Question

In the Declaration of Independence, the list of complaints against the king of England is described as a list of "facts." According to Stephen E. Lucas, the authors are trying to describe the truth without interpretation. Do you think the authors of the declaration succeeded in providing a perfectly unbiased account of the king's actions? Use examples to back up your answer.

Answer 1

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

I think the authors of the declaration partially succeeded in providing a perfectly unbiased account of the king's actions. However, when reading the text of the Declaration, you can notice some biased when using adjectives and sentences that describe the King of England's offenses to the American colonies.

For example, I want to share the following evidence from the text. The following excerpt of the Declaration: "...But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

When you read it, you can notice the kinds of words Thomas Jefferson used to disqualify the decisions of the British government. Words lie "abuses," "usurpations," and "despotism," are strong words that were chosen by the framers of the Declaration to appeal to the emotions of the colonists.