Roark Declaration Of Independence Analysis

By the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, thirteen loosely formed colonies in the New World had transformed into The United States of America. The process of creating a permanent government for the young nation fell to a group of statesmen which included the foremost thinkers and philosophers of the time. The recognizable names of Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison were joined by a multitude of others – politicians, jurists, soldiers, diplomats and ordinary citizens – to take on this formidable task. In the process of creating a permanent government for the new country, basic ideas for structuring the government differed, however, there was widespread agreement that the government should derive its power and authority from the people (Roark 154). Recently freed from the monarchial government of Great Britain, which was defined by unwritten laws, colonists sought written contracts that guaranteed basic principles and individual freedoms (Roark 232). Born from this ideal were three documents -- The Declaration of Independence, …show more content…
To secure these rights, the Declaration stated, “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed”. The term republicanism was born from this conviction that government was more than a set of rules, but rather a set of principles embraced by the citizens. In a Republic, sovereignty is held by individuals as opposed to a democracy, where sovereignty is considered to be held by the population as a whole (Roark 232). The distinction between these two forms of government contributed to the ideal of consent of the governed, by reinforcing the strength of the people – not in mass, but as