Importance Of The Declaration Of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is the document that created the great nation that we now call the United States of America. Although all four of the keys ideals are important, the unalienable rights ideal is by far the most important because without life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the other three key ideals would not have meaning. Equality is a right to be protected. Consent of the governed is needed to protect these unalienable rights. Finally, if the people feel that their unalienable rights are not being protected, they can alter or abolish government.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These words should sound familiar to most people. They were included in the Declaration of Independence, which was mainly written by Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration announced America’s separation from Britain, tyranny, and the monarchy.

In comparing Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists, The Declaration of Independence, and U.S. Constitution, it is evident that the basis of all three documents is the idea that all human beings possess God-given fundamental rights and that government is created to protect those rights. The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, is the first of the three documents penned. This is important because it defined the rights of liberty and equality of all American citizens as outlined in John Locke’s natural law thesis (Martin, page 113). In addition to providing an itemized account of the grievances colonist’s held against King George III of England, it served to justify the colonist’s quest for independence and separation from British rule. The Declaration of Independence conveyed to the crown that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, which among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The Founders’ of the New World understood that their pursuit of liberties and autonomy specified in the Declaration of Independence could not come to fruition without instituting decrees. In 1787, the U.S. Constitution, was written to replace the Articles of Confederation with a better defined series of stringent laws that would legally uphold the freedoms and privileges established in the Declaration of Independence. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights in

On June of 1776, the Declaration of Independence was born. Drawn up by Thomas Jefferson and based on the works of John Locke, the general purpose of the document was to clarify that governments have conditional, not absolute authority over the people; that human beings possess natural rights that can’t be taken from them and government is created to protect those rights. The phrases “unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “all men are created equal” were the main theme of the social contract written for the small colonies of what would be the basis of the United States of America to declare independence from Great Britain and its tyrannical king. However, “unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “all men are created equal” did not apply to African Americans, enslaved or free for the coming years.

Though term was yet to be coined, these rights give birth to the "American Dream." The bulk of The Declaration is specific in making complaints to and about King George the III. All the complaints are in violation of some basic right or another. The Declaration of Independence in essence says to England, "we are free men, and potentially a great nation, we will not be restricted and bound by your unjust and inhumane laws any longer."

One of the most important parts of the Declaration of Independence is its preamble, and, more specifically, certain phrases contained within the preamble. Thomas Jefferson does an excellent job of explaining why the colonies are doing the things they are doing, and is very clear in stating what he and his associates think are the “unalienable rights” of the American people. Among these are “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Probably one of the most famous lines in American history, I have chosen to focus on this phrase and what those three things might have meant to Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers as they prepared this document, as well as what they mean to us today.

     A democracy is a system of government controlled by the people, not by one certain group or individual. In the Declaration of Independence it states that “all men are created equal,” an idea which leads to the concept that all citizens should have the same rights, responsibilities, and influence in the governing of their country. In writing the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson was trying to break his ties with the harsh and non-democratic rule of the British and begin a new, equal society and government for America.

“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

This was a document that was written to explain why we should break away from Great Britain and become independent from their laws. It explains that all men (and now women too) are created equal and were born with rights that cannot be taken away…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To ensure that these rights remain, the people create a government and laws that will protect these rights. When the government starts to act in such a way that these rights are threatened…then the people have the right to change the government or remove it and replace it with a new one. It then continues to list the reasons why they want to sever ties with Great Britain and list the ways they feel they have

John Adams said, “...a more equal liberty than has prevailed in other parts of the earth must be established in America.” The Declaration of Independence was proposed as a solution to America’s problems with King George and Britain; however, congressman Adams saw that it was the perfect time to set the example of a proper government that served to ease the function of a country, not make it more difficult. The declaration needed to be attractive to the people in order to become united in favor of a separation from Britain. With that being said, Jefferson included 4 essential ideals which would be the foundation of this new nation’s government: equality, consent of the governed, the right to alter or abolish government, and most importantly unalienable rights.

One of the ideals in the Declaration of Independence is more significant than the other ideals. Some ideals in the Declaration are Equality (Document A), Natural Rights (Document B), Consent of the Governed (Document B), and Common Sense (Document D).Equality (Document A) is the most important ideal because everyone should be treated the exact same no matter what race,

" Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and their relevance today you ask? Without any of these our country would be at constant conflict, everyone would be fighting for freedom and power. If we didn’t have the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights, women wouldn’t be allowed to vote, African Americans wouldn’t be able to have the freedoms they do today, LGBT wouldn’t be able to have the rights that they have (marriage), people who believe in certain religions wouldn’t be able to follow in the religion they believe in, etc. Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights characterize the meaning of freedom.

Declaration of Independence is what gave us Americans our name. Without this we would still just be the lower part of Britain. More specifically the signing of this document july 4th, 1776 is what is most important. It is basically the birth of our country as a whole and the beginning of many wars to come. This declaration of independence is the birthing of our country and the beginning of every hardship we pulled through.

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” is a phrase nearly every American knows as being the three unalienable rights that cannot be revoked by the government. These self-evident truths first appeared in the Declaration of Independence, a document written to rid the United States from its torrid oppressors. Liberty, however, is the most important of the three, seeing as if American did not have it, residents would simply be slaves to their government and could not be truly free-thinking citizens.

The Declaration of Independence was written to explain, why colonies chose to separate from Great Britain. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson explains that if the government becomes unfair and controlling, a body of people have the right to change governments. Jefferson organized his argument in a format of writing an essay. He organized his document with an introduction, body, and conclusion.