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If Only Thomas Jefferson Could Settle the Issue
NY Times--front page ^ | July 3, 2014 | JENNIFER SCHUESSLER

Posted on 07/03/2014 5:35:14 AM PDT by Pharmboy

A Period Is Questioned in the Declaration of Independence

Every Fourth of July, some Americans sit down to read the Declaration of Independence, reacquainting themselves with the nation’s founding charter exactly as it was signed by the Second Continental Congress in 1776.

Or almost exactly? A scholar is now saying that the official transcript of the document produced by the National Archives and Records Administration contains a significant error — smack in the middle of the sentence beginning “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” no less.

The error, according to Danielle Allen, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., concerns a period that appears right after the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the transcript, but almost certainly not, she maintains, on the badly faded parchment original.

That errant spot of ink, she believes, makes a difference, contributing to what she calls a “routine but serious misunderstanding” of the document.

The period creates the impression that the list of self-evident truths ends with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” she says. But as intended by Thomas Jefferson, she argues, what comes next is just as important: the essential role of governments — “instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” — in securing those rights.

“The logic of the sentence moves from the value of individual rights to the importance of government as a tool for protecting those rights,” Ms. Allen said. “You lose that connection when the period gets added.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: declaration; independence; of
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Yes...but of course...they will go to any extreme to make the central government more important. Her thesis makes NO sense from a grammatical point of view, nor from an historical one. They were declaring their independence as free men from an oppressive government, why on God's green Earth would they emphasize happiness tied to government?

But nowhere is this discussed in this article. I urge my Freeper friends to please read the whole thing.

HAPPY FOURTH AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

1 posted on 07/03/2014 5:35:14 AM PDT by Pharmboy
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To: Jim Robinson; John Robinson; indcons; Chani; thefactor; blam; aculeus; ELS; Doctor Raoul; ...
Revisionist history ping to the list.

The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list

2 posted on 07/03/2014 5:38:30 AM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
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To: Pharmboy

This reminds me of the people who spend lifetimes parsing every word and sentence in the Bible. I would suggest that it is a much more worthwhile exercise to focus on the intent rather than the punctuation. And Jefferson’s intent is clear: governments are formed by men to serve them. Men are not created to serve government.


3 posted on 07/03/2014 5:38:57 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: Pharmboy

The truth is, individual rights is what the document is about, not expansion of government.


4 posted on 07/03/2014 5:42:00 AM PDT by exnavy (Fish or cut bait ...Got ammo, Godspeed!)
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To: Pharmboy

It’s Independence Day, which happens to be celebrated on the Fourth of July.


5 posted on 07/03/2014 5:43:12 AM PDT by 9422WMR ("Ignorance can be cured by education, but stupidity is forever.")
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To: Pharmboy

The author is missing the point that the purpose of the government is to preserve those three rights, not created by government. Its job is not to define additional “rights”.


6 posted on 07/03/2014 5:44:15 AM PDT by Pecos (Kakocracy - killing the Constitution, one step at a time.)
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To: Pharmboy

I question a different period—the one that started on January 20, 2009, and continues to this day. It is a period marked by the complete incompetence of a Marxist president, and leads one to wonder how the collective psyche of 50 million plus Americans had become so corrupted that Barack Obama could have been reelected.

Oh, and note to NY Times: The Declaration of Independence, however you choose to parse the punctuation, has exactly zero legal ramifications. For that, you would want to go to the other founding document, the one that starts with a “C,” the very document that your beloved president spends every waking hour trying to get around.


7 posted on 07/03/2014 5:45:29 AM PDT by TruthShallSetYouFree (7 hard drives crashed at exactly the most opportune moment for the Regime. Coincidence?)
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To: Pharmboy

The revisionist attempt is invalid. The meaning is settled, has been for years.


8 posted on 07/03/2014 5:46:29 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: TruthShallSetYouFree

Thank you...I intended to make the point you did about the DoI not being a legal document, but in my haste this AM I omitted it.


9 posted on 07/03/2014 5:48:43 AM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
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To: Pharmboy; Jim Robinson
The Declaration of Independence makes clear that our rights are granted to us by GOD, not government and further emphasizes that governments ONLY ROLE is to protect the God-given rights of individuals.
10 posted on 07/03/2014 5:56:49 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: Pharmboy

Since old Tom was alive and well many years after he got an ink blot on the document, I’m sure he would have clarified.


11 posted on 07/03/2014 6:02:11 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: Pharmboy
Actually, the whole point---as we show in "A Patriot's History of the United States"---of the phrase involving "instituted among men" came from the flawed Lockean concept that government was artificial. This was a popular view at the time, and one that rejected the Greek/Hebrew concept that government was natural among men. But the fact that Jefferson IMMEDIATELY followed it with a phrase about replacing a bad government with one that ensured the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness suggests that even Jefferson was disavowing this element of Locke (correctly) and that even in 1776 he was challenging the notion that government was artificial.

With or without a comma, it's irrelevant as to the larger issue to which Jefferson wrote: rights are God-given, natural, and when government endangers them, it is the people's DUTY to replace that government with another.

12 posted on 07/03/2014 6:08:23 AM PDT by LS ('Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually.' Hendrix)
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To: Pharmboy

If you skip a period, it’s a pregnant pause.


13 posted on 07/03/2014 6:12:50 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: Pharmboy
I have a replica of the Declaration printed in the 1930s that was made from one of the original Dunlap broadsides. Not only is there a period, there is a line after the word "happiness" ... similar to the way Jefferson ended many sentences throughout the original.

Just another example of when you hear the phrase "experts say" or "studies show" you should assume wisely that the debate "is far from over".

14 posted on 07/03/2014 6:13:20 AM PDT by glennaro
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To: Pharmboy
The period creates the impression that the list of self-evident truths ends with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” she says.

No, you idjit, it doesn't. Unless you happen to be a female employee of The New York Times who most likely makes less than her male counterpart. In fact, it creates the reality that the list is just the starting point.

The line in question is prefaced with: "That among these are....

Here. Read it for yourself...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The key word there is "among". That does not imply finality or finiteness. It denotes a starting point.

The fact that the next sentence begins with "That" serves to continue the thought that "to secure these rights governments are instituted among men" is another self-evident truth. Being "self-evident", by definition, means the point does not need to be tortured or massaged by some freedom-hating Libtard who writes for a newspaper that is being read by fewer and fewer people.

15 posted on 07/03/2014 6:18:01 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Pharmboy

Who cares how the draft was punctuated. The only thing that counts is the final document which was the one adopted and signed. The draft is just that, a draft. It carries no official weight whatsoever.


16 posted on 07/03/2014 6:51:59 AM PDT by XRdsRev (New Jersey - Crossroads of the American Revolution)
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To: XRdsRev

Duh, I should have read the article more thoroughly. She wasn’t talking about a draft. My apologies.


17 posted on 07/03/2014 6:54:27 AM PDT by XRdsRev (New Jersey - Crossroads of the American Revolution)
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To: Pharmboy
“The logic of the sentence moves from the value of individual rights to the importance of government as a tool for protecting those rights,” Ms. Allen said.

LOL! the only problem being that any attempt to prostitute punctuation (real or imagined) in the Declaration doesn't change what it IS-

A notification that the Rights of Men are derived from the Laws of Nature....not from other men.

Methinks the only 'tool' here is Miz Allen.

18 posted on 07/03/2014 6:57:01 AM PDT by MamaTexan (I am a Person as created by the Laws of Nature, not a person as created by the laws of Man)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham
A "pregnant pause" after a "right to life"?

Interesting.

19 posted on 07/03/2014 7:21:59 AM PDT by Tanniker Smith (Rome didn't fall in a day, either.)
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To: IronJack

“This reminds me of the people who spend lifetimes parsing every word and sentence in the Bible. I would suggest that it is a much more worthwhile exercise to focus on the intent rather than the punctuation. And Jefferson’s intent is clear: governments are formed by men to serve them. Men are not created to serve government.”

A whole hearted Agreed! to both examples. The key in both is context which gives intent.


20 posted on 07/03/2014 7:27:43 AM PDT by Foundahardheadedwoman (God don't have a statute of limitations)
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