Thomas Jefferson’s constitutional draft was submitted to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776, with minor changes, including removing a section condemning slavery and the slave trade. This is the first document in history that proclaimed the principle of popular sovereignty as the basis of the state system and rejected the theory of the divine origin of power. The US Declaration of Independence asserted the right of the people to rebel and overthrew the despotic government.
Pursing his goals of persuading the audience, Jefferson uses very intense and decorative language. For example, by proclaiming some loud words such as “usurpation” and calling the readers “mankind,” the author emphasizes The Problem and how critical it is (Jefferson 2). Obviously, in this regard, an important message Jefferson is conveying is a need to separate from Britain and fight for independence. Moreover, the persuasive framework is expressed in addressing the “unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson 1). Clearly, Jefferson portrays the existing situation as abusive and tyrannic, appealing to a sense of injustice.
Considering the Declaration through the prism of the US Constitution, which was ratified almost a century later, one could observe an irony in regards to using the term “free people” in both documents. Obviously, “free people” are perceived by Jefferson in a way much different than the one defined by the Constitution. Since founding fathers still were enslavers, the author clearly refers to white people, who, in fact, were not that far from being tyrants at that time, according to the 14th Amendment. Therefore, it is interesting to track this shift in people’s mindset, which unfortunately took decades.
Works Cited
Jefferson, Thomas. The Declaration of independence. Verso Books, 2019.