3 Documents That Started The Revolution

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 6

Handout #3

Documents that Started the Revolution


Document 1 Common Sense
Background
Who wrote it?
When?
For what audience?
Document
What does he say must now happen?
What would he say to critics who say that we still need British trade for prosperity?
What motivation does he accuse Britain of?
What are three arguments that he uses to justify declaring independence?

Document 2 Second Treatise on Government


Background
Who wrote it?
What are the two concepts he talked about? Define each.

Document
What two things can people do when the government takes away the property of the people?

Document 3 Declaration of Independence


Background

Who wrote it
Who helped?
When was it signed?
Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence
1

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary


for one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with anothera decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation.

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.

To secure these [basic] rights, governments are instituted


among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed.

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive


in protecting rights and responding to the people], it is the
right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new
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.

We, thereforesolemnly publish and declare, that these


united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent states

What the Excerpt Means

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

Background: I know not, John Adams wrote in 1806, whether any man in the world has had
more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last thirty years than Thomas Paine. After
enduring many failures in his native England, Paine (1737-1809), whose father was a Quaker,
arrived in Philadelphia in November 1774 at the age of thirty-seven.
By far the Revolutions most important pamphleteer, Paine exerted enormous influence on the
political thinking of the revolutionaries. While men like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
appealed to the wealthy classes, Paine wrote for ordinary people, who had less formal education.
His pamphlet Common Sense, which sold as many as 150,000 copies in the year after it was
published in January 1776, demanded a complete break with Britain and establishment of a
strong federal union. It was also a powerful attack on the ideas of monarchy and hereditary
privilege.
Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between America and England. Men
from all walks of life have entered into the controversy, for different and various reasons; but all
have been senseless and the period of debate is closed. War, as the last resource, must decide
the contest . . .
I have heard it said by some that America flourished under her former connection with Great
Britain, and that to stay happy and prosper and progress, America must stay related or
connected to Great Britain. I answer roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and
probably much more, had no European power had anything to do with her. The articles of
commerce and food by which she enriched herself are necessities of life, and will always have a
market while eating in custom of Europe . . .
We have boasted the protection of Great Britain without considering, that her motive was
interest not attachment: and that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account but
from her enemies on her own account . . .
But Britain is the parent country, some say. Then the more shame her conduct. Even beasts do
not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families . . . Europe, and not England,
is the parent country of America. This new world has been a fortress for the persecuted lovers of
civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Small islands not capable of protecting
themselves, are the once which must be taken care of, but there is something absurd in
supposing a continent [America] is to be governed by an island [Great Britain]. Never has nature
made the satellite larger than its primary planet; in looking at England and America, it can be
seen that just the opposite is true. It is evident they belong to different systems. England belongs
to Europe, America to itself . . . In short, independence is the only bond that can tie and keep us
together . . . The commercial [business] and reasonable part of England will still be with us;
because peace, with trade is preferable to war, without it.
Flourished did well
Commerce trade

Second Treatise on Government by John Locke


John Locke, 1632-1704, was an English Enlightenment philosopher. He believed that people once
lived in a state of nature, which means without laws or government. Locke wrote about the
concept of the social contract. The Social Contract was when people form governments and
give up their natural rights from their state of nature in order to receive the key rights of life,
liberty and property. All of this depends on the concept of the consent of the governed, that
the people are an active part of the contract and participate on their own accord.
whenever the Legislators endeavor to take away, and destroy the Property of the
People, or to reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put themselves
into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon absolved from any farther
Obedience
when the Government is dissolved, the People are at liberty to provide for
themselves, by erecting a new Legislative, differing from the other, by the change
of Persons, or Form, or both as they shall find it most for their safety and good.

Declaration on Independence by Thomas Jefferson


During the spring of 1776, colonies, localities, and groups of ordinary Americansincluding New
York mechanics, Pennsylvania militiamen, and South Carolina grand juriesadopted resolutions
endorsing independence.
These resolutions encouraged the Continental Congress to appoint a five-member committee to
draft a formal declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote the initial draft of this
document, which was then edited by other members of the committee and by Congress as a
whole including John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.
After many days of revisions, the Declaration was approved by the Second Continental Congress
and signed by its President John Hancock on July 4 th 1776. The rest of the Congress would add its
signatures later on the 4th of August.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.


The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's
God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the
separation.
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..
..In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been
answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the
ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their
legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and
settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common
kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf

to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold
them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge
of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly
publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved
from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to
be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances,
establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this
Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and
our sacred Honor.

You might also like