The Duty of Americans.

On April 18th 1775, 700 British Soldiers marched upon the towns of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. Hopefully we all know the story of the "Shot Heard Round the World." The shots that signaled the beginning of the American Revolution. As skirmishes between British forces and American militia intensified, the Second Continental Congress convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though they lacked the legal authority to act as a governing body, the 56 delegates took upon themselves the burden and responsibility of the revolution. In June of 1776, the delegates decided that it was time to send a message to King George III and officially declare the United States independence from Great Britain. This task was put into the hands of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was a wealthy plantation owner and a scholar. Jefferson's greatest gift was in his writing. He had an eloquence with words that rivals that of any great poet and the Declaration of Independence is considered one of the greatest pieces of writing in history. The main premise of the Declaration is in its title, it was written to declare independence from Great Britain by listing the grievances the colonies had against King George. However it has two more groundbreaking principles that have lasted for over 200 years. First was that during the 18th century countries were ruled by monarchs or kings and queens. These kings and queens derived their justification as rulers through the theory of "Divine Right." Divine Right was the idea that God granted kings and queens their right to rule over the masses. God created the monarchy to be superior to the common people, therefore the monarch had the right to rule. This notion was widely accepted by the people because it was backed by the Vatican. But as the Rennaisance continued in the late 16th and 17th century, this notion came under fire from several notable individuals such as, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and George Mason. Thomas Jefferson drew from all of their ideas and his own and establishes the thought that government is not derived from God, but that it is derived from man.



"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 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."


But he takes it a step further later on in the Declaration as he revisits this notion:

"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."

Thomas Jefferson has not only said it is our right as a free people to institute and abolish governments, but it is our duty to do so when a government becomes destructive. It is our duty to ensure the freedom of the American people. It is our duty as human beings to ensure the freedom of other human beings. The second thing the declaration does is something that was far ahead of its time. In 36 words it declares the fundamental rights of a human being.

"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."

In these 36 words Thomas Jefferson summed up what it means not only to be an American, but what it means to be a human being. It means that we are all equal, not in the sense that we are all the same, because we obviously are not. But in the sense that our creator, whomever he or she may be, endowed us with three basic and fundamental rights that are universal to all humans. We are all endowed with the right to live, the right to be free, and the right to be able to pursue our happiness. It is not just a right of Americans to have these freedoms, it is a right of all men. It has been laid out in front of us. Our duty as Americans is to ensure that we maintain our unalienable rights not just for us, but for our posterity. It is our duty to ensure that we maintain a just and honest government. It is our duty to help our fellow man. It is our duty to pursue our happiness.