decleration of independence
Quite possibly the most critical document ever written in the history of our great country was the declaration of independence. This document set off a chain reaction of events that came to shape a nation, an independent nation. After reading the document over a few times while writing this paper I have come to realize something, I have never actually read it. Sure I knew its significance in history and I knew what it was about but I never actually took the time to read it through. The first two paragraph of this document sum up what it is to be an American and to be a patriot and I have overlooked it for some time. Our founding fathers, to use the cliche, were true patriots and wanted nothing more than to be free from the grasp of England. In the first two paragraphs of the document Thomas Jefferson eloquently explains to us, the people who were later to become known as Americans, we were born a free people and can no longer be oppressed by an overbearing and unjust mother country. He states that everyone is born with certain unalienable rights. These opportunities are bestowed upon everyone. Now we look back on this document and realize that some of these stateme
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/FreeSpeech_DI.html The colonists were in favor of their independence by the time the declaration had been written. Most American colonists viewed themselves as being very much British up until the Seven Years War and were proud of their role in the British Empire. They soon realized they weren't really British they were developing their own identity. This was evident in their relationships with British soldiers that viewed the Americans as lewd and inappropriate, while the Americans viewed them as savage and inhumane because of the practices they used in order to keep soldiers in line. They were slowly beginning to understand that they weren't really British anymore. The British officers looked at the Americans as "the lowest dregs of the people, both officers and men" . The arrogance of British officials was only one reason why the colonists quickly developed a nationalistic attitude. Perfect Union. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000 e for allegiance to the crown and all chose to remain in prison. I can't think of a more noble way to show pride in your country than that. These men came to shape the way our nation was run. While Zinn can criticize all the flaws in government he must come to realize that no government is perfect because it is representative of a nation that is very diverse and by no means perfect. This brings us back to one of the original points that Thomas Jefferson makes in his writing of the Declaration of Independence. He writes that when government becomes "destructive of these ends" then it can be overthrown and a new government can be implemented, but until that happens Zinn is going to have to continue to scrutinize very fine flaws in these major historical documents. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Approximate Word count = 2880
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
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