Facts Submitted to a Candid World

Observations and Questions

Begin this activity by observing the physical appearance of the Engrossed Declaration of Independence, the Print of the Declaration of Independence, and the Dunlap Broadside. Consider the following questions regarding the document and type your answers in the next available response box.

1. How would you describe this document to someone who wasn’t looking at it?
2. What do you notice? What specific details stand out?
3. What are the major similarities and differences?

Excerpts and Questions

Now, we’re going to examine the text of the Declaration of Independence in short sections to explore its role as a persuasive argument.

"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. How did the authors use language to persuade people to support their case for independence?
2. What are some specific examples of words or phrases used to influence people to support their case for independence?

Excerpts and Questions

"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. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. How did the authors use language to persuade people to support their case for independence?
2. What are some specific examples of words or phrases used to influence people to support their case for independence?

Excerpts and Questions

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But 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.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. How did the authors use language to persuade people to support their case for independence?
2. What are some specific examples of words or phrases used to influence people to support their case for independence?

Excerpts and Questions

The next section of the Declaration of Independence lists dozens of specific grievances that the colonists have against the British government. These include complaints such as:

• He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
• He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
• He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. What specific words might have been chosen to appeal to people’s emotions?
2. How could these grievances be stated in a more neutral way?

Excerpts and Questions

• He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
• He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. What specific words might have been chosen to appeal to people’s emotions?
2. How could these grievances be stated in a more neutral way?

Excerpts and Questions

• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
• For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. What specific words might have been chosen to appeal to people’s emotions?
2. How could these grievances be stated in a more neutral way?

Excerpts and Questions

• For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
• For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
• He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
• He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

Answer the following questions in the next available blank response box.

1. What specific words might have been chosen to appeal to people’s emotions?
2. How could these grievances be stated in a more neutral way?