How The Declaration of independence and the U.S Constitution reflect enlightenment ideas about government?
The Enlightenment (capital E) happened in Europe in the 1600s. People began to have different feelings about things, to think differently about a lot of things. As it had to do with government, the important new idea was that government belongs to the people, not vice versa. In all the time before that, people believed that the king basically owned the country. The king was picked by God, so to oppose the king was to oppose God. The king and his friends had the right to impose taxes, make laws, decide what was what, and the people's job was just to go along with this. But in the Enlightenment a new idea came about. The idea was that all men are born free. They give up a little of their freedom to create a government which provides social order. The government exists to serve the people, not vice versa, and when governments no longer serve peoples' needs, the people have a right and a DUTY to change those governments, or to get rid of them and create a new government. This is the idea expressed in the Declaration of Independence, starting with 'We hold these truths to be self-evident'. Thomas Jefferson was not telling King George something new, this was the prevailing view in England too! The Constitution says this too, but not so loudly. The preamble of the Constitution explains the six purposes of government--in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, etc. etc. And it begins 'We the People of the United States', meaning that the Constitution was put in place not just by the delegates to the convention or the people who run the government but by ALL the people of the US, it belongs to us and we can change it or abolish it if we want, if it no longer serves our purpose. Government is US, it is an expression of the will of the people, not something imposed on the people by the government.
Declaration of independence and the constitution?
2 different documents written almost 10 years apart. "We the people" is the beginning of the Constitution. The Declaration of Indepenence begins "When in the course of human events"
Do you think the US Declaration of Independence or the Constitution is a greater document?
If I had to choose, I'd probably go with the Declaration of Independence. Not nearly so much compromise built into it. Refuses monarchy. Establishes the obligation of the governed to overthrow tyranny. Incredibly daring document. People like to say the Constitution is not a suicide pact. The Declaration definitely was. The Constitution has hung around for almost 225 years. It created a nation out of sovereign states, while allowing them to remain sovereign states - no small feat. It established a government far more limited than those that had preceded it, and led to the most successful nation in history. The hell of all of this is that now, 200+ years later, Jefferson would be a fringe blogger, Franklin would be a dot com billionaire, Washington would have been mustered out as a major (at best), and Paine would be in Russia hiding from the NSA.
Why is the U.S. Declaration of Independence preserved in a vault?
The original signed copy of the Declaration of Independence is on public display in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC.Because it is a very old document, which has had some rough handling, extensive efforts have been made to prevent it from deteriorating further than it already has. It is stored in a titanium case filled with inert argon gas. The thick bulletproof glass sheet over it is tinted very heavily to prevent damage from sunlight or UV rays. Here is a picture of it, in its case. The pages in the case below it contain the original signed copy of the Constitution and the original draft of the Bill of Rights. All of them are faded and hard to read, the Declaration especially, since it was on open display on a wall across from a window, protected by nothing more than a standard frame with a pane of glass for decades.What you cannot see is that this whole huge cabinet is actually sitting on top of an elevator. In the event of someone trying to damage the documents, or an attack on the city, at the push of a button, the entire table sinks into the floor very rapidly. It is lowered to a vault many feet below the ground, after which a huge barrier slides in place, blocking the shaft. This all takes place in seconds. I have heard that it was last really used on 9/11, when it became clear that the attacks were deliberate.EDIT: Emilian Miron has pointed out that modern tour guides of the National Archives say that no such elevator and vault system exists. I am unable to find evidence either way on the Internet. The information about the protective cases themselves are confirmed. July 4, 1776: Preserving the DeclarationHere is the National Archives building on Constitution Ave.
Why is the Declaration of Independence more compelling than the Preamble?
Because the Preamble is just that—a preamble to a legal contract between legal and sovereign entities, the states that made up the United States. The US Constitution is a contract between independent states. A contract they entered into voluntarily in order to achieve certain common benefits by yielding a few, well-defined, powers.There’s nothing too romantic about the intro paragraph to a simple legal contract.The Declaration of Independence, on the other hand, was a statement of rebellion. It was the culmination of all the philosophy that had been building in the Western World since the rediscovery of the works of Aristotle hundreds of years prior.Though a simple declaration, this document typified what the Scientific Revolution, The Enlightenment, The English Bill of Rights, and the spirit and motivation of the colonists were all based on. Truth, individualism over collectivism, individual sovereignty, reason.The Patriots had a differing view of the British Constitution—nothing more. It’s not the view per say that is so compelling—indeed under British Common Law, Parliament was probably in the right. It’s the fact that the people of the various states claimed the sovereignty that was rightfully theirs.The Declaration was the summary of that beautiful act. The act of free peoples forming their own governments and declaring their own countries. 13 sovereign nations seceded from the British Empire in 1776, and that type of brash assertiveness in the face of force against you is inspiring.The contract that followed in 1789 laid the groundwork for the destruction of everything the Declaration stood for. It created the foundation on which the massive state we see today grew to maturity.Freedom, independence, and assertiveness are more compelling than corruption, manipulation, and force.
Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
The Declaration of Independence is without a doubt one of the most important documents ever to be written in American history. It was signed by fifty-six different men, all representatives from different states.Although we know Thomas Jefferson as the true author, initially five people were appointed to draw up a declaration. The committee included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was then given the task of writing a draft for the Declaration of Independence, which from June 11 to June 28 he worked on. Before he presented the Declaration to the Continental Congress, he showed it to John Adams and Benjamin Franklin; they made revisions. He presented the draft to Congress on July 1, 1776 and more revisions were made. On the fourth of July the delegates met in what we know today as Independence Hall, but back then was known as the Pennsylvania State House, and approved the Declaration. John Hancock, the President of the Continental Congress signed the declaration along with Charles Thomson and hence the declaration of independence was finally ready.
What was the purpose of the Declaration of Independence as stated in the preamble to the Declaration?
The preamble to the Declaration of Independence states (this is simplified from the actual preamble) "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." The purpose of the Declaration of Independence was to state to the public of the United States of America and other nations why the Declaration of Independence was written. It was written to 1.) show the separation of the 13 original colonies from Great Britain and 2.) to show certain rights of the people of the United States. These certain rights are that all men are meant to be equal and to have certain rights (unalienable rights) that are bestowed upon them at birth and the government should never take them away. These certain rights include "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
What are the three main points of the Declaration of Independence?
1) Governments exist for the purpose of promoting people's rights of life, liberty and property.2) Their power to do so derives directly from the people governed.3) England's governance of the colonies failed both those, therefore its government was illegitimate, rejected, and a new government more closely adhering to those ideals was formed to replace it.
3)In what ways does the Constitution contradict the Declaration of Independence?
he Declaration contains a set of ideals. The Constitution contains a set of laws. As far as significant differences... In the Preamble, there is a statement of equality that wasn't in the Constitution until the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Also, where the Declaration talks about "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" the Due Process Clause protects "Life, Liberty, and Property". Those two clauses have been interpreted as being inclusive of each other by the Supreme Court. The Declaration talks about overthrow of a government, while the Constitution merely provides methods for amending and changing the govt. Different time, different purpose. Finally, at the end, the Declaration appeals to the "Supreme Judge of the World" to create "free and independent states", while the Constitution holds itself and the federal govt as supreme, overriding the states. Those are the biggest differences I noticed at a glance.