The Declaration of Independence and Interpretation
© 1996 by Ronald Terry Constant
The Declaration of Independence is the founding document for the United States of
America. The founding generation simply declared, through the pen of Thomas Jefferson, their
independence from England and the reasons supporting their action. The document is concise
and clear, and readers should have no problems understanding its simple message. However,
from the very beginning of the nation, Americans have varied widely in their estimations of its
place in American development and their interpretations of its meaning. As America enters an
era seen as being "post-modern," Americans are more disparate in their views of the Declaration
than in any other time in their history. Scholarship has devoted much effort to the Declaration,
but, instead of clarifying understanding, it has multiplied the number of views. The dominant
perspectives in approaching the Declaration are found in the areas of history, political theory,
linguistics, and style. Each area of study and variations within each area yield different results
when considering the Declaration. Though a comprehensive survey of all perspectives is beyond
the scope of this paper, a brief and partial survey of current thought in each field will illustrate
the differences in the fields when interpreting the Declaration.
In the last decade of the twentieth century, the Declaration of Independence is innately a
historical document, and most discourses about it reflect a historical method to some degree.
Three methodological schools—universalism, contextualism, and post-structuralism—encompass most efforts at historical interpretation. Universalism holds to the notion that a great
text can transmit timeless ideas and transcendent truths. In explaining the universalist approach,
John Patrick Diggins uses the metaphor of a pearl, reminiscent of a parable by Jesus of Nazareth.
Diggins argues that we can appreciate the jewel without knowing the forces of nature that
produced it. The pearl corresponds to an idea in a text. As a pearl continues to be a jewel when
removed from the oyster that produced it, so an idea continues to have meaning outside of its
originating context. Accordingly, universalists resist rigid adherence to context.
Contextualism stresses the formative context of a text and the intent of the original authors. Contextualists contend that universalists distort history and any valid understanding of a text. As an answer to the pearl metaphor, contextualists maintain that true meanings cannot be transferred beyond their particular moments of origination. Post-structuralism, the most recent school, is allied with universalism in opposing contextualism. Post-structuralists argue that original authorial intent is unknowable and should be dropped as a subject of enquiry. Context does not fare much better. As context is studied, it becomes broader and broader till an enquirer is awash in a sea of contextual material, much of which can never be recovered. But post-structuralists are not friends with universalists since they do not accept the possibility of transcendent truths being passed on in historical texts. Richard Rorty expresses the post-structural perspective when he asserts that words may be persuasive but do not establish objective reality or timeless truth. A reader can derive insight or guidance from a text without attaining truth in contextual or timeless form. In fact, the post-structural paradigm subverts all scholarship aimed at finding reliable truth whether factual or philosophical.
Without identifying all contentions among the three methodological schools, an examination of their impacts on interpretation of the Declaration discloses limits in each. Universalists view the Declaration as a set of principles that are timeless in themselves and that should be held to timeless standards By judging Jefferson's intentions and discovering autonomous meanings in the text, readers can disclose transcendent truths. Adrienne Koch and Diggins are representative of the universalist school. Koch assumes that American democracy was transcendently significant since the Enlightenment spirit passed from Europe to America through the Declaration. Koch draws upon the metaphorical tradition of the shining city on a hill that tied American development to the rest of humanity. Though her emphasis on the experimental nature of American democracy smacks of pragmatism, Koch's overall search is for timeless ideals.
Diggins does not share Koch's warm appraisal of the American Enlightenment and the
Declaration. He applies a universalist approach that is highly critical of thought in the
Declaration. Diggins reproaches Jefferson for a weak view of virtue in a republic and condemns
his scientific morality, which Diggins traces to the Enlightenment and Deism. Instead of a
glorious transmigration of the Enlightenment soul from Europe to America through the
Declaration and American Revolution, Diggins suggests that the soul of American politics was
lost. When Diggins compares the Declaration to the set of transcendent truths that he discerns in
Christianity, he finds failure in Jefferson at a transcendental level. But Diggins does not stress
comparison with a Christian view, rather he focuses on the contrast between Jefferson's views
and classical republicanism. Diggins disagrees with Gordon Wood who interprets the
Declaration as part of an effort to establish an organic republic in an classical Aristotelian
tradition.
The virtue of the individual held a central place in Jefferson's writings which partly leads
Diggins to question that he was a classical republican. In Diggins' view, Jefferson's faith in
individualism, self-sufficiency, and limited government was at odds with republican theory and
placed virtue in a private realm. As a result, when Jefferson wrote about the "pursuit of
happiness," he distorted the meaning of the phrase from the public basis that Aristotle posited.
Diggins accuses Jefferson of incoherency and of eclipsing American politics. At this point,
Diggins departs from a purely universalist approach as he considers the context of Jefferson's
other writings. However, Diggins' total enterprise deals in transcendental ideas as he discloses
Jeffersonian thought in the Declaration and compares it with timeless concepts in republicanism
and Christianity. Most universalists, like Koch, find positive truth in the Declaration that they
hope will influence the world of the present. Though Diggins is not favorable toward Jefferson's
ideas in the Declaration, he is seeking universal principles.
Contextualists have as many conflicting interpretations of Jefferson's intended meaning in
the Declaration as the conflicts in the other two schools. Paul Conkin concentrates on Jefferson's
use of natural law arguments and the ubiquity of natural law thought and expression among
colonists at the time of the Revolution. Conkin discerns an ethical tradition from the Greeks, to
Aquinas, to Locke, and to Jefferson. For Conkin, it is clear that Jefferson's words about the
"unalienable rights" of individuals against oppressive governments and about "self-evident"
truths are a continuation of natural law discourse. Morton White also looks to natural law
tradition but comes to different conclusions about Jefferson's place in it. White focuses on the
term, "self-evident." An old philosophical tradition dating to Aquinas teaches that a truth that is
self-evident to some is not to others. An example is a truth that a learned man might see that an
unlearned, especially illiterate, man would miss. White discerns, among the leaders of the
revolution, evidence of a belief in this unequal capacity to reason. He concludes that the
Declaration had elitist implications that left the door ajar for oppressive government while
seeming to oppose it. Clearly, Conkin and White disagree about an important element of the
context of the Declaration and thus their conclusions. Some contextualists would argue that the
need is to better understand Jefferson's immediate context and to examine revolutionary tracts
and other writings. In The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Bernard Bailyn does
just that. However, even after an examination such as Bailyn's, the disagreement between Conkin
and White cannot be settled. As the post-structuralists claim, there is no end to context, and
broadening the context confuses, rather than clarifies, a question of intention. Interestingly,
though there has been little agreement on specific issues of intent, contextualists still accept the
basic tenet that original intent is discoverable.
Post-structuralists contend that a text suggests possibilities that an author never intended and may never have imagined. Sifting through these possibilities is a creative act of interpretation that occurs in the life of a text and cannot be avoided. Post-structuralists put the creative nature of text interpretation to the fore since objective truth cannot be found. Putting the Declaration in historical context compounds the task of interpretation for a reason additional to the one already considered. The multiplication of contextual texts translates into a multiplicity of interpretations since each text also goes through a process of creative understanding. It is at this point that post-structuralists and universalists coincide in urging that texts must be autonomous and not understood in their contexts. This agreement in no way abridges their fundamental disagreement between universality and relativity of truth. In terms of the Declaration, the difference is most poignant when interpreting "rights." Rights, as seen by universalists, link humans to a nonhuman reality. Something beyond humans demands that people be allowed inalienable rights that no human is authorized to abridge. Post-structuralists see no point in striving to understand something beyond reach. While the rhetoric of rights may be persuasive and important, rights are merely rational conventions that can be superseded in shifting circumstances.
The limits of the three methodological schools determine the goals of the different lines
of historical enquiry into the Declaration. The universalist method sees the Declaration as
embodying a set of principles. In trying to discover timeless standards, universalists judge
Jefferson's intentions on one hand and the autonomous meanings within the text on the other.
The contextualist method seeks to eliminate the distorting influence of presentism and to
evaluate the Declaration on its own terms. Once the true meaning, namely, Jefferson's original
intent, is discovered, it is already a dead fact that existed in the contingency of its genesis. The
post-structuralist method abandons hope of discovering truth and simply seeks to accept the
Declaration as a persuasive text. In the study of the Declaration, political theorists have a
perspective different from historians.
Political theory and jurisprudence
When political theorists, from both political science and jurisprudence, consider the
Declaration of Independence, they look at it within the larger scope of early American political
thought and theory. The Declaration is obviously a crucial document in the formation of
American politics. What is not so obvious is its relationship to the developmental process of the
American political system and, in particular, to the Constitution. In recent decades, the specific
relationship of the Declaration to the Constitution has dominated the foreground of discourse
about the Declaration. The purpose has been to delineate principles by which courts should
interpret the Constitution. Two main views, that can be termed as conservative originalism and
liberal nonoriginalism, have captured the spotlight.
Conservative originalists argue that the original intent of the Framers should be the
determinative principle in constitutional interpretation. To discover original intent, they must
determine the milieu of thought and the historical context in which the Declaration and
Constitution were drafted. The only way to give meaning and life to original intent is to construe
it "in light of the moral and political principles" from which it arose. The most important times
on which to focus are the moments of drafting and ratifying the two documents—that is,
determine what the Framers intended as they actually wrote, edited, and agreed upon these
documents. Conservative originalists contend that the Supreme Court should enforce only the
rights found in original intent. The Declaration's "unalienable rights" should be construed
narrowly and carried over to the "Bill of Rights." These conservatives are combating a long
history of liberal court decisions and judicial activism.
Liberal nonoriginalists opt for judicial discretion. They see the Constitution as a living
document that grows and adapts to succeeding generations and changing issues. Justices must
have latitude to interpret the Constitution, particularly in the area of rights, to meet developments
that the framers did not and could not foresee. In this view, the Declaration is a beginning point
for political theory which took its single most important step in the Constitution and is
perpetuated by Justices in the tradition of judicial activism. Conservatives believe that liberal
nonoriginalism endangers the rule of law by opening the Constitution to personal bias and
allowing Justices to decide by fiat.
Conservative originalism tends to make the Declaration equal with the Constitution in
respect to the original intent of the Framers. The Declaration is considered a key text expressing
that intent. Liberal nonoriginalism minimizes the importance of the Declaration and understands
the text as marking a starting point, not as expressing crucial political principles. Recently,
another view, called liberal originalism by Scott D. Gerber, has gained attention. Though the
nomenclature might be new, the ideas in it have always found room, varying in accommodations,
in American political theory. Liberal originalism stresses the primacy of the Declaration in
theoretical discourse and constitutional interpretation.
Liberal originalism anchors constitutional interpretation in natural rights as expressed in
the Declaration. When the Declaration speaks of "unalienable rights" including "life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness," the founders were not just expressing a thought to get America started,
as the liberal nonoriginalists claim. Also, such words have more meaning than just an original
intent of a group of men to authoritatively guide political thought and development, as
conservative originalists contend. These words in the Declaration are part of and a continuation
of a metadiscourse on natural rights. John Locke, an intellectual ancestor of the founders, was the
most prominent spokesman for natural rights in the direct lineage of American political leaders
of the Revolution. Next to the Bible, Locke's writings were the most quoted source in
revolutionary literature. In the view of liberal originalists, the Framers were disciples of Lockean
natural rights theory, and, more importantly, they reified natural rights in the Declaration and
guaranteed them in the Constitution.
Intent is important to liberal originalism, but not as important as to conservative
originalists. Liberal originalists seek to discover original intent only to the degree to which they
can better understand the American flavor of natural rights embodied in the Declaration. Natural
rights theory in general is a transcendent theme that informs all understanding of the Declaration
and its place in political thought. At the point of understanding natural rights, as implemented in
America, liberal originalists share a common method with conservatives in assessing the context
of the Declaration. Whereas conservatives are content with conclusions about original intent,
liberals jump to transcendent natural rights and use the conclusions found in context to inform
theorists about natural rights development in America. Ellis Sandoz sees the Declaration as "the
rearticulation of Western civilization in its Anglo-American mode" and as a summary of
American political theory. The Declaration is the eminent expression of natural rights in
American political documents and qualifies as the preeminent document of American political
theory. Consequently, jurists must submit their interpretations to the transcendent filter of natural
rights as colored by the Declaration. For liberal originalists, the text of the Declaration emerges
from its context and becomes autonomous.
Since both conservative and liberal originalists look to the context in which the
Declaration was written, some political theorists are content to limit their inquiries to the
political persuasions of the founders. The position that Lockean theory held in the minds and
writings of the Framers inevitably comes up in such studies and is usually the focus. A common
question studied is whether Jefferson was a conduit from Locke to the Declaration for natural
rights thought. Long tradition places Lockean ideas in the very center of American revolutionary
thought because Locke was the writer who linked natural rights to revolution—the kind of
revolution that Americans accomplished. By the middle of the twentieth century, theorists had
come to refer to this tradition as the "Lockean consensus" and proposed that American
revolutionary leaders entertained a consensus in political theory. The idea of a Lockean
consensus downplays disparate voices in the literature of the time. In reaction to this consensual
stranglehold on scholarship, many researchers responded with a republican philosophy. They
contended that Jefferson reflected a classical republican tradition that extended back through
Rome to Aristotle. In this tradition, freedom and rights were tied to civic participation instead of
individual pursuits. The once prevalent understanding of the Declaration as establishing a liberal
creed of individualism was replaced by a conservative republicanism. Proponents of this
republican view say that, throughout American history, Americans have simply misunderstood
the theoretical base of their political system. Instead of finding liberal concepts of individualism,
property, and happiness in the Declaration, these republicans find a stress on civic virtue in the
tones of Aristotle and Machiavelli. Though this new republicanism overthrows much traditional
thought, it has been a potent force in American political theory for more than a quarter of a
century.
Recent political theorists have sought to integrate traditional views with the evidence
produced by classical republicans. A significant contingent of scholars, especially Jeffersonian,
never doubted a connection between the founders and Locke. Consistent with these scholars,
theorists have replaced the strangulating tone of "Lockean consensus" with a "Lockean
sympathy." In this revised sympathetic view, Locke's influence is allowed without being
determinative. A multitude of voices among revolutionary leaders have places without creating a
cacophony of beliefs that defies understanding and synthesis. "The early Americans were not
programmed with a unified political theory by a language paradigm or any single writer." The
sympathetic view recognizes the importance of language in shaping views of reality and actions
based on those views. In reference to the Declaration, natural rights language did not determine
the declaration or the political events set in motion by it. However, natural rights language
obviously influenced the Declaration and American political developments in a complex
interaction within the context of the time and cannot be equated with present liberalism.
Jurisprudence considers specialized issues within political theory, and recent jurists have
emphasized the Declaration and natural rights. In the past, the Declaration has not greatly
influenced the Court in interpretation of the Constitution, and few decisions refer to it. A recent
group of jurists argue that the Declaration should be a key document and that natural rights
should be guiding principles in constitutional interpretation. Robert J. Reinstein, in making his
argument, extends context for the Declaration into its future instead of its past. The Constitution,
as written, did not fully embody the Declaration because the Framers skirted the issue of slavery
for the sake of founding a new country. "The founders denounced slavery, but they were not
prepared to challenge it in the Constitution. The compromises in the Constitutional Convention
over slavery were deemed essential to preserving the union." But the issue of rights and freedoms
did not end with the ratification of the Constitution. Early in the new nation's history, many
people, particularly anti-abolitionists, supported a main-stream argument that the Due Process
Clause of the Fifth Amendment guarantees the Declaration's natural rights against Congress for
all citizens of the United States, born or naturalized. The Declaration became the secular credo
of abolitionists and the unifying document for the Republican Party. The southern States did not
accept the argument and seceded.
After the Civil War, many Republicans believed that they must complete the task of the
founders, that is, do what the founders would have done except for slavery. In 1866, Republicans
passed a Civil Rights Act that enforced, by law, the Declaration's doctrine of equal rights. In
1868, they enacted the Fourteenth Amendment that put the principles into the Constitution, the
supreme law of the land. Some senators wanted to transplant the plain words of the Declaration
into the Fourteenth Amendment and avoid tortuous legalese. Regardless of the language used, the
amendment implemented more fully the principles of the Declaration. Further, it added an Equal
Protection Clause that guarantees equal treatment, a right not in natural rights theory. Reinstein
argues that the Gettysburg Address and the Equal Protection Clause retroactively gave new
meaning to the Declaration. Hence, the future context of the Declaration adds meaning to it and
to natural rights theory. Since the founders would have completely incorporated the Declaration
in the Constitution and since Republican Reconstructionists did so, then the Court is bound to
enforce the intent and actions of the Legislature. Reinstein concludes that the Court must honor
the Declaration and natural rights theory when interpreting the Constitution. As noted, political
theorists differ from historians in their approaches to the Declaration, and pragmatists differ
from both.
Benjamin Lee approaches the Declaration of Independence from the perspective of
pragmatics with a stress on context, self-reference, and intentions makes that his discussion
particularly relevant. According to Lee's argument, the Declaration announced the formation of a
sovereign people. Today, that announcement does not strike readers as stunning, but, in 1776, the
idea that a nation embodied and represented a sovereign people was startling. John Locke had
taken a logical step in the seventeenth century toward the idea when he proposed a social contract
as a basis for society, but he did not remove God as the source. Americans, searching for a valid
basis for independence, relocated the performative source for a new nation in the people who
formed a social contract. The crucial moment came when American leaders created a new
structuring consciousness for a new nation in the writing and signing of the Declaration. The
availability of print capitalism was critical to the emergence of this new consciousness.
Earlier ideologies of printing constructed the printed page as merely the extension of
face-to-face communication. However, in the bourgeois public sphere, reform minded people
began to understand the potential of unlimited dissemination. A print-mediated discourse was
much more expansive than the world of letters that learned people often exchanged. Even when
these same people wrote for a broader audience, their style, similar to their letters, was to
disclose personal thoughts. The Americans who produced the Declaration perceived the
transformation of written communication to a potentially limitless discourse in which narrated
texts assert themselves long after the print on the page has dried. The Framers intended for the
Declaration to be read aloud to all people across the colonies. As the text was read over and
over, the Framers counted on an independent life in the text that involved readers in the creation
of a national consciousness of independent people.
Lee's observations about the potential of the print media reflects a context oriented
approach, but it is different from contextualist method of historians. Contextualists look to the
context of ideas, as preserved for the historians gaze, for the purpose of understanding what was
in the minds of the Framers, particularly the mind of Jefferson. Lee's pragmatic approach looks at
the context of the process, and asks how the interaction of the text with readers influenced
communication. A historian following a contextualist approach seeks a static understanding of
Jefferson's intent at the time he penned the Declaration, whereas a pragmatic approach looks at
the context of a dynamic process to determine how it influenced communication. The approaches
are not mutually exclusive. To the contrary, they complement each other. Pragmatics is an
approach to discourse that deals mainly with three concepts: meaning, context, and
communication. The approach of the contextual historian could help a pragmatist in working
with meaning. The approach of the pragmatist could aid a historian in evaluating the dynamic
context of the times and, thus, in determining causal relationships among historical events. In the
specific case of the Declaration, a better appreciation of dynamic interpretations among the
people of the time would help clarify the degree to which it was related to the Constitution as it
was actually drafted and ratified and the degree to which it was involved in the shaping of
national identity. This question about national identity is how historians frame one question with
which Lee deals, namely, the structuring of a new consciousness among the colonists.
As Lee deals with the forging of a new identity for Americans, he considers context a bit
more. According to Lee, it is now difficult for readers to understand the impact of the
Declaration "as ushering in a new social form of modernity." Americans gave a new and modern
definition to the word, "revolution." With the Declaration a new epoch in history was beginning
with a new story that had never been told before. The "meaning of its plot became manifest to
actors and spectators alike." Lee agrees with the historian, Edmond S. Morgan, who asserts that
people rely heavily on fictions that they routinely call by exalted names and "may proclaim . . . as
self-evident truths." Fictions are so important that we keep them alive by moving the facts and
making the world conform more closely to what we want it to be. Ultimately, "the fiction takes
command and reshapes reality." In the case of the founding fathers, they invented a new
sovereign people with a newly structured consciousness. Lee briefly explores the crisis of those
men who constituted a new government while being unconstitutional themselves. After
considering the immediate crisis brought about by their declaration of independence, Lee stresses
the text from then on. His pragmatic orientation manifests itself in distinction to that of a
historian. He treats the text as autonomous which allies him with universalists and post-structuralists.
As mentioned, the context of a pragmatist differs from the context of a contextualist, and
Lee moves into overtly linguistic considerations of the Declaration. The crisis for the Framers
was a vicious circle of foundation and legitimation. A basic question was who could sign with a
declarative act to found a new institution in government? The "we" of the declaration speaks in
the name of the people, but that people does not exist yet. The way out? The signature invents the
signer, or the signer invents himself retroactively. Jacques Derrida argues that the constative is a
linguistic necessity inherent in every performative event of legitimation. Thus, the founding
moment of the Declaration contained its own constative backing. Performativity and constativity
continue to be inextricably intertwined as the "we" of the Declaration becomes the "we the
people" of the Constitution which becomes a key text for the founding moment of the
Declaration. The Constitution authorizes its own continuous revision, and each revision further
establishes the authority and validity of its author, "we the people." Every act amending the
Constitution retroactively reaffirms the "we" of the Declaration which thus announced and
created a new people. With such statements, Lee has moved away from the prosaic descriptions
of the founding documents provided by traditional historians.
Performatives have another important quality. They are self-referential. They refer to the realities that they themselves constitute. They create the act to which they seem to refer. The "we hold" and the "we . . . do formally publish and declare" of the Declaration and the "we the people" of the Constitution are one self-referential subject. This "we" establishes necessary political authority that derives directly from the pure performativity of the people in promising and making social contracts. The ratification process knowingly chose constitutional conventions instead of State legislatures as the authoritative voice of the people, the "we" of the Constitution. The goal was to allow the Constitution to rest on the people and not be at the mercy of the States. Thus, the text became the embodiment of the people. The Declaration announced and created the people, and the Constitution cataphorically embodied or instantiated them. Though differences in the people can be identified during the process, one self-referential people began and consummated a creative act. The Constitution refers to the twelfth year of independence and links itself to the performative moment of the Declaration. The reference indicates the continuity of the "we" in both documents. Lee concludes that "the mixture of oral and textual models of performativity are at the heart of the authority and legitimacy" of a new constitutional people.
Lee also looks at the structure of the Declaration and maintains that it follows a speech act model of performativity that comports well with the practice of being read aloud. The structure of the document moves from the general to the performative. The opening sentence frames itself "in the course of human events." An unidentified "we" holds certain "truths to be self-evident." This self-referent is not disambiguated until the end where the "we" is clearly delineated as the "people of these colonies" who "solemnly publish and declare" their independence and, inescapably, their existence. The performative is signaled by the use of metalinguistic verbs: publish, declare, and pledge. The linguistic structure of the document points to the performative moment of speaking and signing. Lee asserts that both the linguistic and rhetorical structure of the document indicate that it was meant to be read aloud. The rhetorical structure enhances the performative at the end by setting out necessary conditions that must be true. The linguistic structure contains its performative and constative from the very beginning. Descartes' performative, "I think, therefore I am," was that he thought which contained his constative. The Declaration's performative is that "we hold" which is America's constative.
All of the approaches to the Declaration of Independence considered so far count context
as important, and some make context the critical issue. Though the pragmatic approach considers
context, it stresses linguistic and philosophic points. In de-emphasizing context further, we come
to a stylistic approach. Stephen E. Lucas looks at the "stylistic artistry" of the Declaration. He
probes microscopically at the levels of syllable, word, phrase, and sentence. The main context
that he considers is the prevalent writing style of Jefferson's time. From his comparisons of style,
Lucas concludes that the Declaration is a masterful work of political prose style consonant with
eighteenth century composition. His detailed examination of the text of the Declaration yields
different information from the perspectives considered so far.
Concerning the Declaration, Lucas' goal is to "shed light both on its literary qualities and
on its rhetorical power as a work designed to convince a 'candid world' that the American
colonies were justified in seeking to establish themselves as an independent nation." The
Declaration consists of five logical parts: introduction, preamble, indictment of King George III,
denunciation of the British people, and conclusion. The introduction is a paragraph made up of a
single, lengthy, periodic sentence. Taken out of context, the sentence could begin any declaration
by any oppressed people. In context, it lifts the American cause from a petty squabble to a major
event in world history. Instead of the Declaration being merely a persuasive tract in a political
dispute, the introduction redefines itself as declaring transcendent philosophical truth applicable
to all people. An important word is "necessary" which transforms the Revolutionary drama into
events that are determined for Americans. They are compelled to do as they are doing and cannot
debate the propriety of the actions. The Revolution is inescapable, and Americans can only
declare events. "Necessary" alludes to the English Civil War of 1642 when Parliament declared
the "necessity to take up arms." Not only are the Americans acting in the grand tradition of
English freedom, they are justified by the law of nations which allowed recourse to war only
when it was necessary. And, it was necessary "for one people to dissolve the political bonds
which connected them to another." This declaration declared that the confrontation was necessary
war, not just civil war.
The preamble is also universal in scope and sets forth a philosophy of government that
justifies revolution. It serves well as a one paragraph distillation of John Locke's Second Treatise
of Government and is "brief, free of verbiage, a model of clear concise, simple statement." The
preamble consists of five propositions that expressed political principles commonly held at the
time. The style conforms to the concept of the time that text was speech written. Jefferson was a
student of rhythm, accent, timing, and cadence in discourse, and his learning produced a majestic
example of an eighteenth century style called Style Periodique. The sum effect of the preamble is
to establish the right of revolution against tyrannical authority.
After framing American independence and revolution as a major scene in the drama of Western history, the Declaration gets down to specific indictments against King George III. The accusations are based in actual events but are worded vaguely so that response is difficult. John Lind prepared a British response that exposed many charges as being flimsy at best, but his response took 110 pages. The Declaration was less than two dozen sentences and easily carried the day as the more effective rhetoric and propaganda.
The denunciation of the British people is artful and simple. The closing words, "enemies
in war, in peace friends," are a particularly effective chiasmus that provides a way to dispel
enmity among the two peoples. By the time the Declaration ends with its pledge of lives and
"sacred honor," a crucial metamorphosis in the text is completed. The Declaration begins with a
philosophic and impersonal voice. It ends in personal terms expressing the inherent tensions of a
major historical drama. To satisfy Kenneth Burke's dramatistic language, the Declaration had to
make the transition. The introduction and preamble did not satisfy or setup all five elements
necessary for true drama: scene, purpose, act, agent, and agency. The first two sections only
established the scene, America, and agency, the Declaration, for the revolution. If events were
determined as the first two sections avow, there could be no purposeful action by agents—only
inexorable motions of fate. By the end of the Declaration, there are agents, the American people,
who are acting with the purpose of righting the wrongs being done to them by a tyrant. If people
are going to grasp and adopt the drama of the American revolution, then all elements must be
present. If any element is missing, people will not fully accept the presentation. Not only is the
Declaration artistic in its style, but it succeeds admirably in drawing people into the drama of the
American revolution.
Representative thought from history, political theory, linguistics, and style have been considered. Each perspective has presuppositions and approaches that yield valuable insights into the Declaration of Independence. Most people who approach the Declaration have a purpose or goal in coming to grips with it. Few people have a need or inclination to understand every aspect of the Declaration and its impact on American life. In the interest of efficiency, people should choose the school of thought that is most likely to answer their questions. For example, a person wanting to evaluate the Declaration's place in guiding principles for human life would look to universalism in history or to liberal originalism in political theory. Or a person wanting to understand philosophical issues such as the ontology of America would turn to a field such as pragmatics.
Though the fields vary, there are overlaps. The three schools of historical thought
correspond to the three schools of political theory: universalism and liberal originalism,
contextualism and conservative originalism, and post-structuralism and liberal nonoriginalism.
Though these approaches correspond in important ways, the goals differ. Historians seek to fit
the Declaration into the American narrative. Political theorists want to find the Declaration's
place in a dynamic political process. In general, pragmatics deals with linguistic issues, and, in
particular, with philosophical issues of existence, authority, and communication. The perspective
of style looks at the Declaration as a part of literature and composition. One factor is common to
all four fields: context. Each field looks at the Declaration in the context of its origination. The
specifics being sought vary, but context remains important. Apparently origins are important to
Americans. The all-time bestseller in America is the Bible which begins with "In the beginning,
God made" which is found in Genesis, a book of origins.
Appleby, Joyce. "Recovering America's Historic Diversity: Beyond Exceptionalism." Journal of American History 79 (September 1992): 419-431.
Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1945.
Burstein, Andrew. "Jefferson and Sterne." Early American Literature 29 (1994): 19-34.
Bybee, Keith J. "To Serve These Rights: The Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Interpretation." Political Science Quarterly 111 (Summer 1996): 375-76.
Conkin, Paul K. Self-Evident Truths. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974.
Darnton, Robert. "The Pursuit of Happiness." Wilson Quarterly 19 (Autumn 1995): 42-52.
Derrida, Jacques. "Declarations of Independence." Translated by T. Keenan and T. Pepper. New Political Science 15 (Summer 1986), 3-19.
Dienstag, Joshua Foa. "Serving God and Mammon: The Lockean Sympathy in Early American Political Thought." American Political Science Review. 90 (September 1996): 497-511.
Diggins, John P. "The Oyster and the Pearl: The Problem of Contextualism in Intellectual History." History and Theory 23, no. 2 (1984): 154-71.
Drummey, James J. "Their Sacred Honor." The New American 13 (June 24, 1996): 31-6.
Gerber, Scott D. To Secure These Rights: The Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Interpretation. New York: New York University Press, 1995.
Gleason, Philip. "How Catholic is the Declaration of Independence." Commonweal 123 (March 8, 1996): 11-14.
Graglia, Lino A. and Harry Jaffa. "God and Man in Court." National Review 47 (August 14, 1995): 27-32.
Lee, Benjamin. "Performing the People." Pragmatics 5 (June 1995): 263-80.
Lucas, Stephen E. "The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence." Derived from "Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document," in Thomas W. Benson, ed., American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism (1989). National Archives and Records Administration, http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/declaration/decstyle.html.
Lustick, Ian S. "History, Historiography, and Political Science: Multiple Historical Records and the Problem of Selection Bias." American Political Science Review 90 (September 1996), 605-18.
McCabe, J.P. "The Declaration of Independence and the Frailties of Historical Method." Historian 57 (Summer 1995): 859-872.
Morgan, Edmund S. Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988.
Onuf, Peter S. "Thomas Jefferson, Federalist." From Essays in History. Vol. 35, Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia. http://www.lib.virginia.edu/journals/EH/EH35/onuf1.html.
Oxford, Edward. "Documents of Destiny." American History Illustrated 6 (January 1992): 24-37.
Reinstein, Robert J. "Completing the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Fourteenth Amendment." Temple Law Review 66 (1993): 361-418
Sandoz, Ellis. "Philosophical Foundations of our Democratic Heritage: A Recollection." Presidential Studies Quarterly 24 (Summer 1994): 669-73.
Semel, Wendy Ann. "Defender of the Natural Rights Faith." The Yale Law Journal 105 (March 1996): 1427-32.
Schiffrin, Deborah. Approaches to Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.
White, Morton. The Philosophy of the American Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Wood, Gordon S. The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787. New York: W. W. Norton, 1969.