The Declaration of Independence

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The Declaration of Independence

• What does the document actually say

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Objectives

• Students will define the key vocabulary terms
  found in the Declaration of Independence
• Students will be able to tell what Jefferson was
  trying to say in the 4 main parts of the
  Declaration
• Students will say what makes a legal revolution
  (according to Jefferson) and then justify whether
  or not our revolt against England was a legal
  revolution (very important idea)

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Key Vocabulary

• Unalienable Right Rights we are born with and
  can not be taken away (Birth rights)
• Self evident Truth-an idea or statement that
  needs no explanation because its meaning should
  be obvious to the reader
• Independence-the ability to be on your own and
  live without help

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So what does the document say?

• What Thomas Jefferson is really saying in the
  Declaration and how it applies to all of us even
  today
• (even though we are not a colony of England!)

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Part 1-The Preamble

• This part of the Declaration just basically says
  there comes a time when we must dissolve the
  bonds that connect us to England and we must tell
  the world why we are doing this and that is what
  we are doing

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Part 2-When is any revolution legal?

• Very long and complicated part of the Declaration
• This is the foundation for our (as well as any
  revolution)
• Several ideas must be talked about to understand
  this

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First part of a Jeffersons explanation of a
legal Revolution

• Jefferson starts out this very important part by
  stating that all men are created equal because we
  were all born with the same set of Unalienable
  (Birth) Rights
• Jefferson never says we remain equal just that we
  are all born equal
• The three rights that Jefferson highlights are
  the rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
  happiness.

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The role of government

• Jefferson then goes on to state that men have
  created government to make sure our rights are
  kept safe.
• Jefferson also says that government gets their
  power from the consent of the governed (in other
  words the power government has comes from us-NEW
  IDEA)
• Important idea the only reason we have government
  is to protect our rights

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What if government does not protect our rights?

• Jefferson states that if government does not
  protect our rights, or worse harms them, it is
  our duty to replace that government with one that
  will respect our rights.
• This is NOT A CHOICE-we must do it.
• There is no limit to what can be done to remove
  that government to get it to change-therefore you
  can have a legal revolution

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Jeffersons test if revolution is legal

• According to Jefferson these are the criteria for
  a legal revolution
• 1) Government has had to harm or fail to
  protect our rights
• 2) we have done everything possible to get
  government to change and everything has failed
  and revolution is our only option
• OK Now that we know Revolution is legal time to
  prove ours was legal-on to part 3

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Part 3-How England has violated our rights?

• In this section Jefferson list 27 separate
  charges against the king of England and others
  stating that our rights as colonist have been
  violated
• By far the longest section of the Declaration
• Some of the charges against the king include.

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The Charges

• Forbidden governors to pass laws of immediate
  importance (response to Coercive Acts)
• Ended local governments and not replaced them
• Had standing armies in the colonies during peace
  time without our consent
• Quartering troops in our homes
• Cutting off our trade (Coercive Acts again)
• Imposing taxes on us without our consent

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More charges

• Denying us trial by jury
• Plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts burnt our
  towns
• He has given up governing us and declared us out
  of his protection and declared war on us
• Fired up the Indians to make war on us
• Hired foreign soldiers to come and make war on us

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Part 4-What have we done to avoid declaring our
independence

• Jefferson says that throughout these events we
  have asked for help and those request have been
  ignored
• Jefferson also states that not only did we
  complain to the king but we took our case to the
  people of England and those complaints were
  ignored
• Jefferson states that we have done everything we
  can do short of revolution (we have played all
  the cards we have but one)

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Part 5-The colonies are declared free

• Jefferson says since we have proven our rights
  have been harmed and we have done everything we
  can and it hasnt worked we have the right to
  declare our independence
• He states that we are now a independent country
  and can do anything a independent country can do
  (France please come help us)

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Long term effects of Declaration

• The Declaration has far reaching effects past our
  little problem with England
• This still applies to all of us today (do you
  think the election two weeks ago was a
  revolution?)
• Declaration was the inspiration for the French
  Revolution, Russian Revolution, and the student
  protests in China in the 1990s.
• Pretty important stall technique wouldnt you say