Yesterday was the 240th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and most of the Op-Ed pieces written in celebration of the event have focused on the first sentence of the second paragraph. However, that most famous sentence is not the thesis of that paragraph or of the Declaration as a whole. First, let’s take a look a the plan of the Declaration.
First, the Declaration has a clear four part structure. 1) The 1st paragraph states that a people in revolt should declare their reasons for doing so. 2) The 2nd paragraph provides the intellectual or philosophical framework that sets forth the conditions that may justify a revolt. 3) The third section consists of a list of offenses by the King of England that purports to satisfy the conditions of paragraph 2. and 4) The closing paragraph contains the formal declaration that separated the colonies from the Crown.
The cornerstone, which was quite radical, is the second paragraph which is the focus of this essay.
All honor to Jefferson — to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times . . .
Abraham Lincoln — 1859
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. Much can and has been written about this sentence, but, I repeat, it is not the thesis of the paragraph that follows.
Jefferson continues: 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 to 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.
Here is the thesis not only of the paragraph, but of the entire document; for if this proposition is false, then the cause of the revolution is baseless. Not only, the does this proposition lay the foundation for the initial revolt of the colonies, but it is also the basis for our continued revolution every time we cast a vote.