Jefferson’s Justification for the American Revolution Essay

Even after rubbish in the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson saw a need to fairify this revolution in the eyes of the battalion. He, and other invention fathers, knew that for this revolt to be successful, wholly thirteen colonies and their citizens must be join in a common goal. For Jefferson to achieve unity amongst the colonists, he had to carry that violations of law and abuse of underlying up rights existed under the current British rule. conduct more Mini qs in American history essayThe resolution of independence, written largely by Thomas Jefferson, is a statement of what organisation is and from what source it may derive its powers. It begins with a summary of those inalienable rights that ar the basis for a free society and to protect those rights, what powers a just government may exercise. By Jeffersons own admission, the annunciation of In dependence contained no original ideas, but was instead a statement of sentiments wide shared by supporters of the American Revolution. As he explained in 1825 uncomp permite aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and anterior writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the victorian tone and spiritcalled for by the occasion.Jeffersons most immediate sources were devil documents written in June 1776 his own draft of the preamble of the institution of Virginia, and George stonemasons draft of the Virginia resolving power of Rights. Ideas and phrases from both(prenominal) of these documents appear in the Declaration of Independence. They were in turn directly influenced by the 1689 English Declaration of Rights, which formally ended the reign of King James II. During the American Revolution, Jefferson and other Americans looked to the English Declaration of Rights as a model of ho w to end the reign of an unfair king. (Maier, 1997)The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of restate 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 solid ground (Davenport, 2009)The Declaration then goes on to list specific violations against the colonists by the King. These violations do it clear to the population that they were being treated unfairly and that they had either(prenominal) right to revolt against the King, who Jefferson refers to as a tyrant. As the war was already raging, the Declaration of Independence gave further justification for Americas independence. at that place was clear separation amongst the states as to if the revolution was founded. Jeffersons listing of abuses and violations of basic rights are clearly aimed at the King of Britain and his monarchy. The Declaration brought recognition of these injustices to every citizen, and hence, justification of the American Revolution.After the war, a nonher challenge remained how to prevent these abuses from occurring in the new republic? Enter the brass of the United States of America, 1788. The Constitution, by both its design and the terms used as written, limits government to the powers delegated. Our Constitution is a closed legal and logical system that declares itself and the laws made pursuant to it, to be the dogmatic law of the land, and that is the only law that it allows. There is no populate in it for inherent sovereign immunity.The purpose of government is to remark a society which secures to every member the inherent and inalienable rights of man, and promotes the gumshoe and happiness of its hoi polloi. Protecting these rights from violation, therefore, is its primary obligation. (Maier, 1997)The Supreme Law of the Land is The Constitution as it is written and the laws made pursuant thereto. Its interpretations are not the s upreme law of the land. They are mere interpretations that may or may not be correct, or may even be dishonest and dangerous to it. Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful programme if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government. (Coates, 1999)I deal no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves and if we compute them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a substantial discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power. Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820In the Constitution and the startle ten am endments, it is clear that the government remain, of the people. Also, that no state or local government shall supersede the authority of the federal government or revolt against it. By representation in the Senate and Congress, each state is inclined a voice in the federal government.The last hope of homo liberty in this world rests on us. . . . If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object but if we break into squads, every one pursuing the path he thinks most direct, we become an lenient conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check.I repeat again, that we ought not to schismatize on either men or measures.Principles alone can justify that. If we find our government in all its branches rushing headlong, like our predecessors, into the arms of monarchy, if we find them violating our dearest rights, the trial by jury, the freedom of the press, the freedom of opinion, civil or religious, or opening on our peace of mind or personal safety the s luices of terrorism, if we see them elevator standing armies, when the absence of all other danger points to these as the resole objects on which they are to be employed, then indeed let us withdraw and call the nation to its tents.But while our functionaries are wise, and honest, and vigilant, let us move compactly under their guidance, and we have nothing to fear. Things may here and there go a little wrong. It is not in their power to prevent it. But all will be right in the end, though not perhaps by the shortest means. Thomas Jefferson to Colonel Wm. Duane, 1811Obviously, Jefferson and the conception fathers saw that too much power was given a monarchy and the Constitution clearly shows how power is to be divided in the new republic. underlying civil rights are also listed so that they cannot be infringed upon or abused. By declaring these rights and division of authority, the republic and its Constitution, ensures that these abuses will not happen again. As the Declaratio n of Independence united the colonies, so too did the Constitution unite the peoples rights.REFERENCESCoates, Eyler (1999). _Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government._ Retrieved May 4, 2009, fromhttp//etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/Davenport, Anniken (2009). _Basic Criminal Law The Constitution, Procedure, and Crimes._ speeding Saddle River Prentice Hall PublishingMaier, Pauline (1997). _American Scripture making the Declaration of Independence._ New York Knopf Publishing.