The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is the most important document in

American history. It was written by Thomas Jefferson, a landowner and lawyer from Virginia. After repeating that the colonies were now “free and independent states.” It officially named them the United States of America.

The men who drew up and adopted this epoch-making document were not content with a mere declaration of independence. They were at pains to set forth in detail the causes that “impelled them to separation” and the philosophy that justified it. It is significant that at the very beginning of their national history Americans took their stand on principles and proclaimed a philosophy.

And what are these principles of government here given immortal expression? “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” wrote Jefferson:

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.

What we have here, of course, is the philosophy of democracy, a

philosophy which had never before been given so eloquent a statement. There are certain things – so the Americans said – that no reasonable man can doubt – self-evident truths. There is the truth that all men are created equal – that all men are equal in the sight of God and equal before the law.

Another great truth proclaimed in the Declaration is that men are “endowed” with “unalienable” rights – among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are not rights granted to men by some benevolent

government and held at the pleasure of that government. They are rights with which all men are born and which they cannot lose. This principle, too, worked as a ferment in the minds of Americans and others, changing their attitude

toward authority; for, as the Declaration pointed out, it was precisely to secure these rights that governments were organized in the first place. What we have here is the “compact” theory of government – the theory that man once lived in

a “state of nature,” that in such a state they were continually in danger, and that in order to protect themselves they came together and set up governments, granting to those government just enough power to protect their lives, their

liberty, and their property. In short, men made government to do good, not evil; made it to protect them, not to injure them. And the moment government failed of the purposes for which it was established, it no longer deserved the support or

allegiance of men.

If men could make governments, they could unmake them, for it is their right to alter or abolish a bad government and to institute a new one. And they shortly proved that this was not mere theory. Even as Revolution was under

way, during the stress and turbulence of war, they set about to translate this idea into reality.

The ideas that had for centuries been the property of philosophers were

taken out of the realm of philosophy and made law.

Notes:

Jefferson drew heavily from the ideas of the English philosopher John

Locke to declare these “self-evident” truths: the equality of all men; the natural rights of men, granted to them by god; the principle of limited government; government only by the consent of the governed; and the right to rebel against tyrannical government.

4. Translate the quotation from the Declaration setting forth its political theory beginning with “wrote Jefferson” up to “…safety and Happiness.”

5. Suggest the Russian for:

epoch – making;

self evident truths; unalienable rights;

pursuit of happiness;

to effect their Safety and Happiness;

worked as a ferment;

lived in a state of nature;

government failed of the purposes;

to translate this idea into reality;

the stress and turbulence of war;

in the first place.

6. Suggest the Russian for: