what were the goals Jefferson set out in the Declaration of Independence?

Answer 1

The principle goal, which should never be over-looked, was to declare that the 13 British North American colonies were free and independent from Great Britain. To do this however, Jefferson felt that it was necessary to express reasons why the colonies had to be free. At the top of his goals were a long list of grievances that the colonies had against King George III (this is before he became mad) and they included such things as not passing laws to help the colonies, to subvert his own legislative processes in Britain and also the classic 'taxation without representation'.

Answer 2

First of all, what's in the Declaration is NOT all that concerned Jefferson...Jefferson wrote the document with an eye on his own personal legacy and what the world would think of him and of the country.

The most important part of the Declaration can be found in the very first lines: It establishes a country's right and duty to separate from a government which does not govern properly. Without this claim, the rest of the document means nothing.

His grievances, of course, are not to be overlooked...'taxation w/o representation' wasn't really a big deal; it was just a rallying cry.

Basically, Jefferson wanted to establish the US as a separate country and, moreover, its right to be a separate country.

Answer 3

The way you word your question is a bit unclear. Please note that the Declaration of Independence was NOT an expression of Jefferson's OWN goals. He was the head of the committee charged with writing a document that would EXPLAIN what Congress was doing. And though he was given a lot of freedom in how exacly he wrote it, the BASIC contents and structure were not his own. They were a combination of decisions by the committee he headed (thus Franklin and Adams played a role), and other documents and traditions he was drawing on.

So, what was the POINT of the document?

You might be mislead by the title into thinking this document was THE thing that Congress was deciding on -- that voting for IT was the same as voting for independence.

In fact, the Declaration was, in one sense, an afterthought. The MAIN thing Congress was doing was getting ready to vote on a resolution offered by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia (at the request of the Virginia House of Burgesses),

"that these states are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states. . . "

But the delegates of some of the colonies were hesitant about declaring independence at this time, wanting to try to negotiate a bit longer. It was thought that writing a formal declaration would help convince (and give time enough, to convince) those delegations

Thus convincing other delegates (or at the least, giving them TIME to come round) was a key goal/purpose in a declaration's being written at all.


SECOND, the document was meant to make a public, open defense/explanation to the whole WORLD, to show that what they were doing was justified. This is specifically stated in the first paragraph of the Declaration!

THIRD reason for a "Declaration" -- and this is often missed --That was simply "how you did it"! The form of the Declaration is largely modeled on earlier English documents, esp. the "English Bill of Rights, 1689" which had likewise been a formal statement listing the abuses of a king (James II) when Parliament essentially deposed him and replaced him with William and Mary. Unlike earlier documents from Congress --petitions of grievance seeking to resolve the issues between them (and listing their complaints against PARLIAMENT, not the King) -- this was a form which specifically cited the KING's behavior and declared their rejection of his rule.

For that matter, the Declaration by Congress was actually following the lead of several of the colonies which had already issued their own.


**Note that this 3rd point explains much of the "technique" or patterning of the document. Jefferson did NOT come up with it on his own, but borrowed freely from forms like the English Bill of Rights and the Declarations of the states/colonies.

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There's another set of questions related to this -- concerning the goal of leaders of the independence movement (such as John Adams) in specifically having JEFFERSON head the committee and draft the document. It was NOT all about his ability as a writer, nor because he was a known leader in the independence movement

It was to have a VIRGINIAN seen as at the head of it. Virginia's lead was considered very important to this whole endeavor

The New England colonies strongly supported independence, but others tended to thing them too extreme. The support of Virginia (the largest state) was deemed critical in getting other colonies (esp. the lukewarm Middle colonies) to join the effort. In keeping with this, Richard Henry Lee had gone to Virginia to seek a resolution for independence and returned to place it before the Congress.

Since it was his own resolution, legislative courtesy would ordinarily call for Lee to be asked to chair the committee chosen to draft the declaration which was to outline the reasons for that resolution. But when Lee asked to return home to his sick family the evening before the committee was selected, it was decided to appoint a fellow Virginian to chair the committee (though Adams's letter disputes this). In that case, it may have been something of an accident that Jefferson was on the committee to begin with.
http://www.citizensoldier.org/decdrafters.html
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/revwar/book/chap4.html

Once asked to chair the committee, it was probably assumed that he would take the lead in drafting the document. That was the normal procedure (and the fact that Adams was also busy chairing another a committee would re-enforce it).


The reasons for selecting JEFFERSON underline the first point above -- a major goal of writing the document was to get the consent of ALL the colonies.

Answer 4

The Declaration was a list of perceived abuses of King George III against the American colonies. It enumerated them, very specifically, so that the world would know exactly WHY the colonists were separating from England.