Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

In making the case for American independence, Jefferson employed the language of 18th-century logic and rhetoric. The argument of the Declaration is in the form of a syllogism, with a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Jefferson supplemented those basic components of the syllogism with corollary principles that reinforced the overall argument.

The second paragraph, which states the major premise, posed the greatest difficulty for Jefferson as the many changes he marked in his “original rough draught” attest. “We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable,” he originally wrote, “that all men are created equal & independent, ...