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Declaration of Independence
The American Dream of the Founding Fathers
Those who wrote the Declaration of Independence were very straightforward in what they felt must happen to establish the United States as a free and fair nation. The second paragraph clearly outlines that such a new government and nation should respect the "unalienable" rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The founding fathers dreamed of a government that protected these rights. They declared themselves to be free of Great Britain with the dream and intention of creating such a government so that people in America could control their own government and have no illusions of loyalty to a non-elected body.
Their dream of a nation like the United States came from a long-standing struggle under what they found to be a government of tyranny, the colonial power of Great Britain. Under the rule of Great Britain the Americas suffered from a "Train of Abuses and Usurpations" that made it impossible to ensure the rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The founding fathers looked to do away with loyalty to a crown and create a government that was a true democracy. They hoped to create a nation where there was a representative government, and taxation was for the good of the people not the whims of a government that had no motivation to care for all of its people.
The dream of the founding fathers was also to establish a nation where the individuals of America could and would be able to protect themselves from tyrannous government. In the Declaration of Independence they state that people in America will no longer bow to the oppressions of a government that can take their homes, demand services (including military service for colonial power that does not benefit the people), and demand taxation without democratic representation. They hoped -- and encouraged -- a nation of people to be vigilant for such abuses and to not stand for it. In all, the dream of the founding father was for the American people to be the masters of their own government in such a way that no person would be denied the rights that every man should have.
References
The Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776.
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