IMO What Is the Most Important Part Of The Declaration of Independence
I think Abraham Lincoln had the right approach with respect when addressing the Declaration of Independence. On July 10th, 1858 he gave a speech in Chicago:
"It happens that we meet together once every year, sometime about the 4th of July....We run our memory back over the pages of history [to 1776]. We find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers. They were iron men. They fought for the principle that they were contending for; and we understand that by what they then did, it has followed that the degree of prosperity that we now enjoy has come to us. We hold this annual celebration to remind ourselves of all the good done, of how it was done and who did it, and how we are historically connected with it....
We have [among us immigrants] who are not descendants at all of these men....If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none....But when they look through that old Declaration of Independence, they find that those old men say that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." And then they feel that the moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration. And so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world."
I agree that our freedoms are not just for those who were born in the country or those that have ancestors here. It is for those who love America and want to love and appreciate a country that took them in. We welcome from ALL walks of life and ALL countries through proper vetting. I don't know why people are suddenly calling it racist since we started with Ellis Island to make sure we weren't letting in dangerous criminals. We also had to make sure we balanced the number of immigrants coming in each year, as not to strain our economy that our current citizens have worked hard to upkeep.
I HIGHLY recommend you read the original document and feel the American Spirit radiating off of it. We wanted FREEDOM!
The document is titled exactly with its main purpose: not to suggest that we are a free nation, but a declaration that we are independent. We were telling them and standing behind that declaration. There were many people that were willing to risk their lives and livelihood over this statement. 56 people signed their names at the bottom of that document. 56 people that deeply believed this document. We didn't want to be under British rule. Under a monarchy. Under a religion-controlled government. We wanted to be able to live free and worship whatever religion we believed in.
This separation allowed each of the states to have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and other acts that independent states now have the right to do.
In My Opinion: The "Declaration" portion was the most important. Like I mentioned before. We were demanding it, and 'declaring' it. So it is reality. It wasn't up for debate. Our founding fathers stood by this and risked everything to help break away from a country that was stifling and suffocating our human rights. Everything added was a very good outline of what this declaration entailed, but the fact that they wrote out everything that we demanded, did not allow many loopholes to work around and destroy this document's standing.
What part of the Declaration of Independence did you see as the best part of this document?
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