When the United States of America was first being formed in the late 18th century, the founding fathers were faced with evaluating what it meant to be a good government. They knew they wanted to base it on liberty, equality, and representation, but the process and purpose of the government is what they debated on. In president Thomas Jefferson's Inaugural Address, he said that "a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." I agree with his point of view because the core purpose of government is to make sure other people and the government itself do not infringe upon the rights and freedoms of any person. …show more content…
In the Declaration of Independence the framers made a point to make sure the "unalienable rights" of men were to be protected. This belief is evidenced by the constantly evolving fabric of U.S. law, with new rights added when people realize there is a need for them. For example when we realized that it was a basic right for both men and women to vote, the government added the 19th amendment to the constitution. And when we realized that it was a basic right to not be discriminated based on "race, color, religion, sex, or national origin" in the workplace, the government passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Any government that can guarantee and protect rights such as these has served its purpose in ensuring the freedom of its
The Declaration of Independence, since July 4th, 1776, has continued to always become a guideline to protect those who are oppressed. “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,”” (Doc. A) sets the standards on what the United States of America is all about; equality. From the Report of American Horse by D.F. Royer on November 27, 1890 to the “Reminder Day” for Homosexual Rights on
Thomas Jefferson says that a wise and frugal government will keep its own people from turning against each other, but also enable them to be independent and allow them to economically expand on their own whilst the government does not unfairly take what the citizens earned through hard work. Jefferson might have said this so that he could win favor with the citizens, because it complimented them and at the same time also gave an insight on what he was planning to do as the third president of the United States.
The Declaration of Independence was written on a strong foundation of structuring the nation that we live in, securing a certain number of inalienable rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Perhaps what the authors had in mind was to personally interfere with people’s lives to secure these inalienable rights, but that has certainly changed in our society based on economic, political, and social changes. The government should protect these rights for the people because we have thrived as a nation because of feelings of security, prosperity, and nationalism. As our population grows on a steep incline, our population consists of more diverse and outgoing political believers. If the government were to interfere to secure out
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.
The Declaration of Independence was created to make sure everybody was equal. All men are created equal. Government is upholding the principles of the Declaration of Independence.
The structure of our American Government was founded in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written to be the “supreme law of the land,” and produces a democratic republic, where citizens govern themselves (Our American Government, n.d). The purpose of our government, is to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Our American Government, n.d.). For our country to accomplish this purpose our Founding Fathers created three principles, “inherent rights, self-government, and separation of powers” (Our American Government, n.d.). The government was developed to ensure order in society and protect its citizens, but with all systems, there is strengths and weakness, let’s examine those strengths and weakness. Let’s first look at the strength and weakness of the U.S. Constitution.
The Declaration of independence even states that all men have "unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness… ". Take that how you want, but I think Thomas Jefferson was trying to tell us something.
In most cases for those countries that have become newly independent, it can be seen as protocol to create a document that declares independence and thus when the “revolution” is successful then it is time to create a constitution. A constitution is needed in order to secure those rights that have been fought for and stated in the declaration, “the Declaration of Independence was the promise; the Constitution was the fulfillment” (n.d.). In order to preserve and secure those fundamental rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness stated in the declaration the newly independent colonies drafted the constitution which focused on how the government should function and later adding the bill of rights in order to protect and guarantee individual rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, assembly, bear arms, unreasonable searches, among other. Nonetheless what it is contradictory is the statement that “all men are created equal” in the declaration, but it seemed it only applied to white males due to slavery not being abolished nor any rights given or specified for women.
Jefferson’s idea of the citizen’s natural moral wisdom convinced him that limited government, where power remained in the hands of the people, was the best structure to ensure America’s freedom. He stated, “A wise and frugal Government…shall leave them [men] otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.” Jefferson pushed for a government with a strict interpretation of the Constitution in order to limit governmental powers to those that were
Individual rights and forming a lasting union is what keeps the laws and the lives of people balanced and safe in America. The Declaration of Independence, by Thomas Jefferson, firmly states 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 statement by Jefferson states that all men and women have equal rights and if the government were to go against these rules, the people can alter or abolish it, balancing between preserving individual rights and forming a strong, lasting union. Furthermore, The Declaration of Independence outlines a series of violations of people’s rights that the King of Great Britain, George III, caused by a repeated history of “injuries and usurpations”, as stated in The Declaration of Independence, to the states and overall the people. With the
I believe that Jefferson feels that the function of government is to serve the people. Whatever things the people need or demand the government should be able to provide and/or offer its people. The very reason we have man-made governments is to protect our natural rights, not to interfere with them. The power and authority governments have are given with the people's consent and limited to their protection. The people elect the government because the people believe that those in power will be adequate enough to take care of
In order for something occur, generally there must be something that predates that occurrence. This rule applies to politics as well, for if a government has a particular characteristic, there must be a reason behind it. One cannot simply make a good government out of thin air, without having reason or an idea on how to achieve the end goal of a good government. I still believe a good government is one that sustains itself, adapts to the times in which it lives, protects itself and its citizenry from threats, and reflects what works for the society it is ruling. There is hesitation to use specifics, and for a good reason. Governments over time share very little in characteristics, but they do share governmental needs. Most needs boil down
“The United States was founded on the principle that no one person or group should have too much control”. The Constitution was intentionally structured to allocate specific duties and establish a series of checks and balances among the federal
The United States Constitution that was created from the convention put forth a federal government with more specific powers, including those related to conducting relationships with foreign countries. Under the reformed federal system, many of the responsibilities for foreign communications fell under the authority of an executive branch, although important powers remained with the legislative branch. The constitution came into effect in 1789 and has served as the basis of the United States Government ever since. To resolve certain issues with the rising debts from the revolutionary war and other domestic costs, the delegates at the constitutional convention created a system of checks and balances among the three branches of the federal government.
According to the United States Declaration of Independence, all men are created equal, and that we, as human beings are born with inalienable or God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To protect these rights, according to our textbook, governments are created. They are created to maintain order, provide public goods, services, and equality. Securing these rights and no more, in my opinion, is the true purpose of government. However, while the government is created to protect our unalienable rights, it wasn’t mentioned that its purpose is to govern human rights. Our government today, particularly the law enforcement is abusing human rights. Given the numerous cases of “governed” killings of police brutality victims