Pros And Cons Of Democracy In The United States

In 1776, the Continental congress elected that Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston help write what many now know today to be The Declaration of Independence. The whole point of this document being written was to declare to Great Britain and King George III that the British colonies in North America would no longer be a part of Great Britain, but rather of their own free states, thus creating the United States of America and declaring independence from Great Britain. Because of what The Declaration of Independence stood for, it has been regarded highly throughout American

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.

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.

     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

Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, and is one with representative institutions and a rule of law.

What were Thomas Jeffereson’s, Alexander Hamilton’s, John Jay’s, and James Madison’s reasons behind the most historical documents? Durning the time period of the Founding Father’s the American colonies were barely starting to form a government and it had its flaws and they still had to deal with gaining their independence from Great Britain. In the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jeffereson writes it to give reasons to why the American colonies are going to seperate from Great Britain. Hamilton, Jay, and Madison write the Federalists Papers to try and convince the people of the American colonies to ratify the new constitution. In the Declaration of Independence Jefferson gives logical reasoning and also emtional reasoning through the type of words he uses and in the Federalists Papers they use logical reasoning and their creditbilty to convince the people.

How were the American colonists able to create a government powerful enough to protect their freedoms, yet draft a document that would protect them from the government? The American patriots fighting for freedom. It was independence that gave them every reason to fight. They began by proclaiming to the King of England the liberties they deserved in the Declaration of Independence. After the colonists separated from England, through this document, they fought the Revolutionary War. The revolution was a war against the tyrant King George III of England with the intention of a new nation. In order to keep law and justice while they fought, they designed the Articles of Confederation. It was these articles that governed the colonists though most of the war. After they defeated Great Britain, the patriots realized the Articles of Confederation left the federal government too powerless. Originally they met to modify the articles, however they realized they would have to make an entirely new document. This document is called the United States Constitution. The constitution described the liberties declared in the declaration and followed the outline of the Articles of confederation. The American system of government began with the Declaration of Independence, continued to develop with the Articles of Confederation, and was perfected in the United States Constitution.

The Declaration of Independence is both successful in terms of writing and usefulness to the nation some 240 years later. It is written with a subtlety that without deeper investigation is missed by the common reader. Its sections work to build Pathos in order to appeal to readers, then the writer proves his character using intuitive wording creating an Ethos for the reader to trust. Finally the author lays out facts to the argument. It has a distinct style of writing that gives the reader both a sense of importance and urgency to the argument. The Declaration of Independence is perhaps the most subtly compelling argument to ever be put to paper in

The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The document announced that the colonies regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states no longer under British rule. The writers of the Declaration expressed ideals stating that men are created equal and that all men have basic human rights given to them by God. The purpose of a government, according to the Founding Fathers, was to protect the basic human rights which Jefferson listed as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” However, the deplorable institution of slavery prospered after America gained its independence. African Americans were denied natural rights and were not

A democracy is when the common people are considered as the primary source of political power. Although democracy and absolutism had advantages and disadvantages, democracy was a more effective type of government for it limited royal power and protected the rights of the people socially, politically, and economically. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, tension arose between the two different types of governments, the democracy and absolute monarchs.

The video began in 1776 with the focus on George Washington as General as the Red Coats docked in Boston Harbor to gain control over colonies. Many of the revolutionary army was made of untrained country and city men compared to the British, who were the most powerful country in the world. In July 4th, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed around the same time over 400,000 British fleets made dock in Manhattan, New York. This was the biggest attack until 9/11 in 2001. The American men that was captured by the Brits were held captive in the ship nicknamed Hell. I was truly astonished and appalled when I saw this in the video for I never heard of this ship before and the diseases that spread amongst the men killed more than the actual

A weakness of democracy is the “Tyranny of the Majority”. This is an inevitable pitfall, because in a democracy, the power is vested foremost in the people the constituting the society itself. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote on this concept:

Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Democracy allows eligible citizens to participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.

When foreigners envision the United States, they often visualize economic opportunities, but more importantly: liberty and equality. The birth of America could only happen with the hard and persevered works of its founding fathers; this includes the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Danielle Allen, a professor of government at Harvard University and an African American, claims the Declaration as patrimony. In her book Our Declaration, she defended and argued how the Declaration provides liberty and equality to the American people. But intense analysis of the Declaration proves otherwise. Allen’s interpretation of the document was wrong; the Declaration of Independence is not a document of liberty and equality for all, but rather a document for white men that transcribes the founding fathers’ desire for superiority and the coding of white privilege.