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Who Was The Intended Audience Of The Declaration Of Independence

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Who Was The Intended Audience Of The Declaration Of Independence
The declaration of independence was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. England and the United States of America, which consisted of 13 colonies at this point, had been at war for a year now. When the declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 it was the official separation of the colonies from Great Britain. When reading the declaration of independence, you might think that its main audiences are Great Britain, and probably the citizens of the 13 colonies. While both of these parties most definitely did read the declaration of independence, they weren’t the main audience. Foreign countries were the main target of the declaration of independence, because the colonies wanted to convince them of their cause so that the other countries would …show more content…
The beginning of the declaration of independence is very structured and logical trying to gain foreign support. You can see this from the very first line alone. It gives the reason for writing the declaration of independence in general.“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”This says that when political ties such as this are severed, people should have a right to know why. Not only does that sentence do a good job of showing why the document was written, but it also gives the reader a good idea of what to expect in the rest of the document. This makes it easier to follow when you understand that this declaration will state exactly why the United States of America felt it necessary to separate from Great …show more content…
Men give up some of their rights to form a state which means that government gets their power from the people, rather than people getting their power from the government. If any foreign nations were to disagree with this flow of power than they most likely wouldn’t support the rebellion. I think that the writers simply believed that nearly everyone would take this claim at face value, which is why they didn’t elaborate on it. Its also possible that they didn’t think they would persuade anyone who disagreed with this point to reverse their position. Another point made in the declaration is that you cannot revolt in good conscience unless the grievances are incessant and severe. The writers wanted to persuade other countries that they weren’t revolting from trivial offenses, and they didn’t think it would be right it they did. Logos is probably the most prevalent in the declaration of independence because of who their audience is. Further examples of logos is seen in the numerous grievances listed. Every single one of them is one reason why the colonies are choosing to separate from Britain. After they are all listed, the document then addresses any counter arguments that could be possibly had. It shows that they have exhausted any other options of communication because Britain wasn’t responding to the negotiations. the declaration also states how

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