The Declaration Of Independence Rhetorical Analysis

Representative for Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, in his draft of the Declaration of Independence, argues that the colonies had the right to break away from British rule. Jefferson’s purpose is to state the many reasons the colonies had that led them to make that decision. He writes in a formal tone using parallelism and strong diction and syntax that appeal to pathos in order to help the king understand why the colonies chose to declare independence.

The product of patriotism and diligent acts, a country truly defined by its individuality and unmistakable glory. These few but finest accomplishments were significantly dependent on the document, the one that transformed the true value of what we have become as an independent country: The Declaration of Independence. Many individuals felt a need for change when being governed by the British. Some of these individuals included our Founding Fathers who created this document to make known that the thirteen colonies would fight independently and eradicate being ruled under Great Britain. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson uses allusions, parallelism as well as anaphora to express the struggle and fight for singularity and

            The Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress expresses the thirteen American colonies desire to disjoin from Great Britain. Chapter 4 of “After the Fact,” entitled Declaring Independence, presents factual viewpoints of historians as well as thorough examinations aroused from the possible confusions of the renowned document.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, explains to his readers why the colonies chose to abolish Great Britain’s government. His goal is to inform the readers that the government has certain responsibilities to the governed and that the British failed to adhere to its responsibilities to its colonists. His second goal is to justify their actions by explaining why it was not considered treason. By establishing his credibility and appealing to ethos, pathos and logos, Jefferson successfully wrote an informative, impactful, and inspirational document.

The tyranny of England was not the sole power that led to the rights and liberty declared in the Declaration of Independence. Instead, it was Britain’s own Bill of Rights which acted as a precursor to America’s document of freedom. Although there are a vast amount of similarities between the two documents, I will argue that they are different in stated grievances, remedies, views on sources of political power, models of governance, and of rights and government.

This is a speech from the movie Independence Day (1996). A foreign spacecraft has fallen from the sky and alien species have already diminished cities from around the world. Survivors of the alien attacks head to Area 51, where it is rumored that the government holds alien spacecraft. They devise a plan against the alien species and July 4th is their attack day. The president stands up, and over an intercom gives a motivational speech to the fighter pilots from around the world. His purpose for the speech is to unite the fighters from around the world before they go attack the aliens.

The physicality of an individual can endure many trials, but the resilience of the soul can overcome the greatest obstacles. The hearts of many American colonists grew weary as they continued their path of adversity for independence. The American colonists faced the toughest battles toward the end of the 18th century, where they experienced physical hardships and faintness of their soul. To overcome British tyranny, the deteriorating colonies needed to unite with one internal desire. The Declaration of Independence consisted of many key components that gave the colonists reason to join arms and fight for their independence.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are two significant documents that transformed the history of the United States. The people of the “New World” went from being ruled by British law and living in the thirteen colonies, to becoming an independent nation with a democratic government. The Declaration was written to ensure that all official ties with its mother country, Great Britain, were suspended indefinitely. It then went on to describe the concepts and ideologies behind a just and fair government. The Constitution, however, outlined how the newly democratic government would operate. In 1776, after the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, a verdict was made that the only constructive way to ensure independence as a nation would be to declare independence from King George III, Parliament, and Great Britain. The colonists sought to fashion a clear, detailed document, known as the Declaration of Independence, which stated why the people chose to move in this direction as well as providing several arguments to support their case. This world-renown document is a symbol of the unity between the 13 colonies during their fight for independence during the American Revolutionary War.

In his document, The Declaration of Independence (1776), Jefferson and the representatives in the general congress proclaim that because all men possess unalienable rights, and due to the transgressions committed by the repressive British King against the people of the 13 colonies, the colonists should be entitled to dissolve all allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, and engender a new nation that “[has] full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do”(4). Jefferson supports this proclamation by enumerating the rights of people when both facing and not facing a corrupt government, distinguishing the copious actions of King George

The Boston Tea Party, unreasonably high tax rates, and the quartering of soldiers provoked the creation of a compelling and monumental document: The Declaration of Independence. In 1778, representatives from all 13 colonies assembled to divulge a plan that would free them from Great Britain’s tyrannical ruler King George III. In order to establish an effective and convincing plan, the colonial delegates needed to produce a testimony that would thoroughly persuade its audience to comply with their efforts to disband from the British. Founding father Thomas Jefferson utilizes pathos to assert his objective as well as employes a dramatic tone shift which keeps the audience engaged and emotionally connected to the document’s ambition.

1B) The Declaration of Independence uses several rhetorical strategies, making the argumentative testament of the wrongdoings of the king an effective in pursuing equality for all men. Jefferson utilizes logos, pathos and ethos to prove his point to the country holding their liberty prisoner. Jefferson’s use of logos begins with stating the obvious reason the king should set the people free: the people have the right to the pursuit of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” (2). The King has not done good to the people, in fact he has refused to pass the laws necessary to create order, dissolved representative houses, cut off trade, and imposed unlawful taxes upon the people. They have the basic human rights given to them by God that should set them free from the tyrannical king. Some of the emotional side of Jefferson’s views slip into this argument, such as "mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable" (5). While stating further wrongdoings, Jefferson’s use of pathos increases, raising the rage of the republic at the injustice of the rules they have been subjected to. “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 & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation” (26). Jefferson calls for a sense of empathy from the crown and establishes a sense of severe discontent

The Declaration of Independence written on July 4, 1776, was the first of the three documents written. When reading this document it is hard to ignore the emotion it exudes of a people not just longing for independence, but rather who’ve grown tiresome of the lack of equality compared to that of those on the motherland. The Declaration of Independence is the autonomous stance of a people declaring not just independence, but claiming their right to disassociate themselves from under the leadership from whom they consider a tyrant and therefore, “unfit” to be a leader of the free land. Unlike the US Constitution, this document discusses and/or lists in depth the atrocities and unconstitutional acts displayed by the ruler of England, the King and its theme is more so a grievance.

“We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom” stated once Dwight D Eisenhower. Thomas Jefferson, the father of our Declaration of Independence, had the same mentality as him in seeking for freedom. Jefferson decided to write this document as a way of declaring the independence of the United States from Britain. In the document, he states all the harm that Britain has done to the colonists: socially, mentally, and economically. Jefferson just like the colonist wanted peace in their lives, and freedom from the tyranny of King George III. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson uses ethos, pathos, and logos in order to justify their reason of separation from Britain.

Jefferson began the document by explaining that the rights of the Americans had been brutally molested by the unjust King of Britain. Following this accusation, he provided evidence of this abuse by listing not just a mere handful, but 27 grievances that the King had inflicted against the colonies. Lastly, the conclusion of this article publishes and declares that the United Colonies have the right to be freed from the British and that they have the right to govern themselves as any free country does. The strategic organization of the Declaration of Independence allowed the colonies to be powerfully represented by such a clear and prudently worded

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