Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence Essay Example for Free

Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence Essay Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence are two important and popular persuasive documents in American history. Both documents were written in 1776 about the same subject (Famighetti 512; Independence Hall Association 1999). However, as one reads the different documents one would observe the difference in tone and styles adopted by each author to express their ideas. As persuasive works both presents the current problems that they were facing, both give reasons as to why the problem was occurring and both presents a solution to the problem. The subject of both documents was Great Britain’s relationship with the American colonies. Both documents were written at a time when Great Britain was pressuring the American colonies to pay unreasonable and unfair taxes to her (Perry 431). Paine had felt that Great Britain was abusing its power while Jefferson argued that Great Britain was a tyrant. Then each author proceeded to enumerate their own reasons why they think it was so. In view of the current circumstances, both authors had felt that the colonies should free itself from Britain’s rule. In communicating his ideas, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was written more in the direction of an editorial persuasive essay that aimed to make the people become aware of what was really going on between Britain and the American colonies. In the opening paragraph Paine clearly admit that what he was about to say may not be the general belief or views of his readers, â€Å" perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor†( Independence Hall Association1999 ). He was merely presenting his opinion regarding a certain situation. On the other hand, Jefferson’s works was already a call to action as if the people already knew what was going on. The assumption that he was addressing to people who already knew the real situation was in the statement, â€Å"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another† (Fameghetti 512), as if implying that certain events of which the people were aware of is now leading them to separate from Britain. In other words, Common Sense was educating the people while The Declaration of Independence was largely calling the now â€Å"educated† people to action. Thomas Paine’s discourse was merely voicing his opinions and informing the people of the real situation, his tone of voice was more of calm persuasion as if he was waking up the general American public from a long sleep of indifference and ignorance when he observes that the Americans were in â€Å"a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong† which â€Å"gives it a superficial appearance of being right†( Independence Hall Association 1999 ) . Paine then ended his document with a suggestion of what the American people should do. Jefferson on the other hand, adopted a more confident, assertive and with a sense of urgency tone in his work, with the goal of rallying more sympathizers and followers to the cause of independence and urging them to make an immediate action. This can be supported by the fact that by the time the document was conceived and read, not all Americans agreed to the separation (Perry 431). Yet Jefferson used the â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident†, using the word â€Å"we† to mean that he was assuming that all Americans was sharing his views and with this regard he was playing the role as the voice of the American people (Fameghetti 512). Unlike Paine, Jefferson ended the document not with a suggestion but with a bold announcement for the need of separation (Fameghetti 513). Moreover, the organization of both documents was different. Jefferson took a rather direct and abrupt approach in communicating his views. He immediately introduce his ideas in the beginning few paragraphs citing John Locke’s â€Å"inalienable rights† as the main basis for his argument and without much hesitation supported his view on separation by listing Britain’s faults. The theme of his works was more to justify American acts of rebellion so that other nations such as Spain and France from which they hope to gain support for their cause will not consider their revolutionary actions as illegal acts of rebellion (Maier 43). Paine, on the other hand, adopted a storytelling format in presenting his views. He took pains in providing background information about his subject (Independence Hall Association 1999). He examined every detail and favorable examples and presented them as logical explanations in support of his views of why it is better for a nation to be independent of Britain. When one examines each documents, one can conclude that in Common Sense, Paine acted as a persuasive educator, whose role was only that of a man who had the task of arousing the interest of his readers to side with his views while Jefferson acted more as an active leader of rebellion, whose main goal was to inspire the people to make immediate action in response to their belief that Great Britain should not rule over them. Works Cited Famighetti, Robert. The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996. New Jersey: Funk and Wagnalls Corporation, 1995. Independence Hall Association. â€Å"Common Sense by Thomas Paine†. 1999. US History Organization Website. Accessed April 4, 2008 http://www. ushistory. org/paine/commonsense/singlehtml. htm Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. Perry, Marvin. A History of the World. New York: Houghton and Mifflin, 1988.