What Is The Importance Of Protecting Its Citizens In The Declaration Of Independence

Improved Essays
Although the Government excluded slaves from receiving rights, the Bill of rights and the Constitution mostly reflected the ideals of the Declaration of Independence by treating each state equally, protecting the states and citizens from violence, prioritizing freedoms among citizens that cannot be encroached upon, and permitting the privacy of one’s personal belongings. It could be argued that the ideals of the Declaration of Independence do not reflect the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, as slaves were not given equal rights. The southern states wanted to increase their number of representatives in the House of Representatives. To do this, they had to have a greater population, therefore, they generated the idea of counting slaves as …show more content…
Most fear violence and vehemence, and having no type of protection can lead to additional fright. This is why the Governments promise of protecting its citizens in the Declaration of Independence is so important to maintain. The Constitution states, “… [The United States] shall protect them [the states] against invasion; and… domestic violence.” Vowing to protect every citizen is a major commitment, and the United States was ready to manage such a large task. Protection against violence being incorporated into a Government document forms the citizen’s safety and trust towards the government. The Government’s Bill of Rights also opted to allow all citizens to carry arms in order to defend themselves in any dangerous situation. If everyone has a gun at all times, this secures ultimate safety of citizens as they have the ability to protect themselves if the Government is not present. The safety of citizens is something that should always be of high priority. Furthermore, protection and security is the promise of life and a good one at that matter. Therefore, the promise of life originally written in the Declaration of Independence remained a true …show more content…
Personal privacy is an important aspect needed to maintain a healthy, strong, confident individual and community. Life itself is extremely personal as each individual’s life occurrences and private details pertain to only them. If an individual raid’s ones house, rips apart one’s paperwork, and trashes ones items there is nothing left. Everything they had known about their own life was for everyone else to know to. If the life of all is to be open to the public then the significance and meaning of one’s own life is gone. All deserve the right to privacy, and should respect the privacy of others. However, this was all prevented and done so efficiently by the United States Government. The United States had promised the pursuit of happiness to all citizens, and kept this promise by allowing the citizens complete and utter privacy.
It could be argued that the Government treated slaves as inferior by not allowing them Constitutional rights, however, the principles of the Declaration of Independence still essentially reflect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This is achieved by the equality among each state, the security of each state from violence, the progressivity of liberty among citizens due to a process of amending the constitution, and the confidentiality of one’s personal

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    he Elite consensus of 1787, there were three views on that some the founding fathers had The founding fathers also the blived in porotecting liberty and property,goverment as a contrat, and republicanism. 1.The portecting liberty and porperty- is based on locking thoery that humans have certain rights humans had that gormvent can't take away. Which is the founding father found that they shoud be recoginzed and portected with right of liberty that all people sould equall under the law even though it is a paradox most of them owned slaves.…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Freedom The declaration of independence is what set the stone rolling for the freeing of the slaves. The declaration was also the gateway to the five compromises. The first being the Bill of rights. The Bill of rights is the first part of twenty seven amendments.…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On September 11, 2001, one of the most horrific terrorist attacks in United States history took place. After the planes had collided with the Twin Towers, the masses of the United States of America suddenly was hit with anxiety and concern. America was prepared to lose their confidentiality in exchange for refuge from whatever dangers may follow in the future. When the Homeland Security Act, was passed in 2002 by President Bush, It showed how much the American people favored the constant surveillance by the government than the danger of being in harm's way. H.L. Mencken, an American essayist, and social critic wrote, “The average man does not want to be free.…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I want to formally start the essay with a quote from our 4th president of the United States James Madison “Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions”. When I read this quote not too long ago it helped me to reflect on our society and helped me to put my thoughts together to write this essay. If one thinks about it for a second this phrase warns us how we are not going to be safe, specially not our privacy.…

    • 2210 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Oppression has been a major part of history for as long as Americans can remember. The vicious cycle of oppression and rebellion led many to stand up for how they believe the “less superior” citizens should be treated. Revolters voiced their opinions on the quality of life that all should be able to enjoy and how everyone should be treated equally. Revolutionary voices such as Martin Luther King Jr., Patrick Henry, and the Declaration of Independence will live on in history for their meaningful calls to freedom. Martin Luther King Jr. produced a 17 minute long speech on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in which he called for an end to discrimination and the need for racial equality.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    George Mason once wrote, “We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it.” Believing in the civil liberties granted to all men, Mason penned the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which guaranteed these elemental human rights to the citizens of Virginia. Fifteen years later, the document extended these freedoms to the entire nation. Establishing the groundwork for the Bill of Rights, the Virginia Declaration of Rights influences current day American topics and affairs, and the slight variation in phrasing between the two documents has transformed the analysis of the Bill of Rights and how these fundamental rights are interpreted.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why Privacy Matter Even If You Have “Nothing to Hide” In the article “Why Privacy Matter Even If You Have ‘Nothing to Hide,”’ Daniel J. Solove, talking about the government governed the information to analyze without the permission. Many people didn’t realize how many problems by let the government take their information to analyze. Solove does a great job to persuade the readers that we deserve more the privacy by using the appeal to authority and anecdote.…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The ideals that followed as an outcome of the American Revolution allowed for an attitude of equality for all. Finally winning independence from Great Britain was a historical event that was so relevant to the American identity, and will continue to hold prominence in the rest of human existence. Throughout the American Revolution, the national identity greatly shifted back and forth in order to build off the foundation of freedom. The Founding Fathers thought they were doing just that, but instead they created a nation that favored a small amount of the population; white, property owning males. Establishing a nation that would allow equality for all was the underlying goal within the American Revolution.…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution lay out the framework for a representative government by the people, for the people where you were granted the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These documents sought to create a place free from persecution and to establish a place where the government represents the will of the people, for the betterment of the social good. The oppressive institution of slavery seeks to strip such freedoms from the individual to create a legal, tyrannical system. Over time challenges to the system were met with much futility and once promising signs of rights being extended to blacks by way of voting as well as emancipation being left to the slave master, in some states, soon turned…

    • 1837 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This is the statement also found in the Declaration of Independence itself and is, in my opinion, the thing that makes America the best nation in the world and a nation that other countries model themselves after. Every human being has the right to life – no one should ever have the right to take another person’s life. God is the only one with that right. Liberty is another word for freedom. No one human being should ever have the right to control the future of another human being or make decisions for another human being.…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this paper I will compare, and contrast the Declaration Of Independence, and The Declaration of the rights of man and citizen. These two documents are mostly the same just different use of words. There are some differents like both of these documents leave out something that the other document does not have. In this paper I will show what they both talk about.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Do you believe freedom should be given or must freedom be demanded? Well, I believe freedom should be given and not demanded. Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. All people no matter the age, race, or religion so be given that right. Freedom should be given for many reasons.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Freedom Vs Security

    • 1805 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Dan Gandio (2012) claimed that different types of people tend to enjoy more or less freedom than others for example the bourgeoisie enjoy more freedom than the lower class and this has lead to issues such as slavery, racism, feminism, same sex relationship bans etc. Secrecy and surveillance is a way of controlling individual freedom and blocking the public access to information can also limit freedom Bbc.co.uk (2014). An example of this was when the US National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting the telephone records of tens of millions of Americans from Verizon on a daily basis. They also accessed the servers of nine Internet such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to track online communication. This was a violation of the privacy of their citizen’s privacy and justifies the point stated earlier.…

    • 1805 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Why Privacy Matters

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Privacy is not frequently undermined by a solitary great act, yet rather by a moderate aggregation of little unobtrusive acts. Every act may appear to be innocuous, yet in time the government will be watching and knowing every little thing about us. Solove states that even if you don't have anything to hide, the government can hurt coincidentally, because of mistakes or carelessness. All in all, he fights that when you comprehend the immeasurable measure of privacy concerns connected with government data gathering and observation, the nothing-to-hide argument is less powerful. This essay addresses the ramifications of proceeded with government data accumulation and reconnaissance, before these practices get to be marked into perpetual law as a major aspect of the USA Patriot Act.…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Declaration of independence contained the phrase “all men are created equal”, which was written by Thomas Jefferson. As a reader the phrase “all men are created equal” means that all men no matter of color, social position, wealthy, financials status, and culture are all created equal to one another. That all men abide and follow the same law and that all men have the same rights as citizen. It also means that humans are naturally free to make their own choices. On the other hand, the phrase to the founders of the republic meant that all men are created equal under the authority of God.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays