The Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence is the document upon which the spirit and idea of America is embodied. Never before in history had a colony declared itself free from their master and declared their grievances towards their masters in such a manner, never before in history has there been a more compelling or polarizing document. The wording and phrases within the Declaration of Independence are some of the most quoted and memorable phrases in the history of mankind. The main author of the Declaration of Independence was Thomas Jefferson, who had previously wrote A Summary View of the Rights of British America now authored what would be the most important document in the history of the United States of America. Jefferson utilized some of his ideas for the Declaration of Independence from the European Enlightenment, the theory of natural rights, popular sovereignty, the British Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Declaration of Rights, using those documents as a guiding light and his own ideas to create the foundation upon which our country was created. The war for independence in the newly formed American nation had already been ongoing for a year prior to the Declaration of Independence’s creation and adoption by the Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson was the primary author tasked with the creation and drafting of the Declaration of Independence. The creation of the Declaration of Independence was preceded by Thomas Paine’s Common Sense which roused the American Colonies but at the time was not on par with what was to follow. Jefferson modeled his preamble very similarly to the British Declaration of Rights, in which he cited the many grievances the American Colonies had against King George III; Jefferson specifically accused him of trying to establish a “detestable and insupportable tyranny” in the state of Virginia. Jefferson used specific grievances against the crown in his indictment on the Declaration of Independence in which he states the following: “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.” Accompanying that paragraph is a list of grievances ranging from taxation without representation, to quartering soldiers in civilian homes, to trial by jury. By declaring the King of England a tyrant with this final statement from the indictment:” In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” With this statement Jefferson had stated the many grievances of the people of the United States and that they were no declaring themselves free from the tyranny and oppression of the of the British Crown. The wordings of the Declaration of Independence are some of the most polarizing and repeated phrases within the history of the United States of America and throughout the entire world. There were five parts to the Declaration of Independence: Preamble, Indictment, Denunciation, Conclusion, and the Signatures. The introduction to the Declaration of Independence is as follows “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