Bonjour, vous trouverez dans cette section des "essays" que j'ai fait pour différents cours et qui m'ont valu de très bonnes notes ainsi que de très bons commentaires des professeurs. Non mais je pense que j'avais pas besoin de le spécifier : aurais-je mis des travaux ordinaires qui m'ont mérité des notes ordinaires?

Le premier essay provient de mon cours History of the United States. La question était : Show that the writers of the declaration of Independence made use of principles that were found to have a universal appeal for other nations.

Voici mon essay :

The search for independence and freedom is an issue that is dealt with constantly throughout history. At one particular moment in the course of its history and evolution, a nation sometimes feel that it should dissolve from its mother country or from its government. One good example that shaped history is what happened with the United States. This nation, who was back then known as the thirteen colonies before their independence, set an example for the rest of the world by cutting the ties that linked it to England. In this essay, we will establish that the text of the declaration of independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, in which the thirteen colonies proclaimed their independence, contains principles that have a universal appeal. We will first summarize and analyze the text, after what we shall see on what basis we can claim that the declaration has a universal appeal.

In his introductory paragraph, Thomas Jefferson states that whenever a nation feels the need to separate itself from another, and that furthermore they were linked by political ties, the separation must be clearly justified to the entire world. Then, in the second paragraph, Jefferson states the basic values of the American people : “all men are created equal, they are endowed (...) certain unalienable rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”1. The creation of governments, argues Jefferson, aims at providing its citizens with these rights and it should be its main duty to respect these privileges and make sure that everyone benefits from them. Whenever a government does not respect these rights or that by its actions, citizens are deprived of these rights, it is the people’s right to alter or change their actual government. People have the possibility to abolish their government and create a new one; one that would obviously make sure that every citizens enjoy their basic rights. Then, Jefferson clearly mentions that following a serie of abuses, the colonies have no other choice except to separate themselves from Great Britain. As he mentions in his introductory paragraph, a nation whishing to be independent should justify why it wants to separate. That is exactly what Jefferson does : he provides a long listing of reasons that justifies the colonies’ desire to separate. Among these reasons, Jefferson states that England did not give political power to the colonies, that England constantly obstructed the administration of justice, that it had absolute control over the colonies’ economy, that the colonies were overtaxed, etc. Finally, Jefferson ends his text by saying that the king of Great Britain ignored in the past the colonies’ protestations, or that he answered by worsening the situation. Then he mentions that it is time “to be independent and do acts that independent states may of right do”2.

We will now analyze the text of the declaration of independence, and by doing so, we will establish how the principles found in the text have a universal appeal. In fact, the descriptions of the problems that the colonies have suffered from in their relations with the mother country can easily apply to any nations. When Jefferson talks of unrespected “unalienable rights” such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that these rights were endowed by the Creator, it seems obvious that any nations can identify itself to this situation and thus to these rights. Jefferson knew or supposed that all human beings and nations would adhere to the idea that “unalienable rights” apply to them and protect them from abusive form of governments. The universal appeal of these concepts (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) is so strong that the declaration of human rights, which apply worldwide, states in article 1 and 3 that every human should benefit from these rights.

In the same line of thoughts, Jefferson knew that what was going on between England and the colonies, that is a situation of abusive government, would be very likely to happen again in the future. He knew, maybe unconsciously, that in the future, somewhere else in the world, a government would in some ways deny its citizens the basic rights of liberty, life and happiness. This “vision of the future” was proved to be accurate only a few years later, in France, when people revolted against the monarchy. One interesting detail of the revolution in France was that people’s slogan was “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” and this reinforces the universal appeal of Jefferson’s unalienable rights. Still today, nations the world over are fighting or demonstrating against their government to secure the rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Furthermore, in many descriptions of the abuse perpetrated by England, the principle of justice comes back very often. In fact, the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies were “deprived of the benefits of trial by jury”3 or could not establish their charters or their laws. In other words, Jefferson depicted the situation as indeed unfair, where the colonies did not have the authority to create their own justice system. Once more, this concept of a nation who wants more power, either on its justice system or any other departments, has a strong universal appeal for two main reasons. First, it is in human’s nature to lust for power and control over their lives and environment. Second, this principle is found everywhere in the world, and more specifically here in Quebec. The provincial government is constantly fighting to get more power from the federal government, who is unwilling to do so. But the idea is that the struggle for power (justice) is found in every society. Once more, we can see that Jefferson’s declaration of independence contains principles that have a rather strong universal appeal.

Finally, Jefferson depicts the decisions of the king of England, who “ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people”4 as being those of a tyrant who has absolute power over his people’s lives. Once more, this concept is found to have a universal appeal, as in many countries where tyrants have reigned and many people were killed, people have tried to revolt against the tyrannical form of government. Also, it has been the goals of any oppressed nations to achieve the rights to “levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce”5. These concepts are all linked to liberty and happiness; the basic concepts that all state who is oppressed tries to achieve.

We have seen that Jefferson’s declaration of independence, once it was adopted, was found to be a model for other countries or nations. By describing the abuses and limitations that the colonies were imposed by their mother country, Jefferson cleverly made use of concepts which would be found to have a universal appeal. In fact, we have seen that every human beings or nations, under circumstances of abuse, would indeed be likely to adhere to the ideas and concepts of unalienable rights, which encompass not only life, liberty and happiness, but also justice, power, etc. Finally, we can conclude that the concept of being “as a city upon a hill” stated by John Winthrop, was effective in the case of the declaration of independence. It served as a model for the rest of the world. We can claim, therefore, that the text of the declaration of independence has a universal appeal, since the concepts found in it inspired other nations to fight for their lives, liberty and happiness.

__________________________________________________________________________ Bibliography

Gary B. Nash et al. The American People : Creating a Nation and a Society : United States : HarperCollins, 1995.

United Nations. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” December 11th, 1998. http://www.un.org/rights/50/decla.htm (February 20th, 1999).

Copyright 1999-all rights reserved-

I am presently working to improve the text even though it is this version that was submitted to the teacher.