Declaration of Independence :: essays papers

solvent of IndependenceThe Declaration of Independence is perhaps the most masterfully writtendocument of Western civilization. This essay seeks to illuminate that prowess by probing the discourse microscopically at the level of the designate, phrase, word, and syllable. By approaching the Declaration inthis way, we can shed light some(prenominal) on its literary qualities and on itsrhetorical power as a work designed to convince the American coloniesthey were justified in seek to establish them as an independentnation. The introduction consists of the first paragraph a single,lengthy, periodic sentence When in the Course of human events, itbecomes necessary for bingle people to dissolve the political bands whichhave connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of theearth, the recess and equal station to which the Laws of Nature andof Natures God entitle them, a the right way respect to the opinions ofmankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel themto the separation. Taken out of context, this sentence is general itcould be used as the introduction to a resolving by any peerless. Seen within its original context, however, it is a model of refinement, andsuggestion that worked on several levels of meaning and allusion. Thisorients readers toward a favorable view of America and prepares themfor the peace of mind of the Declaration. It dignifies the mutation as achallenge of principle. The introduction identifies the purpose of theDeclaration as simply to declare to announce publicly in transparentterms the causes impelling America to leave the British Empire.Rather than presenting one side in a public controversy on which uncorruptedand decent people could differ, the Declaration claims to do no morethan a natural philosopher would do in reporting the causes of anyphysical event. The issue, it implies, is not one of interpretation,but one of observation. The most important word in the introduction isnecessary. T o say an act was necessary implied that it was impelledby urgency or determined by the operation of foolproof natural laws. TheRevolution was not merely preferable, defensible, or justifiable. Itwas as inescapable, as inevitable, and as ineluctable within the courseof human events as the motions of the tides or the changing of theseasons within the course of natural events. The Revolution, withconnotations of necessity, was particularly important because,according to the law of nations, safety to war was lawful only whenit became necessary. The notion of necessity was important that, inaddition to appearing in the introduction of the Declaration, it wasinvoked twice more at crucial junctures in the rest of the text.