Principles are fundamental ideas about how people should behave, or how the world should operate (except in science, but that's not really what we're discussing here). In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson discusses the reasons why the British government has acted wrongly and therefore lost the right to govern the colonies.
By arguing that the colonists have certain rights as human beings, which should be protected by the government, Jefferson and the Continental Congress are proclaiming that the King and Parliament's actions have not been morally right. The Founding Fathers are adhering to certain principles to determine their vision of how government should be, and to prove how the British government has failed.
Questions About Principles
- What effect does Jefferson's emphasis on principles have on the overall impact of the text?
- What seems to you to be the most important principle to Jefferson?
- If you were writing the Declaration of Independence, what principles would you have focused on? Would they differ from Jefferson's?
- Knowing what you do about the context of the Declaration of Independence, do you think the British government and the colonial governments were following different principles? If so, in what ways? If not, then why were they at war?
Chew on This
The principle of good, benevolent government is big for Jefferson, and is really the main idea of the Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson provides more evidence for the lack of principles on the British side then for the presence of principles on the American side.