Eric Not Wright

¶ … second page, and begins with the first paragraph on that page. Let me know if there's any other questions.Declaring Independence The core of Thomas Jefferson's argument in the Declaration of Independence is that the colonies and fledgling states in America should be independent of the influence of the British monarchy. In arguing thus, Jefferson implies that all monarchies are somewhat detrimental to the greater good of the people.

However, a large part of Jefferson's argument in this document is based on the fact that he and many others within the colonies at the time of this writing perceived the king of Britain as a tyrant. Consequently, there are a number of moral and righteous implications found in the Declaration of Independence in which the colonies are merely continuing a lengthy tradition found in European culture of rebelling against tyranny.

What is interesting about these main points of Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence (as well as in other writings such as Give Me Liberty and Voices of Freedom) is that some of them are shared by other revolutionaries and revolutionary groups during this time frame, whereas others are not.

For instance, the vast majority of the concerns that Jefferson references are shared by the North Carolina Regulators, New York Sons of Liberty, James Chalmers and Thomas Paine regarding the concepts of taxation without representation and the overseas authority of the British Crown. However, some of these additional revolutionaries and revolutionary groups were more revolutionary than Jefferson was. This sentiment certainly applies to Thomas Paine as demonstrated in his widely circulated pamphlet Common Sense.

Paine advocated a fundamental break in the very ideology behind the British government, and as such represented this radical point of departure with some of Jefferson's more accommodating writings. Paine did not want to break ties with a monarchy to merely establish another one; he believed there was no basis for the British influence on the colonists and that they should set up a republic with true equality.

The views of Thomas Jefferson that were endorsed by George Washington regarding the idea that "all men are created equal" and have access to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" were written for a specific audience. That audience was a revolutionary one and an idealist one primarily consisting of Westerners. In fact, one can argue that Jefferson and Washington were both a part of that audience, as revolutionary, idealist rhetoric definitely inspired Jefferson in writing about the aforementioned ideas.

Jefferson and his audience -- which mostly made up the other citizens of the newly formed country -- only valued notions of freedom and equality because they believed that they were previously victims of economic and political repression at the hands of the British government. Therefore, the vast majority of what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence was targeted towards Americans, the British, and other Europeans.

As such, the ideas of Jefferson which were supported by Washington in this document is directly contrasted with the views of these same concepts of equality and freedom as expressed by petitions by and about slaves.