FREE ESSAY ON THE POWER OF THE DECLARATION

THE POWER OF THE DECLARATION

Power and The Declaration of Independence
There are many abstractions in the Declaration of Independence. These abstractions such
as: rights, freedom, liberty and happiness have become the foundations of American
society and have helped to shape the "American Identity." Power, another abstraction that
reoccurs in all the major parts of the Declaration of Independence plays an equally
important role in shaping "American Identity." One forgets the abstraction of power,
because it appears in relation to other institutions: the legislature, the King, the
earth, and the military. The abstraction of power sets the tone of the Declaration, and
shapes the colonists conception of government and society. Power in the Declaration of
Independence flows from distinct bodies within society such as the King, the legislature,
the military, and the colonists.
The English Dictionary defines power as, "the ability to do or effect something or
anything, or to act upon a person or thing". Throughout the ages according to the
dictionary the word power has connoted similar meanings. In 1470 the word power meant to
have strength and the ability to do something. Nearly three hundred years later in 1785
the word power carried the same meaning of control, strength, and force, "power to
produce an effect, supposes power not to produce it; otherwise it is not power but
necessity." This definition explains how the power of government and social institutions
rests in their ability to command people, rocks, colonies to do something they otherwise
would not do. To make people pay taxes. To make the rocks form into a fence. To make the
colonists honor the king. The colonialists adopt this interpretation of power. They see
power as a cruel force that has wedded them to a king who has "a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations." The framers of the Declaration of Independence also believe
that powers given by God to the people must not be usurped. The conflict between these
spheres of power the colonists believe, justifies their rebellion.
The uses of the word power set the tone of the Declaration of Independence. In the first
sentence of the Declaration colonists condemn the King's violation of powers given by God
to all men.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among powers of the
earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of natures God
Entitle them (Wills 375).
In this passage the writers of the Declaration of Independence are explaining their moral
claim to rebel. This right finds its foundation on their interpretation of the
abstraction of power. Colonists perceive power as bifurcated, a force the King uses to
oppress them, and a force given to them by God allowing them to rebel. In the Declaration
of Independence the colonists also write about power as a negative force. In the
following quote power takes on a negative meaning because power rests in the hands of the
King and not the people, "to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers,
incapable of Annihilation, have returned" (Wills 376). Power when mentioned in
association with the power of the people to make their own laws has a positive
connotation, "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to Civil
power" (Wills 377). 
These two different uses of the word power transform the meaning and tone of the
Declaration of Independence. The meaning changes from just a Declaration of Independence
from Britain because of various violations of tax laws, military expenditures, and
colonist's rights; to a fundamental disagreement about power. Whether the King or civil
authorities have a right to power. The colonists believe in the decentralization of
power. The British support a centralized monarchy. The colonists believe power should
flow upward from the people to the rulers. The British believe power should flow downward
from the King to the subjects.
The two different uses of the word power also change the tone of the document. The
colonist's definition of power as coercive in the hands of the King and good in the hands
of civil authorities identifies the King as the enemy. He takes on the role of the enemy
because he clutches the power in pre-colonial society. The tone of the Declaration of
Independence becomes more severe; the Declarations vilifying of the fundamental power
imbalances between the colonies and the King make the break between the two unbridgeable.
The break between the colonies and the King became not just a tax or policy difference
anymore, but a fundamental philosophical difference.
The colonist's meaning of the word power changes depending on who possesses the power. In
the hands of the King power corrupts, in the hands of the colonists and people it takes
on divine qualities. The colonist's analysis of who has power fascinates. The colonists
believe power to be a force that emanates from fixed points in society. In contrast more
modern thinkers such as Nietzche and Foucault believe power flows throughout all of
society. The colonists perceive, in England power emanates directly from the King.
Because of this interpretation they blame the King for the many wrongs they list in the
body of the Declaration of Independence. The colonists do not blame the people of England
or the English Legislature. This allows the tone of the Declaration of Independence to
soften. Instead, of being an attack on the institutions of English society, the
Declaration only attacks the King, the holder of power. Foucault's interpretation of
power would differ sharply from the framers of the Declaration of Independence. Foucault
sees power as coming from the many technologies that society uses to control people: tax
systems the law, patriarchy, family systems, legislatures, and even democracy. These
technologies according to Foucault all represent different ways in which society controls
its members (Foucault 307). The King, under Foucault's interpretation of power bares
little responsibility for the grievance colonists have with England. The King in his view
plays merely a role in the web of different technologies of control. Foucault would see
the King as being controlled by many of the forces in society. Fulfilling his role is not
so much his manifestation of his power as the power of English society and its ability to
control the colonies and their inhabitants. If the colonists when writing the Declaration
of Independence had this conception of power in mind then, the tone of the document would
have been much stronger indicting all of English society.
The colonist's interpretation of power has serious repercussions on the subsequent
formulation of the US government. Because the colonist's philosophical break with England
was over the power of the King; the framers of the Declaration of Independence sought to
prevent a monarchy from arising in the United States. They sought to disperse power among
the states and set up a system of counterbalancing branches of government that would
prevent any single branch from having too much power. The ideas of federalism and
decentralization were a direct outgrowth of the colonist's interpretation of power.
Power, in the Declaration of Independence carries more than just grammatical significance
to the document. It shapes the document's meaning, making it philosophically harsh toward
the institution of the King and tempered toward English society.