Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson

Declaration of Independence

Thomas Jefferson was an enlightenment era philosopher and politician. Thus, his Declaration of Independence reflects these enlightenment principles, therefore making it an enlightenment document. What has become to be known as the Age of Enlightenment was an eighteenth-century movement that advocated the use of Reason as the primary basis for all authority. The American Enlightenment was lead by the Founding Fathers, of which Thomas Jefferson was a part of. In general, Enlightenment individuals looked to the classics for inspiration for new ideas in such areas as science, religion and politics.

It was in the political sphere that the Enlightenment played the most important part, especially in developing the American form of government and leading to the colonies' decision to pursue independence. The central idea in this movement was that the ruler (or government) had to be held to higher laws. To do this, such enlightenment individuals as Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams and Madison took from the ideas of John Locke, David Hume and Adam Smith and formed a government where the people maintained the power through a system of checks and balances and a protection of the natural rights of all humans. The first document to lay the foundation of these Enlightenment era concepts was the Declaration of Independence.

Starting in the preamble, signs of the enlightenment's influence are seen. In the preamble, the concept of republicanism is laid out.

Throughout the document such Enlightenment philosophical concepts as natural law and self-determination are highlighted. In fact, many of the ideas are taken directly from John Locke's theories, specifically the statement of the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Specifically, the declaration that "it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume...the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature...entitle them..." is a statement of both republicanism and Natural Law.

The preamble states, "when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." This is a statement of justification of revolution to create self-government.