"We the people of the United States...secure the blessings of liberty...for the United States of America"
The Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the Preamble
to the Constitution are very important documents in America. These passages
resonate the founding ideals of the Founding Fathers in order to compose the
American Dream. Embedded between the lines of these documents, it quietly
reiterates the precedents that helped form the ideals of the U.S. government.
These ideals are very evident in the tone and the rhetoric of the three records.
Tone
Throughout the passages,
there are numerous tones that the authors wanted to express. However, the main
tone that correlates with all the documents was to show that United States at
that time was logical and prepared in planning out their independence. The founding
ideal was America's freedom. These documents are important to the
American citizens, to know their basic human rights and to be more connected to
their government in comparison to the time of the British rule. The freedom and equality of
the citizens was such a big thing that it was stated throughout the documents,
specifically the Declaration of Independence states “all men are
created equal...with certain unalienable rights that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” They address the precedents that
occurred by making laws, according to the Bill of Rights "no cruel and
unusual punishments" are allowed. This was based on the precedent of being
charged for going to jail for not paying off debt. This also included the tar
and feathering which was common in the pre-revolutionary era. The ideal was to
not have this happen anymore. Additionally, these documents provided proof to
foreign countries that as "newbies" they know what they are doing and
the reasons for it. Aside from stating the rights of individuals the passages, specifically the Declaration of Independence, states reasons as to why they made
their decision of independence for“ the present king of Great Britain
[King George III had] a history of repeated injuries and usurpations.” It also shows a lot of precedent to show the beneficial change after the independence from Britain. The government wanted to show that the founding ideal was to not replicate King
George's crude action's towards the citizen. In addition, United States' goal was to open up trade and allies with foreign countries, by writing these
passages it established more credibility for us.
Rhetoric
The rhetoric of these
documents are very important for the establishment of United States. The
outline and diction of them are very professional and organized. The
Bill of Rights is organized by limiting pronouns, being more formal and stating
each article in ordinal numbers. The Preamble is organized by being the intro
of a larger document; therefore, being the outline of the constitution. The
Declaration of Independence follows a classical argument format. It's so
easy to label each paragraph and decipher the intro, background, thesis, refutations etc.
This shows a very educated composer and improves credibility to help persuade
the audience of foreign countries and the people of United States to follow the
documents. To further persuade the citizens of United States, both the Preamble
and the Declaration both used pronouns that connected to the audience such as
"our" and "we." This is important because it shows that the
government acknowledges the people of the country, unlike during the times of the
British rule. In a way it shows more of democratic nation, which the Founding
Fathers aimed for. To further persuade other countries, the Declaration of
Independence uses anaphora to state the fault of Britain, by supporting each repeated "he has" with a fault that the King has done. For example the Declaration of Independence states "He has constrained our fellow citizens to take captive on the high seas to bear against their country." Another important ideal was to state
a person's right and not limit them; in the passages the right is stated and then it states how
the government can "not" hurt it. An example of this was in the Bill of Rights it states "The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall
not be violated." Overall the diction and syntax of these
documents are important to help resonate the founding ideals of
America.
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