What Is The Rhetoric In The Declaration Of 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 is the most masterfully written document in the history of Western Civilization. The tone and urgency of this work influenced the colonial citizens to take action. Jefferson’s passion and persuasion helped change the course of history for the United States of America as we know it. The opening arguments of the document appeal to the peoples’ God given rights and compels them to separate from the British crown. Historians credit the Declaration of Independence with finalizing the revolutionary revolt and ultimate separation of the colonies from the British. This well written document contains a plethora of rhetorical appeals. Jefferson’s usage of the literary devices, rhetorical appeals known by the names of ethos, pathos, and logos convinced the Colonial people that the American colonies had no choice but to separate from Great Britain.

The Declaration of Independence is one of the most remarkable documents of the United States of America. The elaborate document contains almost fourteen-hundred words including a basic structure divided into two parts and within the two divided parts contains four main ideas within seven components. The declaration is not just any standard written document; it is a work of art painted by colonists who are driven by rage because of King George III of Great Britain injustices’ toward the colonies. This exemplifies that colonists took control and took part in creating the Declaration of Independence by voicing their opinions, hoping to acquire the freedom they deserve, “through time, to come together in one place, in one time, and in one

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 King in his right mind has total control and power of the colonies and can do whatever he deems necessary to control them. With that said, The king of that time, not thinking about the peoples feelings went ahead and instead of making the people happy did whatever he could to make the government better. Which in the long run was to make money. Well every time the king mad a law to make up for another law that the people didn’t like, it

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.

While the colonists had many grievances surrounding King George III the strongest grievance was his plan “To force colonist to buy English products” he had Parliament place high taxes on goods from other countries. The key word

“During the 150 years after the settlement of Jamestown, the colonies grew apart from the motherland”. – (Lecture). Colonies were beginning to support themselves economically and politically without British input. This of course meant they had and were exercising different economic and political views than England. Colonies that failed in the beginning were being restored. While Britain was dealing with issues in England, no new English colonies were established in America for nearly thirty years since Lord Baltimore received the charter for Maryland in 1632. – (Page 26) “The English colonies eventually united, expanded, and became the beginnings of a great nation”. – (Page 28). The colonies became independent minded and created their own governments, and operated separately from the crown. “The growing colonial ventures were producing pressure in England for a more uniform structure to the empire. The English government began trying to regulate colonial trade in the 1650s.” – (Page 32) England imposed the Navigation Acts. This didn’t go well because most colonial governments except Virginia operated independently of the crown. Additionally, although the Navigation Acts were passed - they were not enforced. While Parliament was crashing, “the colonial assemblies, taking advantage of the weak imperial administration, had asserted their own authority to levy taxes, make appropriations, approve appointments, and pass laws for their respective colonies.” – (Page 37). “The British took little notice. England pursued polices of Salutary neglect, leaving the colonist fairly free to conduct their own internal

Today, many American’s are proud to identify that the Declaration of Independence marks the beginning of freedom for North America. However, as students in history classes across American schools and colleges dig deeper into the realities of the country’s battles for freedom of rights it represents that from the beginning the Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the American people. The signing of the Declaration of Independence on the face of it depicts it as liberty and democracy, but the realism is that the American colonists had little choice or no choice at all, in how the American British governed its people. It is clear, the American colonies never gave up their fight for freedom and human rights, but the British Revolution still

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.

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

In the years of 1775-1776 the American colonist were locked under British control and were stripped away from their rights and their freedom. During this time the Americans came together to unite and secede from the British power. Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine’s purpose revealed through the Declaration of Independence and exhibits the ideal of freedom and justice. Through these actions, determination sought forth for sovereignty.

This document takes many of the ideas presented in the other documents that have been examined in this essay and “ties them all together” into one set of formal complaints against the British monarchy. Like the other documents, The Declaration of Independence states that the British king has “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations” and attempted to arbitrarily assert his power over the colonies (Document 7). The Declaration also states that “in every stage of these oppressions [the colonists had] petitioned for redress in the most humble terms” (Document 7). These two statements show that the colonists’ repeated attempts at peaceful solutions to their problems with the British government were never taken seriously and that the king took every petition and grievance as an opportunity to usurp the colonists’ rights as British

The path towards the American Revolution did not unfold with a singular action, but was the result of an almost domino effect of events that stirred unrest in the American colonies. The earliest of these events was the Seven Years’ War, the conflict that took place in the Ohio territories from 1754 to 1763. The war brought forth victory to the Americans and British, but it also brought a shared cost in both lives and money, which led to a chain of events known as the imperial crisis of the 1760’s between the two victors. The first of the events to take place was the uprising of various Native American tribes known as Pontiac’s Rebellion.

Not only that, because the British viewed the colonists as unreliable and poor fighters, they took advantage of the colonists and began to take away their rights and freedom. For example, at the end of the war in 1763, George Grenville became the chief minister of Britain’s king. Grenville’s main concern was on maintaining the British military left in North America, since he wanted the Americans to know that they were still the subject of the British empire. However, due to the British’s bankrupt after the war, there wasn’t enough money to maintain the military. So, in order to solve the problem, Minister Grenville began to impose taxes that were aimed at colonists, “who he expected to bear their share of running the empire.”(pg 140). Also, by imposing the Sugar Acts of 1764, the Currency Act of 1751, the Coercive Acts of 1774, and the Stamp Act of 1765, this allowed the British Parliament to gain more control on the colonies. Due to this reason, colonists’ view on the British government changed