The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
GOVERNMENT / JUST PRINCIPLES OF
With respect to our rights, and the acts of the British government
contravening those rights, there was but one opinion on this side of
the water. All American Whigs thought alike on these subjects. When
forced, therefore, to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the
tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification. This
was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new
principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to
say things which had never been said before; but to place before
mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as
to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent
stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of
principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and
previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American
mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called
for by the occasion. All its authority rests then on the harmonizing
sentiments of the, day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters,
printed essays, or in the elementary books of public right, as
Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc.
to Henry Lee, 8 May 1825
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