Literature: United States and Inaugural Address Essay

Submitted By mrfig67
Words: 981
Pages: 4

Part I:
The last paragraph from the declaration of independence to which Thomas Jefferson was the main author, though it is much longer than the two lines we were supposed to be able to quote, I had to use it in full but will make up for it with the other quotes I use to analyze, to me is the most important of the excerpts from the declaration. This paragraph lays out exactly the colonies are saying to the British Crown in black and white so there is no confusion, after the offenses that the crown has committed to the colonies have been laid out as well. This paragraph explains in full detail the penalties of the actions of the crown and the new and future intentions of the colonies or former colonies and now the United States of America were:
“WE, THEREFORE, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.—And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” (156)
Also by appealing to the supreme judge of the world as opposed to a human judge or a human king, has made clear that the United States takes orders no longer from anyone except God, and that the King of England or any other king have any stake in what the actions of the US and its citizens will be any longer. The king may have been King Judge and jury but is no longer, and the theory of divine right of kings was no longer applicable. I wonder if the founding fathers and the colonists knew what they were starting.
Jefferson also wrote in his first inaugural address: “All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression.” (157)
This can speak to this and that generation of Americans and is certainly always relevant. In cases that we see today in the media and issues of rights and freedoms in the United States, this quote can speak to all of us as to what is right, and what basic human rights and the rights of Americans that need to always be protected, majority or minority, whether race or religion, that all rights are to be protected, and the rights are outlined in the constitution, and not rights we just whimsically create.
Jefferson also wrote in his first inaugural address:
“Entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them;” (158) This was profound to me and would have been to Americans who may have still been used to the idea that rights and privilege were granted according to birth and nobility, and was now granted by god, and hard work, and the actions