The Declaration of Independence, along with the Gettysburg Address and MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, is probably one of the most recognizable and defining documents in American history.
So often, it is analyzed from a wide range of perspectives, and unfortunately it is often read with out much feeling besides the patriotism behind it. When really considered, it's a beautiful complaint. Thomas Jefferson's prose is outstanding. Before he begins whining and listing the grievances, his first two paragraphs are filled with important words. I am convinced that not a single word in that paragraph is there as filler or just because he needed a word. His phrasing, eloquent syntax, and word choice are nothing short of masterful. Even as he moves into the pissings and moanings of the colonists, it's still the most put-together crying I've ever seen.
Moving beyond the surface or even the deeper meaning of that preamble, I'd like to address some things about Thomas Jefferson's Declaration vs. the one that was published and approved on July 4, 1776. Clearly, Jefferson drafted this document numerous times. My guess would be that the copy we know and love was on the order of his fifth or sixth revision. I have, however, a copy of the draft he submitted to the Continental Congress on July 2 (I believe that's correct) in order to be reviewed and submitted. This document bears a strong resemblance to the final copy. Mostly there are just some words changed around here or there, but there are some significant alterations.
Th e most important and provoking of these follows:
He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobium of INFIDEL Powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostitued his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this asslemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES of another.
This is explosive.
This is the only ommission that is not merely rephrased or comes within another paragraph in the final copy. The Continental Congress choose to specifically NOT MENTION slavery at all. Thomas Jefferson himself held slaves, but he chose to write against the slave trade. He also makes a huge point with this to literalize the meaning of that much-debated "all men are created equal and [endowed with] Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Had this been left in the Declaration, I am quite sure that the character of our nation would be very different today and certainly in its first century. This clause would probably have been a catalyst in putting forth legislation to end the slave trade earlier and help to abolish slavery sooner. Or, perhaps we would have seen a nation that became divided over this issue in 1776 rather than in th 1850s. The result of this would have been disastrous. There is no way freedom from Britain would have been won by two divided bodies. In fact, the south would have been likely to remain loyal to Britain.
As much as that paragraph is a beautiful statement for human rights. Hindsight here says that the ends justified the means for America. Slaves got shafted big time and had to wait until 1865 for freedom and then wait again until 1965 for true equality.
Which is more just? Choosing to eliminate this paragraph to save AMERICA and give us our current nation with YOUR human rights in exchange for those of others. Or making a bold statement about HUMAN RIGHTS for ALL RACES and knowing it is likely to cause your society's demise.
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To answer the question you posed at the end, I would like to reply, for whatever it's worth, that I think it would have been better to eliminate slavery and stand up for human rights even if it means our society would be much altered. In my humble opinion, our society isn't all that great right now anyway. I really don't think anything is worth the lives of thousands of people. The hapiness that our ancestors thought we would gain was paid for in human lives. We, unfortunately, did not have a say in 1776 as to what would be in the Declaration of Independence, but if I had been alive then, I would have voted to keep that paragraph.
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