{"id":107,"date":"2026-08-31T20:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/?page_id=107"},"modified":"2026-08-31T20:58:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:58:28","slug":"self-evident","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/self-evident\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-Evident?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>TEXT:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/texts\/thomas-jefferson-declaration-of-independence-1776\/\">Jefferson, Declaration (1776)<\/a><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Thomas Jefferson chaired the committee that produced the Declaration in early summer 1776; he was the principal author of the document that contained three sections:&nbsp; preamble, grievances against the King or \u201ctrain of abuses,\u201d and the resolution for independence<\/li>\n<li>The Second Continental Congress voted for Independence on July 2 and approved the Declaration (as amended) on July 4; the final document was not \u201cengrossed\u201d (or written formally in parchment) and ready for signatures until early August 1776<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>CONTEXT:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/05-the-american-revolution\/#IV_Independence\">American Revolution<\/a><\/h3>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe majority of the [Declaration] outlined a list of specific grievances that the colonists had with British attempts to reform imperial administration during the 1760s and 1770s. An early draft blamed the British for the transatlantic slave trade and even for discouraging attempts by the colonists to promote abolition. Delegates from South Carolina and Georgia as well as those from northern states who profited from the trade all opposed this language, and it was removed.\u201d \u2014<em>American Yawp<\/em>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/05-the-american-revolution\/#IV_Independence\">Chap. 5: IV<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.battlefields.org\/learn\/primary-sources\/jefferson-condemns-slave-trade-declaration-independence\">Jefferson\u2019s draft clause on African slave trade (Battlefield Trust)<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Jefferson\u2019s preamble provoked little debate, though Benjamin Franklin convinced him to make an important editorial change \u2013revising the original phrase, \u201csacred and undeniable rights\u201d to \u201cself-evident rights.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\n<figure id=\"attachment_762\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-762\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/files\/2025\/09\/Draft-Declaration.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-762\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/files\/2025\/09\/Draft-Declaration-204x300.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/files\/2025\/09\/Draft-Declaration-204x300.jpg 204w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/files\/2025\/09\/Draft-Declaration-695x1024.jpg 695w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/files\/2025\/09\/Draft-Declaration-768x1131.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/files\/2025\/09\/Draft-Declaration-1043x1536.jpg 1043w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/files\/2025\/09\/Draft-Declaration-1390x2048.jpg 1390w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fys-pinsker\/files\/2025\/09\/Draft-Declaration.jpg 1738w\" alt=\"Draft Declaration\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-762\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jefferson\u2019s original draft (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/mtjbib000156\/\">Library of Congress<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jefferson\u2019s revised preamble was truly an&nbsp;<strong>Enlightenment era<\/strong>&nbsp;statement that celebrated&nbsp;<strong>natural rights<\/strong>&nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle\/enlightenment\/\">Lockean liberalism<\/a>), but modern students need to remember that Enlightenment era thinkers often separated natural rights from civil and political rights in ways that no longer seem fair or just.<\/li>\n<li>The second section of the Declaration, its \u201ctrain of abuses,\u201d invoked a different Enlightenment era philosophy:&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>republicanism<\/strong>&nbsp;or the ideology of representative government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>SUBTEXT:&nbsp; Promises or Hypocrisy<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/poets.org\/poet\/tracy-k-smith\">Tracy K. Smith<\/a> (1972-&nbsp; ) served as the nation\u2019s poet laureate, appointed by the Librarian of Congress, during the period from 2017-19.&nbsp; Her poem, \u201cDeclaration,\u201d is an example of erasure, which creates poetry by removing words from an existing text. The poem first appeared in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2017\/11\/06\/declaration\"><em>New Yorker&nbsp;<\/em>magazine in 2017<\/a> without italics and then in a published volume in 2018 with italics (as reproduced here).&nbsp; In this case of \u201cfound poetry,\u201d Smith, as poet laureate, tackles the process of revisiting Thomas Jefferson\u2019s prose in the Declaration of Independence.&nbsp; In particular, Smith focuses on the second section of the Declaration, not the famous preamble with its celebration of natural rights, but rather the \u201ctrain of abuses\u201d committed by the King (and Parliament) against the American colonists.&nbsp; Smith clearly finds resonance not only to the African American experience but also to modern-day abuses in the American system and uses erasure to help focus the reader on the evident hypocrisy that she sees then and now.&nbsp; Or by holding onto at least some of the keystone words, does Smith&#8217;s poem sustain as well as erase, and thereby make the Declaration her own promise to keep?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Declaration&nbsp;<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>He has&nbsp;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>He has plundered our<\/em>\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;ravaged our<\/em>\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;destroyed the lives of our<\/em>\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>taking away our\u00ad<\/em>\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;abolishing our most valuable<\/em>\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>and altering fundamentally the Forms of our<\/em>\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>Redress in the most humble terms:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Our repeated&nbsp;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>and settlement here.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; \u2014<em>taken Captive<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<em>on the high Seas<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"long-line\"><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;to bear\u2014<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TEXT:&nbsp;&nbsp;Jefferson, Declaration (1776) Thomas Jefferson chaired the committee that produced the Declaration in early summer 1776; he was the principal author of the document that contained three sections:&nbsp; preamble, grievances against the King or \u201ctrain of abuses,\u201d and the resolution for independence The Second Continental Congress voted for Independence on July 2 and approved the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-107","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/107\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}