When you think about the construct of the United States of America, you think of a group of men assembling to debate the status of the relationship the colonies shared with Great Britain. However, there are a few notable figures, as well as their writing, that influenced the makeup and signing of the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin is one of the prominent benefactors in the creation of the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin as well as his autobiography, opposed to Thomas Paine and his work Common Sense, was the leading factor in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. While the two lived and wrote at the same time, contributing to the founding of the United States; the differential weight they carried in terms of their literature was vital to the Declaration.
In Paine 's Common Sense, he begins to argue the case of American independence from Great Britain. Paine also has the notion of government being a necessary evil, keeping the vices of man in check. He argues the hereditary succession is bad; man being born into a world of equality. Paine states that hereditary succession brings incompetent kings, corruption, and civil
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In this autobiography, Benjamin Franklin establishes what it is to be a hardworking man, as well as brings his thoughts about Deism to light. Franklin creates the aphorism "God helps those who help themselves," to illustrate the need for self-help within the colonies. This alone is one of the leading factors-- if not the leading -- that drove the colonists to fight for independence. Colonists were wanting separation from Great Britain long before Thomas Paine and Common Sense; they were just too afraid to express their feelings until he distributed it. However, by that time, the colonies were already headed into the Revolutionary War to fight for their independence.
Benjamin Franklin was a very important man in the Enlightenment period due to his vast knowledge of science and politics. The American Enlightenment provided the structure for the colonists of America to evolve into a unique American character by 1763 through the circulation of reading materials, the scientific discoveries that lead to unique inventions, the development of a different government, and the tolerance for many religions. This evolution can be assessed by the life of Benjamin Franklin, a key proponent of the Enlightenment. The 18th century was when Britain and its colonies grew closer because of the circulation in letters, newspapers, and books.
John Locke was a philosopher, and political scientist. He believed democracy was a considerably better form of government than a monarchy. Thomas Jefferson was the third U.S. president, and was one of America’s founding fathers. He was the author of the Declaration of Independence, and played a key role in the institution of the United States of America. John Locke was a very influential person when it came to Thomas Jefferson and the ideas within the Declaration of Independence.
In the eighteenth century there was a mix of opposition of independence, and a hope that the new nation would become a home of freedom. Thomas Paine’s argument was that America needs to gain independence from England. Some of the reasons Paine wrote Common Sense is because of unnecessary wars, monarchial government, and the way Britain treated America. Regardless of Paine’s popularity with Common Sense, Jonathan Boucher was a minister who explained his opposition of the revolutionary movement in his sermons. He believed if God wanted America to be independent it would have happened, and it is our duty as citizens to obey the laws because we will be disobedient to God.
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin franklin was apart of the five member committee that helped draft the declaration of independence, so the thirteen colonies can gain their independence. He served in second continental congress and helped create the treaty of paris. He also creates the albany union plan but it failed and set the foundation for the articles of confederation, which became the first constitution of america. Thomas Jefferson
The Autobiography of Ben Franklin Ben Franklin is extensively viewed as a great patriot and founding father of American country. Franklin exerted a significant influence in shaping the American nation, owing to his reasonable, pragmatic, and intelligent approach to life. His persuasive abilities and power was derived from the ideological principle he had adopted in his life. Through his own account, Benjamin viewed himself as a Deist and believed that the universe was put together by a divine creator (FRANKLIN, 85).
“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind” (Paine 1). With the Revolutionary War beginning in 1775, and the publication of Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, only a year later, this statement was widely recognized and addressed the issue at hand: the fight for independence. According to Paine’s assertion, America’s desire for peace and freedom is a basic necessity of life; it is what all men desire. Despite this innate thirst for liberty, many residents of America’s thirteen colonies were fearful of Great Britain, and because of this fear, complied with Great Britain’s every whim. Consequently, most colonists were hesitant to fight against the mother country for independence.
“It is wholly owing to the Constitution of the people, and not to the constitution of the government that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turkey.” We should give power to someone who is fair and not self-centered. Paine stated “from the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom” to advise us to avoid repeating the past in the future from learning about bad past experiences. Paine argued for American’s separation from England by comparing the Kings that Great Britain has had to what a government should be
There were a lot of American men who had perfect influence on people’s mind of American society. Jonathan Edward and Benjamin Franklin were two of those writers, who were the most important and intellectual men, who left behind many admirable works for the future society. In spite of them being so intelligent, they have some different and similar views in terms of morality, personal responsibility, human nature, and limits of human knowledge and inform people how to live a better life. In addition, they were different in terms of religious inclinations. Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edward were both philosopher and had similar views in terms of informing people the right way to live in order to be successful and get salvation by reforming their mind in their life.
The Declaration of Independence is an extremely important document to the United States. Thomas Jefferson receives the most credit for writing the declaration, however he was assisted by five other men that were apart of the Constitutional Congress. They wrote the declaration to persuade the colonist to break free from Britain. The Declaration of Independence uses numerous persuasive appeals and language, including parallelism, pathos, and ethos. Parallelism is “a pattern in writing in which words and phrases are similar in structure, one echoing another.”
The Common Sense pamphlet was written by Thomas Paine he was an editor for the Pennsylvanian magazine. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson. These two authors, Paine and Jefferson got their ideas from the Enlightenment philosophers Voltaire, Locke, Rousseau, and Montesquieu. One philosopher’s ideas that was found in both documents was Voltaire.
Born in 1706 as the eighth of 17 children to a Massachusetts soap and candlestick maker, the chances Benjamin Franklin would go on to become a gentleman, scholar, scientist, statesman, musician, author, publisher and all-around general genius were astronomically low, yet he did just that. Franklin wrote in the Age of Enlightenment, an intellectual revolution in the 18th century. The ideals of the enlightenment are still thought of today, as they are a part of the United States’ Declaration of Independence and Constitution. When one remembers Benjamin Franklin very few people are aware of the fact that he worked as a printer until the age of 42. As a printer he had access to substantial amounts of literature.
In addition, throughout the pamphlet, he condemned monarchy and encouraged democracy instead. The colonists may not have an equal voice towards social issues if they still followed monarchy after the declaration of independence was signed. Thus, the foundation that made people to speak up for independence was the pamphlet. The more voices citizens have about their freedom against the British, the more powerful patriotism will be. This shows that “Common Sense” helped Americans to speak up and strive for what they truly believe in, which is
As a result, Benjamin Franklin is a wise man, in order to create trusts from the members of the congress, he utilizes his ethos by accepting his fallibilities and willing to do good for the constitution to be
Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine are both considered to be founding fathers of the United States of America despite the fact that they both came from different backgrounds. Thomas Paine was born in Norfolk England, the son of Quaker and left school early to become his father’s apprentice. Thomas Jefferson was born in Colonial America in the colony of Virginia to a wealthy planter father and a mother from a distinguished family. He was given an extraordinary education and attended college earning a degree in law. As a young man Thomas Paine traveled in England constantly, working and pursuing many different ventures before emigrating to America in 1774.
At the start of the 18th century, the beginning of the Enlightenment was upon America. There were many factors and people who help play a part in the Enlightenment or, in other words, the Age of Reason, some of the people that assisted the enlightenment was Thomas Jefferson, John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adam. Each of the philosophers demonstrates the fundamental idea of the Enlightenment like liberalism, rationalism, conservatism, toleration and scientific progress. Even though each person played an important part, the most influences person that was involved was Benjamin Franklin. Throughout Benjamin Franklin`s life, he demonstrates through his action and writing that he was the epitome of the Enlightenment by showing that he was