Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is perhaps the most masterfully written

document of Western civilization. This essay seeks to illuminate that

artistry by probing the discourse microscopically at the level of the

sentence, phrase, word, and syllable. By approaching the Declaration in

this way, we can shed light both on its literary qualities and on its

rhetorical power as a work designed to convince the American colonies

they were justified in seeking to establish them as an independent

nation. The introduction consists of the first paragraph a single,

lengthy, periodic sentence: 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. Taken out of context, this sentence is general it

could be used as the introduction to a declaration by anyone. Seen

within its original context, however, it is a model of refinement, and

suggestion that worked on several levels of meaning and allusion. This

orients readers toward a favorable view of America and prepares them

for the rest of the Declaration. It dignifies the Revolution as a

challenge of principle. The introduction identifies the purpose of the

Declaration as simply to ^declare^ to announce publicly in explicit

terms the ^causes^ impelling America to leave the British Empire.

Rather than presenting one side in a public controversy on which good

and decent people could differ, the Declaration claims to do no more

than a natural philosopher would do in reporting the causes of any

physical event. The issue, it implies, is not one of interpretation,

but one of observation. The most important word in the introduction is

^necessary.^ To say an act was necessary implied that it was impelled

by fate or determined by the operation of foolproof natural laws. The

Revolution was not merely preferable, defensible, or justifiable. It

was as inescapable, as inevitable, and as unavoidable within the course

of human events as the motions of the tides or the changing of the

seasons within the course of natural events. The Revolution, with

connotations of necessity, was particularly important because,

according to the law of nations, recourse to war was lawful only when

it became ^necessary.^ The notion of necessity was important that, in

addition to appearing in the introduction of the Declaration, it was

invoked twice more at crucial junctures in the rest of the text.