What specific events and ideas influenced Thomas Jefferson when he wrote the Declaration of Independence? How are these influences manifested in the Declaration of Independence?

The Declaration of Independence.html

The Declaration of Independence (1776), written primarily by Thomas Jefferson

 

Here I give you a summary of the Declaration of Independence, to help you navigate this most important of American documents.  The declaration itself can be found in the Appendix to Out of Many, on pp. A-1 to A-2.  See also http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html.

 

The Declaration of Independence is one of the great American examples of Enlightenment thinking.

In the first section (paragraphs 1 and 2), Jefferson justifies the colonies’ rebellion against Great Britain by reference to the Enlightenment idea of natural laws (aka natural rights) and the Enlightenment idea of the social contract, both of which had been articulated by Englishman John Locke a century earlier in his Second Treatise on Government.  According to Enlightenment thinkers, God had created laws by which the universe operates; these are called natural laws.  These laws, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, were created by God; governments therefore had no right to violate them.  (Note: in this section Jefferson uses the term “pursuit of happiness”.  For Enlightenment thinkers private property was the basis of one’s security and, thus, one’s happiness.  Therefore, when Jefferson writes that the pursuit of happiness is a natural law, he means that the right to own property is a natural law.) 

The second section of the Declaration of Independence (the rest of p. A-1 and through the end of the paragraph that begins “He has excited domestic insurrections…” on p. A-2 of Out of Many) is Jefferson’s list of grievances.  Here Jefferson lists point-by-point the specific abuses the colonists have suffered, in violation of their natural rights.  These specific grievances support the justification for rebelling that Jefferson described in the first section of the Declaration of Independence. 

In the third section of the Declaration of Independence (the paragraphs beginning “In every stage” and “Nor have we been wanting”) Jefferson describes the efforts made by the colonists to communicate their grievances to the British government and the appeals the colonists made directly to the British people. 

In the fourth section of the Declaration of Independence (the final paragraph), Jefferson reaches his conclusion.  Jefferson presents this conclusion as the logical consequence of the first three sections: (1) there are natural laws; (2) this is how they have been broken; (3) the British government and people have ignored our complaints; (4) therefore… (I won’t ruin the ending – you can read it for yourself!)