declaration :: essays research papers

The annunciation of Independence is perhaps the most masterfully written state wallpaper of Western civilization. As Moses Coit Tyler noted almost a century ago, no assessment of it can be complete without taking into account its rare merits as a work of political prose style. Although many scholars have accepted those merits, there are surprisingly few sustained studies of the stylistic art of the Declaration.(1) This essay seeks to illuminate that artistry by probing the discourse microscopically--at the take aim of the designate, phrase, word, and syllable. By approaching the Declaration in this way, we can shed stir up both on its literary qualities and on its rhetorical power as a work designed to convince a "candid orb" that the American colonies were justified in seeking to establish themselves as an individual nation.(2) The text of the Declaration can be divided into five sections--the introduction, the preamble, the bill of indictment of George III, the denunciation of the British people, and the conclusion. Because space does not permit us to contrive each section in full detail, we shall select features from each that elaborate the stylistic artistry of the Declaration as a whole.(3)The introduction consists of the branch paragraph--a single, lengthy, periodic sentence When in the Course of world events, it becomes necessary for virtuoso people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the divide and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Natures God entitle them, a fair respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.(4)Taken out of context, this sentence is so general it could be used as the introduction to a declaration by any "oppressed" people. Seen within its original context, however, it is a model of subtlety, nuance, and implication that works on several lev els of meaning and allusion to direct readers toward a favorable view of America and to prepare them for the rest of the Declaration. From its gilded opening phrase, which sets the American Revolution within the whole "course of human events," to its assertion that "the Laws of Nature and of Natures God" entitle America to a " withdraw and equal station among the powers of the earth," to its quest for sanction from "the opinions of mankind," the introduction elevates the quarrel with England from a petty political dispute to a major event in the grand sweep of history.