...Have you ever thought about what life would be like without the decleration of independance and its ideals? On July 4th 1776 the foundation of our country was created. The declaration of independence was a letter to britain explaining why the colonies should break away. Of the four main ideals in the declaration of independence which ones are the most important? The ideals that will be addressed in this DBQ are the ideals of equality, natural rights, and the consent of the governed. Tis DBQ will focus on determining why these ideals are as important as they are. The first ideal being touched on is the ideal of natural rights. The declaration of independence states that “They (the american people) are endowed by their creator with certain...
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...On the fourth of July that year, the Declaration of Independence, after going through several revisions, was finally finished and was to change the future of the United States. In the document, four ideals are listed, and they all hold individually powerful meanings. The four ideals are unalienable rights, the right to abolish or alter the government, equality, and the consent of the governed. A thought that occurs to many people is: Which of the four ideals acts as the most important ideal in the Declaration of Independence? Of these ideals, unalienable rights and the right to alter or abolish the government are crucial, but the most essential one is the belief of the consent of the governed, because I consider it as the most influential and advantageous...
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...the speech that is uttered near the end of the speech to give an echo effect. The placement and repetition of these four words stress the importance of King's dream and signifies the want for a better tomorrow, as it is a dream. However the words "Let freedom ring..." followed by settings on American soil convey that the ideals of freedom will be achievable by every American without the restriction of race and or location. By using anaphoras King is able to emphasize his message. Metaphors are extensively used throughout this speech. A memorable example is "...we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check..." the check being the justice that colored folks deserve. Yet this is not the reason why this metaphor is notable. During this time the transition of money happened through the use of checks. Money is a necessity in society and so is social...
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...The United States of America was shaped and defined by just one document, The Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was written to explain why colonists needed to be independent from Britain. This document contains an explanation for the separation from Britain, ideals about the government, and grievances towards the British. Ideals given in this document include equality, natural rights, consent of the governed, and the right to alter or abolish the government. Of the four main ideas, the most important one is equality. An important ideal is consent of the governed. This ideal delivers a message of how the ruling of the government should be based on the citizens. Consent of the governed is very important because without it brings chaos. “In 1989, Chinese students who had gathered in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square adopted the Statue of Liberty… as a symbol of their demands of truth, freedom, and democracy from their government…(Doc C).” Consent of the governed lets citizens have a say in government by allowing them to participate by voting for presidents or even just cooperating with the government. Without consent of the governed, citizens would be mislead without any say in every decision made because they had no rule in it. Consent of the governed is a...
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...The Declaration of Independence can be divided into four main parts. The first part is an introduction that states the purpose of the document, which was to explain why the American people were declaring independence from the government of Great Britain. The second part is a theory of good government and individual rights generally accepted by Americans from the 1770s until today. In this theory, all individuals are equal in their possession of certain immutable rights. These rights are not granted by the government. Rather, they are inherent to human nature. Therefore, the first purpose of a good government is to secure or protect these rights. Further, a good government is based on the consent of the governed -- the people -- who are the sole source of the government's authority. If their government persistently violates this theory of good government, then the people have the right to overthrow it. The third part of the document is a list of grievances against King George III, who was singled out to represent the actions of the British government. These grievances are examples of actions that violated the criteria for good government stated in the second part of the Declaration of Independence. These grievances, therefore, justify separation from the King's bad government and establishment of a good government to replace it. The fourth and final part of the document is an unqualified assertion of sovereignty by the United States of America. It proclaims the determination of...
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...American Congress The American Congress is one of the three arms of the American Government. The other arms of the Government include the Executive headed by the American President who is elected on a four-year term that is eligible for the re-election. The third arm is the Judiciary that adjudicates the policy process as well as interprets the US Constitution. The US Congress that is the core of the legislative arm of the American Government has a long history tracing back to over 200 years since the establishment of the USA. The revolution of the 1776 gave the American s an opportunity to provide the legal framework that would steer them to their management of their public affairs. It traces to the 13 North American States that were colonies of the British who after intense effort had managed to declare their independence in the famous Declaration of Independence that followed the birth of the USA in 1776. The USA constitution was a document that was written basing on the colonial experience that they had under the British since the discovery of America and the establishment of the plantation agriculture in the 16th century. After frantic efforts, the 13 colonies went ahead to have a unilateral declaration of their independence from Britain. Today, the USA is the model of an ideal democratic outlook of the modern times. The USA Constitution for which legalizes the presence of the Congress has become the model of the modern democracy. It has withstood the test of time in all countries...
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...We need a Declaration of Independence, for the foregoing reasons as well as the good results it would have for us on the world stage. For example, other counties would be free to be our allies, and the world would cease to regard us as rebels. Magna Carta (1215), Mayflower Compact (1620) and Thomas Pine – Common Sense, January 1776 have great influence in American History. Magna Carta typifies those ideals of law and government which have spread to America and many other political communities that lie beyond the four seas encircling the island-realm itself. The world-wide diffusion of those ideals of liberty and justice deserves to be studied in its entirety, as a vast historical process which had its beginnings far back in the middle ages, and which has shaped and is still shaping in modern times the institutions of all the political commonwealths that owe their spiritual inheritance to England. The history of the Charter’s influence upon American constitutional development, as one phase of that vaster process, should be illuminating alike to subjects of the Crown and citizens of the Republic. Above all it teaches them that English political and legal ideals lie at the basis of much that is best in American institutions. Those ideals, jealously preserved and guarded by Americans throughout their whole history, still form the vital force in political thought and activity within the Union. As the Americans adapt their institutions to the ever-changing conditions of...
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...Philadelphia was already hot and humid when delegates began drifting into the city. On May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention met for the first time in the east room of the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall). The Declaration of Independence had been debated in this very room just 11 years earlier. The delegates would meet in the east room all summer. On some days, temperatures rose well into the nineties. The delegates' first action was to elect George Washington president of the convention because no man was more admired and respected than the former commander in chief of the Continental army. When the war ended, Washington could have used his power and popularity to make himself a king. Instead, he went home to...
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...from the Text of The Declaration of Independence Abstract The Declaration of Independence is a statement of the American Revolutionary War and also an important defense of bourgeois rights. Studying carefully American cultural values from The Declaration of Independence, we can better understand the core of our Chinese cultural values and get to know the main differences and similarities between these two value systems. In this way, we will find all the advantages and disadvantages regarding both cultural values, and thus learn those good ones while overcome the shortcomings. This thesis falls into five chapters. In the first chapter, the necessity and significance of the study are introduced. In Chapter Two, some definitions of key terms included in or related to this thesis are presented, including Value, Cultural Value and The Declaration of Independence. Chapter Three mainly concerns the analysis of the text of The Declaration of Independence. By analyzing the text, the main cultural values related are demonstrated as liberty, equality and democracy. Then each cultural value is explained respectively and thoroughly with proper examples. Chapter Four mainly discusses the contradictions and conflicts inherent in those American cultural values, showing that American cultural values is a double-edged sword. The last chapter is the conclusion part which summarizes the whole thesis. Key Words: American, The Declaration of Independence, cultural values Contents ...
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...once you liberated yourself from the oppressors. The issues that Latin American countries faced during their struggle for independence and development of a nation was how to structure of their new government and the people's views and treatment by the old system of government. The people of Latin American countries needed a government that would benefit them and have the people's self interest...
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...On November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the Confederacy lost to the Union at the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. The speech was initially intended to honor fallen soldiers but became one of the most important, influential and famous speeches because of his patriotic emphasis. I choose to analyze this text as I feel Lincoln captured the ideals of the Declaration of Independence as well as the essence of America life. In my opinion, it is advice we need to consider in our present day. Lincoln hoped to provide a new perspective on the war as well as a reason to continue fighting for the cause. In addition, he was able to redirect a war concerned only with states’ rights to the broader humanitarian...
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...------------------------------------------------- AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Civil Rights Movement Deyana Faraj On the 4th of July 1776, 56 delegates to the Continental Congress signed a document that would not only declare independence of America from British colonial power but less than 200 years later, become the backbone of a new established America where the walls of discrimination and segregation would finally begin to deteriorate. The Declaration of Independence is a powerful document that has led to the development of equal rights and social justice within societies on a world context. More specifically, principles in this document were instrumental when argued by African American Civil Rights leaders in achieving equality and abolishing racial segregation and discrimination against African- Americans in the United States, during the African American Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968). Before the American Civil Rights Movement, laws known as Jim Crow laws had forced racial segregation of facilities and the prohibition of intermarriage. These laws were similar to the apartheid legislation and it became the law mainly in the south of America. Where there is inequality and injustice within a government, the people of the nation demand change. Since the Jim Crow laws were enacted, the laws that mandated racial segregation in public areas and the prohibition of intermarriage in the Southern United States were socially and morally unjust and this fuelled...
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...What would America be like if the people who called it their home were colorblind? It would by far, be one of the most enjoyable places to live. According to the Declaration Of Independence for the United States Of America, written by Congress, July 4th, 1776, 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.” The Forefathers of this nation had the right ideal concerning what a society would look like, if it were colorblind, one in which all were created equal, therefore, allowing its people to live together harmoniously. A blinded America would have numerous neighborhoods...
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...to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and later also the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights. The ideal in these is that liberty and equality go hand in hand, but this is not always the case. The American Civil War is one the greatest examples on this. The war had its roots in the question about slavery, and it ended up costing the lives of more Americans than all of the U.S.’s subsequent wars together. On the afternoon of November 19 1863, four months after one of the Civil Wars bloody fights, the president at that time, Abraham Lincoln, holds a speech in which he encourages the people of America to end the war. Furthermore, he reminds the audience of the ideals on which America was founded, and how the Civil War is threatening them. Last but not least, Lincoln honors the fallen and encourages people to finish their unfinished work. Abraham Lincoln frames his speech in a historical perspective and introduces two of the most important American values already in his first sentence of his speech. “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” (P. 1, ll. 1-2). With this introduction to his speech, Abraham Lincoln presents two of the fundamental values of America: equality and liberty. He begins his speech saying ‘fourscore and seven years ago’. This is a very noble way of saying ’87 years ago’ and it refers to the year the Declaration of Independence...
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...Fourth of July The Declaration of Independence We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation. But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776). It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775). And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776). So what did happen on July 4, 1776? The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes. July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776...
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