Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence

Garry Wills provides a critical examination of the Declaration of Independence. In light of the Bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence, Wills conducted a five-year study of the most important document in American history. He writes a behind the scenes narrative of Jefferson's Declaration in relation to the initial Declaration, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, which many readers of US history may not be familiar with. Unless one has taken a course that concentrates in dissecting this important document bit by bit, the average individual will be surprised with the contents in Inventing America. Wills emphasizes how the Declaration has been underrated and misstated, and he clarifies the misstatements, such as the date the document was signed and its sole purpose of being. Wills takes the Declaration beyond its national symbolism and general aspects. The book is divided into five parts, which show the significance of the Declaration as a Revolutionary, Scientific, Moral, Sentimental, and National paper. Indeed, he makes references to the most important phrases and passages in the document, "the pursuit of happiness" and "All men are created equal." However, he begins his study with Thomas Jefferson's original concept, which was derived from European models of Enlightenment thinking. Jefferson took his ideas from Francis Hutcheson and the Scottish Enlightenment, but Wills also debates and analyzes the Lockean orthodoxy that scholars, such as Carl Becker has attested to in the past. The Declaration was the first step towards independence. However, it did not initially act as legal document, but rather a propaganda tool for a call for action. It was the foundation that led to further documentation and legal declaration of independence and individual rights for the colonies, which would eventually evolve to the Articles of Confederation of 1777 and the United States Constitution of 1783. This information is enriching to know and understand. Wills Inventing America is a must read. His reexamination of the Declaration will bring a better understanding of the development of human rights in the United States, and for one to better appreciate how it came to be. After reading the book, it may allow readers to re-read the Declaration with much more clarity.

Wills' "Inventing America" is a good, though somewhat mixed, effort in deconstructing the Declaration of Independence. The language and meaning of the Declaration are analyzed in the context of the times, which were at the height of the Enlightenment. In addition, some factual basics of the Declaration are reexamined. The book is equal parts the Declaration and the thinking of Thomas Jefferson and others. Contrary to the view of many in the 20th century that Jefferson was a Lockean individualist who stressed private property rights, the author shows that Scottish moral philosophers, the leading intellectuals and teachers of the mid 18th century, exerted by far the most influence on Jefferson. An essential aspect of their thinking was that man had an innate moral sense which resulted in the exercise of "benevolence" towards their fellow men. It was a distinctly social orientation. The author is rather convincing in demonstrating that the Declaration gains meaning only when understood as reflecting that thinking. Jefferson's original effort, which he much preferred, is contrasted with the final version, edited by the whole Congress, throughout the book and reinforces the author's insights. There are any number of other clarifications. Petitioning the King or Parliament to seek redress for wrongs was a well-established tradition. The Continental Congress in 1774-75 did just that. Those petitions were enumerated in the Declaration. The American Revolution was viewed as similar to the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688, where an oppressive king was dethroned. The American Revolution was not considered to be a rebellion or a revolt, but an exercise of the rights of Englishmen. The Declaration of Independence was a restatement of the actual independence that was declared by vote by the Continental Congress on July 2, not the Fourth. Furthermore, the signing of the Declaration by most, but not all of the attendees of the Congress, occurred on August 2, not the Fourth. Interestingly, the Declaration during the Revolutionary period was not the exalted document that it has become. In many ways it was regarded as basically necessary to secure a treaty with France to support the colonies' war effort; it was a means to an end, not the end. There is much to learn in this book, but it is not without its problems. The chronology and the discussion of important documents surrounding the Declaration during the time of the Congress in the mid-1770s are deficient. The new science of the era, especially all of the observing and cataloguing of details, receives far too much emphasis. The author is continually taking a detour here and there to explore some thought of the times with the yield often not worth the detour. A subject not broached whatsoever, is the legitimacy of the Scottish views of innate moral sensibilities. Those along with natural rights thinking would be considered by many to be no more than ungrounded optimistic faith, hardly anything to ba

Garry Wills "Inventing America" is a interesting and unconventional take on the thought of Thomas Jefferson and his authorship of the Declaration of Independence. Wills rejects the traditional "Lockean" view and instead puts forward a different and, I believe, valid hypothesis. Wills finds the philosophy of the Declaration in Jefferson's reading of the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, Francis Hutchenson, Thomas Reid, David Hume, and Lord Kames. These thinkers beleived, along with Jefferson, that man had an inate "moral sense" which man him human and governed the affairs of society. Wills book starts out slow when talking about the Decalrations beginnings, and the early Enlightenment influence, but picks up when he relates these thought to Jefferson.Chapters 16 and 22 are particularly good since they deal with Jefferson's views on slavery. Wills correctly shows Jefferson always thought blacks fully human with a moral sense and integrity. Although he found their intelligence possibly below other races he never rejected their humanity nor their right "as a people" to be free. Chapter 22 show the fallacies behind modern critisism about simply "freeing" the slaves. Wills shows how unrealistic and quite impossible a wholesale emancipation in colonial Virginia would have been. Instead Jefferson wants freedom and education for the blacks, in their own nation, colinized to Africa where they could live free "as a people". Overall a great book.

While being an intellectual tour-de-force, the book is at the same time something of a detective novel, as Wills traces Jeffeson's ideas expessed in the Declaration of Independence back to the Scottish Enlightment. Not only is it intellectually exciting, it also explains what Jeffferson probably meant by such terms as "all men are born equal" and "the pursuit of happiness." Without this understanding, I doubt if we can honestly make sense of one of the most important documents in American, and perhaps one should say, Scottish, history.