Modern Day Relevance of The Declaration of Independence Essay -- Decla

Modern Day Relevance of The Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence is one of the most definitive docu ments produced by an American thinker. Reading The Declaration of Independence presents the reader with a window into the world of revolutionary America. It conveys the dynamic nature of the time better than apiece written work of the period. The real importance of The Declaration of Independence lies not in the purpose for which Jefferson created it, to declare independence from Great Britain, but rather how future tense generations have interpreted Jeffersons words. Jeffersons document originally seed basic rights for a select segment of the American population. Today it has become a document which has been interpreted to guarantee the basic rights of everyone living in America and abroad. In a way it has become a document with a life of its own. It has become something far much substantial than anything Jefferson or his contemporaries, writing within an eighteenth century mindset, could ever have believed it would become.When Jefferson first stated in The Declaration of Independence that, All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, he most sure enough did not mean all men. If he had thus it would be hard for him to justify the fact that a sizable percentage of the American population was enslaved. He meant that all white, property-owning Americans were equal to their British counterparts. No consideration was given to women in The Declaration of Independence, they did not hold an equal status with men in the Jeffersonian model of an American republic. All men, was certainly not the all-encompassing phrase that has been circulating in America ... ...Englands policies on the American colonies. There was no way for him to know that The Declaration of Independence would be used to give, and preserve, basic rights for all people American citizens or not. It is as if The Declarati on of Independence has matured along with the United States. America is a unpolished that has been home to a diverse population since its founding. The Declaration of Independence is interpreted in such a way that it has become a tool to check Americas heterogeneous population. The poetic nature and riveting tone of the document has inspired the generations of the past to gain and protect their unalienable rights. What those rights are has been subject to change with each passing generation.1. Much of this information has been taken from John C Millers, The Wolf by the Ears Thomas Jefferson and Slavery. (NY, 1977), pp. 52-53.