United States Declaration of Independence and New Colonies

The “Declaration of Independence” is an extremely famous, as well as important piece of writing, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, and adopted by the Second Continental Congress. It was written to state the reasons why the British colonies of North America should have their independence from Great Britain. Jefferson wanted to persuade King George the III why these colonies should have their independence, and used many techniques in doing so. A few techniques that he used while writing this document include logos, which appeals to reason and logic, ethos, which appeals to emotions, and pathos, which appeals to an audience’s sense of identity, and their self-interest. Tomas Jefferson opens with remarks that address King George the III in regards to how things should be run. He appeals to the King of Great Britain by using logos and ethos. In the first part of the statement he uses logos by saying “…it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another”. Then Mr. Jefferson goes on in the statement using ethos when he writes about how the King should listen to the people that founded the new colonies because they spoke up about them and what they are doing. He wrote “…a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. As a result Jefferson wanted to come off as passive by pleading but assertive by saying what the colonial people want. In the beginning of the second part of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas appealed to King George by using pathos. He said “…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.” He points out that the new colonies believe this statement and so much more. However, this short summary was powerful enough to sum up what they trying to say; especially the last part of the sentence which most