the nation. He believed

8. Were the Patriots justified in driving Jonathan Boucher into exile? Should they have allowed Tories the same liberty they demanded for themselves?

“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 particular section also plays an especially vital role in declaring the independence from Great Britain as it clearly lays out all of the usurpations the King has committed. When analyzing this segment in particular, it should be noted that this section has a strategic organization in itself as the list of usurpations increases with severity as the list goes on. Expanding upon the organization of this portion of the document, there seems to be a segmentation of the listed abuses. The first section addresses the diminishment of a representative government, and explains how the tyranny of the King has replaced such a system. The following group of accusations include the restrictions the monarch has placed on the colonies’ ability to self-govern. Finally, the last few grievances depict the barbaric nature of the King’s rule, and explain that he has waged war upon the colonies. An abuse that addresses such cruelty is given in the following quote: “HE has constrained our fellow Citizens taken to Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.” Succeeding the long list of the King’s exploitations are the last two paragraphs of the document, which make up the

When looking at the Declaration of Independence and the justifications which Jefferson used in order to encourage the dissolve of the ties between the United Colonies and Great Britain, it becomes apparent how much of the theories of John Locke that Jefferson used as the basis for his argument. Focusing particularly on the second paragraph of the Declaration, the arguments for the equality of each man and the formation and destruction of governments come almost directly from Locke's Second Treatise of Government. The other arguments in the Declaration of Independence deal primarily with each citizen's rights and the natural freedoms of all men, two areas that Locke also spent