Thomas Jefferson's Response To The Declaration Of Independence

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Declaration to a King and to the People Before the drafting of The Declaration of Independence, the majority of colonists were loyal to the British Empire. The colonies traded many good with Britain and also consumed European goods being imported. British troops protected the colonies from foreign and Indian attackers. The toll of many European wars had created a massive debt in the British Empire. Weighted down by this debt, the King and his loyal parliament designed a system to levy many new taxes on the colonists, which they found excessive. With no representation in parliament, the colonists boycotted and some took to the presses to share their discontent. Parliament met this discontent with more taxes and new laws (rules) to make …show more content…

Though he used no books or pamphlets to help him write the document, his influences were previous writings on government and the rights of individuals. The themes and ideas of the draft Jefferson wrote were mostly not new. He later admitted the document did not contain new principles or arguments but was meant to express the thoughts of the colonists (apstudynotes.org). Most noted was British writer John Locke and Thomas Paine. Locke wrote Two Treatises of Government. “Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of Nature, equally with any other man, or number of men in the world, hath by nature a power not only to preserve his property—that is, his life, liberty, and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men… (Locke 84)” Jefferson used this fundamental logic in his draft of the document. He changed it a bit since estate or property was not a main theme. Jefferson wrote, “that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness (Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence).” Jefferson also borrowed his philosophy that governments should be for the benefit of everyone, not just the

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