All Men Are Created Equal - Summary

1118 words 5 pages
Dante’ Lipscomb
Professor Hinds
English 1113
December 7, 2010

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”. This is a precedent that was established centuries ago to tell the people of its time that there is no man lesser than another. It was set and meant to last for a very long time. Thomas Jefferson was the one who made the phrase famous, but it was his great friend Philip Mazzei who first used the saying through a letter written to Jefferson called “Joint Resolution 175 of the 103rd Congress“, which was later proposed for the United States Constitution. This same phrase Jefferson later used as the groundwork for our nation in The Declaration of Independence of 1776. It was written intending to show
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People treated people unequally not so much on the color of their skin at this time, but more so their status in the community. The amount of wealth played a major role in the equality struggle. The number of slaves, the sizes of houses, or just financial status in general was their basis for determining how to treat one another. This would not work. It was said by an American philosopher that it “does not give any of us the right to use these less fortunate people as human stepping-stones. They are not less of a human being because their home is not as nice as yours or their wardrobe as fancy. These people do have the same feelings as any other and deserve the same respect that we expect for ourselves“.

It became natural and easy to treat people who were different unequally. But no matter how easy it was America still could turn themselves around and Thomas Paine strongly believed this when he wrote in his political pamphlet, “We[America] have it in our power to begin the world all over again”. It has to be a nationwide effort in order to make a turnaround like this one. In Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man” he says “A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.” Even to this very day, the issue has not been resolved; the nation hasn’t transcended completely yet. At the same time, Thomas Paine did feel that government intervention was necessary. He felt like the government should help

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