The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas |
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User Review - ServusLibri - LibraryThingCarl Becker was a history professor at Cornell in 1922 when he published “The Declaration of Independence; A Study in the History of Political Ideas”. There are several threads combined in his study ... Read full review
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User Review - Maya47Bob46 - LibraryThingStill one of the great analyses of the Declaration of Independence explaining section by section the history and philsophy behind it. Read full review
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Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas Carl L. Becker Limited preview - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
abolishing abolitionists allegiance American appear atheism authority brethren Britain British empire British Parliament British subjects candid world colonies colonists Committee of Five common compact Congress consent constitution copy reads corrected Journal Declaration of Independence derived doctrine eighteenth century English equal established fact fair copy felicity formulated foundation France Franklin and Adams French God's grievances happiness Hazelton human Ibid ideas inalienable Jefferson Jephthah John Adams jurisdiction king laration law of nature Lee copy legislative legislature liament liberty lives Locke Locke's mankind measure ment mind nation natural law natural rights Newton original paragraph phrase political philosophy positive law principles purpose refused his assent Revolution rights of British Rough Draft rough Journal Rousseau Rufus Choate sacred says seemed sense slavery social society Stamp Act submitted Sugar Act suppose taxes theory things thought tion Townshend Act trade truth tyranny universe usurpations verbal changes words writing wrote
Popular passages
Page 163 - He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
Page 167 - He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN King of Great Britain.
Page 14 - He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
Page 68 - The only way whereby any one divests himself of his natural liberty and puts on the bonds of civil society is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties and a greater security against any that are not of it.
Page 161 - Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Page 165 - For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us...
Page 13 - For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury. For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences. For abolishing the...
Page 63 - ... a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature; without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.
Page 167 - And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people...
Page 178 - He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our...
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas Volume 60 of A Vintage Book The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, Carl Lotus Becker Vintage books. V-60 |
| Author | Carl Lotus Becker |
| Publisher | Harcourt, Brace, 1922 |
| Original from | Harvard University |
| Digitized | Jul 26, 2006 |
| Length | 286 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |