Reflection Blog: Declaration of Independence

Everyone has different tactics of persuasion, but sometimes when someone thinks they are being logical they are actually appealing to emotion. In the Declaration of Independence there are a surprising number of accounts of faulty logic. But it is not easy to avoid these techniques because they often do work and if it can persuade someone then why would you not use them?
One example in his work could either be considered name calling or an ad hominem. Jefferson says that the King of Great Britain is an absolute tyrant, but that is not exactly true (Jefferson, 123). For a while Britain did not mess with America at all, but now they have started taxing and interfering. Jefferson provides some examples of other awful things he has done, but they do not make him a tyrant. He is more like a leader with too much power. Admittedly he does make several good points, but they are somewhat invalidated because he calls the king a tyrant (Jefferson, 123). Jefferson goes on to say that the British army has put themselves “independent of, and superior to, civil power” (Jefferson, 123). It is true that the British did interfere in the colonies along with arbitrary killings, but this is an emotional appeal. He says that they are “quartering” in the colonies and are protected by “mock trials” (Jefferson, 123). When he says they are quartering he is wanting the people to think that the British are completely interfering, and when he says mock trial, although this may be a good term, he is insulting the trial to convince the people that Britain is totally unjust (Jefferson, 123). One of the most jarring fallacies is when he says “he [the king] has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people” (Jefferson, 124). This is sort of a direct appeal to emotion. With the last two phrases he makes the people think that Britain is just out ruining lives and burning the nation down. That is not exactly true. There were some issues going on between the two countries, but it was not consistent in every colony that burning towns was going on. When Jefferson is concluding, he says they have a “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” (Jefferson, 124). Basically he is making people believe in him because they believe in God. These people see that Jefferson is backed by “Divine Providence,” so they have to join his side. Jefferson’s points probably could have been portrayed much more dominantly if he did not use all of these faulty reasons.
Thomas Jefferson does make many good points aside from the large amount of emotional appeal. He has a long list of unlawful acts that the king of Britain has done, and it does show that Britain needs to be taken out of control over the colonies (Jefferson 122). The reasons Jefferson uses both tactics of emotion and logic is because that gets all groups of people, but the ones who side with logic may not like the emotional side.

Jefferson, Thomas. “Declaration of Independence.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 122-124. Print.