The American Declaration of Independence

American Founding Introduction The American Declaration of Independence in July 4th 1776 was without doubt one of the greatest events of the 18th century. A group of far flung colonies had managed to set themselves free from the shackles of European based rule. The significance of the event could not be ignored given that it not only gave hope to the colonialist, but also other territories within the new world that were under European Monarchial rule. However, overcoming the British rule proved not to be the final path to self rule that the 13 states had long been seeking in the lead up to the American Revolutionary War.

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The 13 states were essentially sovereign territories that had only come together to fight for a common cause against a common enemy (Dye et al. 16). The Founding Fathers and those who drove the independence agenda came together in a bid to unite the 13 states into a Union Republic, via the Federalist Papers that were ultimately aimed at ratifying the US Constitution (Willis 264). Despite the teething problems in terms of cooperation of the states; the US Declaration of Independence was a unique triumph of the importance of the role of the people in self governance.

Factors that led to the Declaration of Independence The factors that led the 13 colonies to declare independence from the British Crown were mainly due to the tense relationship between the colonies and the mother land (Willis 7). The Crown, as a result of a protracted war with its neighbors in Europe, was deep in debt and thus the British government was desperate to increase government revenues. The British government started passing unpopular tax legislation that heavily taxed the colonies (Cogliano 106). The bone of contention leading to the refusal of the colonies to pay the increased taxes was that the colonies were not represented in the British legislature. The argument was that without representation the colonies were not obliged to obey the British parliament’s new tax increments.

The lack of recognition of parliament’s jurisdiction over the colonies, coupled with the Crown’s insistence on parliament’s authority spelt looming disaster (Cogliano 102). The 1773 Boston Tea Party and the use of coercion by the British in levying taxes led the colonists to form their breakaway Continental Congress in 1774. The Congress set about to try and dissuade the King and the British government against further acts through petitions and boycotting imported goods, but still nothing came out of this. In the face of this impasse, a Revolutionary war broke out, and the colonies had no option but to declare independence (Cogliano 110).

The Federalist Essay After the colonies had declared independence, the revolutionary war continued in earnest up until 1783. The effects of the war left all the states heavily indebted; the 13 states during the commencement of the war had agreed to work together against the Crown under signed Articles of Confederation (Dye et al. 26). However, after the war had ended, the states where not linked together in any meaningful way, and the architects of the Declaration of Independence wanted to foster greater cooperation and integration of the states. The Declaration of Independence, therefore, set the founding fathers on a path to the formation of a Union of the states under mutual governance (Dye et al. 30). Both the Declaration of Independence and Federalist Essays had a wide array of similarities. For instance, both believed in the importance of individual liberties and freedoms; they also believed in the importance of representation in a government.

However, their similarities were not sufficient to put in place a constitution that would govern the Union as a Republic (Dye et al. 33).

Principles of Federalist Essay The essay’s main objective was to unite the states into a single big republic. The main objection to this was that the modalities of how the new structure would operate were building opposition from some groups. For instance, how would centering power on the center of a union republic government be any different from the way the colonies had previously operated under the Crown? (Vukadinovic 4). The Federalist Essays, more specifically essay no. 10 set out to address such fears. The essay from the onset set about to protect the republic from what it referred to as ‘factions’, which were competing interests to those of the whole community. The essay was in strong support of having in place a large republic, as opposed to a small one which, according to the author, was more prone to competing interests of factions (Vukadinovic 8).

The essays were also promoting the formation of a republic legislature, aside from the individual state legislatures that would be specifically tasked to look out for the interests of the Union (Dye et al. 32). The essay also aimed to put the sovereignty of the republic to be above that of individual states. The spirit of the Federalist Essays was somewhat contrary to that of the declaration of independence. The essay argued that in order to safeguard the republic against factions, liberties had to be curtailed since it is the existence of liberties that give rise to factions.

This was completely against the purpose of the declaration which specifically aimed to enhance personal liberties (Vukadinovic 9).

Conclusion The Declaration of Independence was a paramount chapter in American history as it set about to enhance the role of the people in governance. The preamble to the revolutionary war was the insistence of the Crown to impose legislation affecting people without offering representation. The Federalist essays were vital tools that contributed to the formation of the Unites States. The founding fathers were aware of the importance of unity and reconstruction of the states in the wake of the revolutionary war. However, the exact modalities of how to go about integration among the states proved to be challenging tasks. Despite the best of intentions on the part of the authors, the procedure on how to protect the republic against factions appeared to be contrary to the Declaration of Independence. The contradiction was in the thin line between either enhancing or curtailing individual liberties for the good of the republic.

Works Cited Cogliano, Francis. Revolutionary America, 1763-1815: A Political History, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2009. Print.

Dye, Thomas, et al. The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics, 15th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.

Vukadinovic, Jelena. The Rhetorical Approach in the Federalist Papers No.10, No.54, No. 84 and No. 85.Norderstedt, Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2008. Print.

Wills, Garry. Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Print.