Rhetoric of John Locke in the Declaration of Independance

The Declaration of Independence is arguably the most important document in American history and possibly its greatest example of successful rhetoric. Yet one mustwonder why this is so when there are no original ideas, new assertions of political dogma, or even a true declaration of independence contained in this brief document. In fact, most of the document itself seems to have been plagiarized, or at least pulled heavily from John Locke, enough that “Richard Henry Lee said the Declaration had been ‘copied from Locke’s treatise on government.” (Stephens 55) Why, then, is it considered to be the foundation on which American Democracy stands, and why did it effectively unify a burgeoning nation against an enemy in a war for its independence? The answer must lie in the rhetoric used in the document as well as in the constraints of the people from the thirteen united states that bound them to seventeenth century Lockean philosophies in the first place. Therefore, in order to create the Declaration of Independence as both a unifying force to the country as well as a justification to the rest of the world, Lockean rhetoric was used as the foundation to the document’s logic and pathos that, weather employed precisely or altered purposefully, took advantage of the constraints held by the thirteen states. In order to understand the effect of the rhetoric used in the Declaration of Independence, one must first examine the history leading up to it. Though, popularly, this document is known for declaring the independence of the new United States of America, that view is not exactly correct. On June 7th, 1776, Richard Henry Lee had offered up a resolution of independence, and on July 2nd, 1776, John Adams, along with some other founding fathers, passed this resolution through Congress. Therefore, the Declaration of Independence was merely restating what had already been settled on two days before. “In other words, the direct goal of independence had already been proclaimed

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