America hasn’t always been such a well-structured country, in fact a lot went into the making of the nation we know today. The Declaration of Independence was just the beginning. It served as the official break away from Great Britain, announcing America as its own free and independent country. Not too long after the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and its Preamble was made. The purpose behind the Preamble was to introduce the Constitution and the reasons behind why it was being written. These documents were viewed as many different things, such as revolutionary, virtuous, intellectual, and some might even say hypocritical.
To begin with, the Declaration of Independence was ultimately an indictment towards King George, presenting him with the fact that the colonies were now independent from him and the Parliament, as their own country. Strife between the colonist and Britain arose in April of 1775 due to the colonist rebelling against the taxation without representation. A small number of colonists wished for the total breakaway from Great Britain, these people were known as radicals.
Things seemed to quickly change when America got word of King Georges intentions, as he wanted to attempt to extinguish the rebels with Great Britain’s army. Due to this, the radicals grew and were strengthened. In May of 1776, seven colonies had voted to implement independence. Soon to follow, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman were chosen to write what we know today as the Declaration of Independence.
127 our experts are availableright now
To elaborate on, there were many important themes in the Declaration of Independence. One theme being principles. By stating “all men are created equal”, it is indicating that they believed that King Georges actions have not been morally right. The Declaration is a structure, following certain principles to determine their vision of how government should be and showing how the British government has lacked to do so. Another theme being legitimacy. The colonies didn’t only just claim separation from Britain but gave legitimate reasons for thier doings.
The first document of the United States was the Declaration of Independence and it needed to prove that the new nation had real reasons to be an equal country like the others. Last being dissatisfaction. Objection and anger of the government’s doings is the main cause of why the document exist. Jefferson stresses that the British Parliament had relentlessly done things it shouldn’t have. Thus, being the reason for separation. Though there were countless more dramatic themes within the document, dissatisfaction is the underlying reason behind close to everything written.
Some may say the Deceleration of Independence was hypocritical. For it states, “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.” However, slavery still existed. By the time Jefferson was in office, which took place during 1801-1809, slave trading was abolished, but slavery didn’t end until 1865.
African Americans, immigrants and even some whites questioned the reason behind adding that all men are created equal if they didn’t fully believe it or show it. In fact, many Americans as well as founding fathers had a strong hold on racism and owned slaves of thier own as well as believed people of color were lesser than. labor. However, when Washington died he left in his will that he wished for his slaves to be freed, being the first founding father to do so.
The Preamble of the Constitution gave reason for the government being a republic and helped explain why the constitution was being written and what goals it strived to achieve. In the preamble it states many things, one of them being it is the governments job to protect the people’s natural born rights. This is what the Judicial branch is for. Perhaps if the constitution wasn’t created, our nation would’ve failed for it was too weak with its backbone being the Articles on Confederations. The creation of the Constitution allowed compromises between the states and provided us with the strong new government which was desperately needed.
A major theme within the Preamble of the Constitution is “We the People”. This right off the bat shows that the government is with and of their people, indifference to a monarchy. Another major theme would be establishing justice. For the founding fathers goal within this topic was to ensure fair trail, and equality within the system of justice.
Some might say the promotion of peace within our country was hypocritical. The Preamble of the Constitution is where peace is claimed as the goal. The Founding Fathers ran into many situations where peace isn’t exactly what was held. However, things seemed to slightly change when Thomas Jefferson came to office, for he did keep busy trying to remain neutral in the French and Napoleonic war. But soon after his presidency was over the war of 1812 accrued.
