The Declaration of Independence

Notes

INTRODUCTIONStephen E. Lucas is a professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. The information in this presentation is from his essay derived from a more comprehensive study, “Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document,” in Thomas W. Benson, ed, American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism (1989). http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_style.html

Course of human events:

By setting the American Revolution within the whole course of human events, it makes it a major event and not just a petty quarrel or political dispute with England.

“necessary”:

Revolution was not merely preferable, defensible, or justifiable. It was inescapable, unavoidable and inevitable.

War was only lawful when it became necessary. All amicable negotiations would have to have failed and all other alternatives for settling differences between the two states would have to have been exhausted.

“necessary” is use twice more throughout the document.

“one people”/”another”

American/British

Two alien people cannot be made into one.

The chasm between the two was more than political. It was social, moral, cultural and could not be bridged.

Conflict could not be seen as a civil war. American need foreign military aid and other countries could not help if it appeared that they were interfering with Britain’s internal affairs.

America and Britain cannot be seen as one because to justify a revolution the whole body (not just America but in this case America and Britain) must support the cause.

“Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them”

America is entitled to a “separate and equal station among the powers of the earth.” It’s a Law of nature and Natures God.

“respect to the opinions of mankind”

All mankind throughout the course of history

“declare”

Declare and not “persuade.” Persuade suggests that there’s a need to convince people to revolt. Declare is to announce publicly in explicit terms—clear and definitive.

The introduction…

Elevates…the quarrel with England from a petty political dispute to a major event in the course of history

Dignifies…the Revolution as a contest of principle

Implies…Americans cause has a special claim to moral legitimacy

All of this without mentioning England or America by name.

Taken out of context the introduction could be used by any oppressed people.

PREAMBLE

There is still no explicit reference to British and American

conflict.

The tone implies that the general philosophy of government

makes revolution justifiable and even meritorious

The Preamble shows the writers’ incredible ability to

compress complex ideas into a brief clear statement.

18 th Century Enlightenment prose style:

Purity, simplicity, directness

“not one word can be moved without disrupting the balance and harmony of the entire preamble.”

Style Perodique

Tone is dignified.

“Sentences are composed of several members linked together and hanging upon another, so that they sense of the whole is not brought out till the close.”

Number of Syllables

None of the sentences end on a single syllable word; only one, the second ends with a two syllable word.

Preamble comes to a full and harmonious close.

Thomas Jefferson’s skills

Student of rhythm, accent, timing and cadence in discourse.

Influences of Jefferson

Milton, Pope, Shakespeare, Addison, Gray, Garth

Structural Unity

Chronological progression of thought: from the creation of mankind to the institution of government to throwing off the failed government to creation of a new government

Five Propositions

Proposition 1: All men are created equal.

Proposition 2:   They [all men, from proposition 1] are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights

Proposition 3:  Among these [man's unalienable rights, from proposition 2] are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Proposition 4:  To secure these rights [man's unalienable rights, from propositions 2 and 3] governments are instituted among men

Proposition 5:  Whenever any form of government becomes

destructive of these ends [securing man's unalienable rights, from propositions 2-4], it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.

Propositions are meant to be read together. The first three lead in to the fourth and the fourth into the fifth.

Jefferson Quote: the purpose of the Declaration was “not to find

our new principles or new arguments, never before thought of…

but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in

terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify

ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take.”

Pace- The accumulation of propositions is reinforced by the slow, deliberate pace of the text and by the use of “that” to introduce each proposition.

Syllogistic form Syllogism- logical argument involving three propositions :   a formal deductive argument made up of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. An example is, "All birds have feathers, penguins are birds, therefore penguins have feathers."

deductive reasoning:   reasoning from the general to the specific Major premise:

When government deliberately seeks to reduce the people under absolute despotism, the people have a right, indeed a duty, to alter or abolish that form of government and to create new guards for their future security.

Minor premise:

  The government of Great Britain has deliberately sought to reduce the American people under absolute despotism.

Conclusion:   Therefore the American people have a right, indeed a duty, to abolish their present form of government and to create new guards for their future security.

Virtually every one agreed the people had the right to overthrow a tyrannical ruler when all other

remedies had failed, the crucial questions in July 1776 was whether the necessary conditions for revolution existed in the colonies.

Transition

First explicit reference to British/American conflict

273 words into the declaration

Parallel structure of the sentence reinforces the parallel movement of ideas from preamble to indictment.

“repeated injuries and usurpations”

Sentence has the force of a legal accusation

28 specific grievances

Indictment of the king required proof

Bill of particulars documenting kinds of injuries and usurpation of Americans’ rights and liberties.

“to prove this”

Shortest sentence in the document.

“prove” implies facts.

“candid world”

Readers free from bias or malice who are fair impartial and just. If a reader is not convinced—he is not candid.

“facts”

“circumstances and incidents of a legal case.”

Something that has actually occurred

Truth known by observation

Unmediated representations of empirical reality—not interpretations

Passive voice “let facts be submitted”—who is submitting the facts? No one they are just facts

Direct from experience with out corrupting intervention of any observer or interpreter

16th and 17th Century, “fact” denoted evil deed or crime

Indictment

Grievances (“Catalogue of Crimes”—Sam Adams)

1-12-abuses of the kings executive power as suspending colonial

laws, dissolving colonial legislatures, obstructing the

administration of justice, and maintaining a standing army during

peacetime.

13-22- combining with “other” (Parliament) to subject America to

a variety of unconstitutional measures, including taking colonies

without consent, cutting off their trade with the rest of the world,

curtailing their right to trial by jury and altering their charters

23-27-assails the king’s violence and cruelty in waging war

against his American subjects (war grievances)

Final charge- Colonists “repeated petitions” for redress of their

grievances have only produced “repeated injury.”

Seriatim (in a series)

Arranged topically, not chronologically

“He has” “He is”

Magnify the badness of the king

Slows the text—draws attention to the accumulation of grievances

Accentuates George III’s role as the prime conspirator against American liberty.

“swarms”

“eat out their substance”

Grievance #10—Biblical language

Conjures images of flies and locusts “So that the land was darkened,” and “there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field.” (Exodus 10:14-15)

Psalms 53:4 “the workers of iniquity…who eat up my people as they eat bread”

Deuteronomy

An enemy nation “shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, an the fruit of the land until thou be destroyed which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of they kine, or flocks of the sheep, until he has destroyed thee.”

Religious connotations-

“Substance” “the Essence or Substance of the Godhead” Holy Eucharist

Christ married the substance of flesh and substance of bread so we receive both

Ambiguity:

“multitude of New Offices” custom posts to control colonial smuggling

“swarms of officers”- “who were eating out the substance” of the colonies of 3 million people (about 50 guys)—couldn’t call George III a tyrant for a few dozen men to enforce smuggling laws so writers clothed the charge in vague evocative imagery—otherwise it would be a paltry grievance

War grievances

Last and most recent

Emotionally-charged verbs

Look at the verbs in the first 22 grievances

War grievances say “plundered, destroyed ravaged, burnt”

Speak of death, desolation, tyranny

Thomas Jefferson said that the emotional pitch of war grievances was also part of a rhetorical strategy designed to solidify support for independence in those parts of America that had yet to suffer the physical and economical hardships of war.

Independence supporters in New England and the South

Middle colonies were not as affected by British domination

Images of terror

To arouse “the passions and feelings” of readers and to awaken “ from fatal and unmanly slumbers” those Americans who had not be directly touched by the ravages of war

Strategic ambiguity

Actual historical events are addressed but no names, dates, or places. This way the grievance was not about one piece of legislation or one colony but violations throughout America.

Also ambiguity made it more difficult to refute. To defend the king they had to clarify each charge with specifics then prove that it was untrue.

Propaganda document

John Lind rebuttal 110pp.

To answer the charges against the king was too complex and long to stand up against the Declaration

Vain appeal to British people

“Nor have we..”

“Nor…”

Shifts attention away from GIII

“British brethren” approached as brothers

“have we”/”we have”

Pronounced sense of momentum and emphasized colonists’ active efforts to reach the British people. “We have” works like “He has” in the grievances

“They have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity” (a close connection or relationship)

One of few metaphors in the document.

It is simple and brief and contrasts with the complexity and length of the previous sentence.

“We”

Repetition of “We” strengthens the cadence

“Enemies in War in Peace friends”

Rhetorical device: order of the words: Consider: “Enemies in War, friends in Peace.”

Example of

Chiasmus-rhetorical reversal of the order of words in the second of two parallel phrases

Alliteration

British Brethren

Time to time

Which would

Connections and correspondence

Syllables

82% one or two syllable words

81/96 one syllable

Greatly contributes to the harmony, cadence and eloquence.

Conclusion

Last line” :lives, fortunes and sacred honor

Hackneyed (overused) phrase “lives and fortunes”

“honor” Sacred honor—Adds to the eloquence of the trilogy

Honor was big in the 18th century---Philosophers and writers repeated speculation about honor and the achievement of honor.

Pledging sacred honor makes this declaration a solemn vow.

Lifts Congress’s motives above “our lives” and “our fortunes” and places revolutionaries in the footsteps of history’s most honorable figures.

Drama

At the same time, the final sentence completes a crucial metamorphosis in the text. Although the Declaration begins in an impersonal, even philosophical voice, it gradually becomes a kind of drama, with its tensions expressed more and more in personal terms. This transformation begins with the appearance of the villain, "the present King of Great Britain," who dominates the stage through the first nine grievances, all of which note what "He has" done without identifying the victim of his evil deeds. Beginning with grievance 10 the king is joined on stage by the American colonists, who are identified as the victim by some form of first person plural reference: The king has sent "swarms of officers to harass our people," has quartered "armed troops among us," has imposed "taxes on us without our consent," "has taken away our charters, abolished our most valuable laws," and altered "the Forms of our Governments." He has "plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, . . . destroyed the lives of our people," and "excited domestic insurrections amongst us." The word "our" is used twenty-six times from its first appearance in grievance 10 through the last sentence of the Declaration, while "us" occurs eleven times from its first appearance in grievance 11 through the rest of the grievances.(30)Throughout the grievances action is instigated by the king, as the colonists passively accept blow after blow without wavering in their loyalty. His villainy complete, George III leaves the stage and it is occupied next by the colonists and their "British brethren." The heavy use of personal pronouns continues, but by now the colonists have become the instigators of action as they actively seek redress of their grievances. This is marked by a shift in idiom from "He

has" to "We have": "We have petitioned for redress . . . ," "We have reminded them . . . ," "We have appealed to their . . . ," and "We have conjured them." But "they have been deaf" to all pleas, so "We must . . . hold them" as enemies. By the conclusion, only the colonists remain on stage to pronounce their dramatic closing lines: "We . . . solemnly publish and declare . . ." And to support this declaration, "we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."The persistent use of "he" and "them," "us" and "our," "we" and "they" personalizes the British-American conflict and transfigures it from a complex struggle of multifarious origins and diverse motives to a simple moral drama in which a patiently suffering people courageously defend their liberty against a cruel and vicious tyrant. It also reduces the psychic distance between the reader and the text and coaxes the reader into seeing the dispute with Great Britain through the eyes of the revolutionaries. As the drama of the Declaration unfolds, the reader is increasingly solicited to identify with Congress and "the good People of these Colonies," to share their sense of victimage, to participate vicariously in their struggle, and ultimately to act with them in their heroic quest for freedom. In this respect, as in others, the Declaration is a work of consummate artistry. From its eloquent introduction to its aphoristic maxims of government, to its relentless accumulation of charges against George III, to its elegiac denunciation of the British people, to its heroic closing sentence, it sustains an almost perfect synthesis of style, form, and content. Its solemn and dignified tone, its graceful and unhurried cadence, its symmetry, energy, and confidence, its combination of logical structure and dramatic appeal, its adroit use of nuance and implication all contribute to its rhetorical power. And all help to explain why the Declaration remains one of the handful of American political documents that, in addition to meeting the immediate needs of the moment, continues to enjoy a lustrous literary reputation.

ASSIGNMENT (50 POINTS)

IN GROUPS OF THREE:

Develop your own declaration of independence following the rhetorical structure of the original. First choose someone or something from which you would like to declare independence (parents, siblings, and homework are a few typical examples, but you could also declare independence from bad habits, meat, gasoline consumption, etc.) You must establish a philosophical foundation for your actions, list abuses at the hands of whomever or whatever you are declaring independence from, and then state your argument for independence. Be prepared to share your document with the class.

SCORING RUBRIC FOR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCEPhilosophical foundation 10

List of abuses (6-10) 10Argument for independence 10Word choice 5

Literary devices (alliteration,

metaphor, allusion, etc.) at least 3

6

Mechanics 4Presentation to the

class 5Total 50

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.