Quite possibly the most critical document ever written in the history of our great country was the declaration of independence. This document set off a chain reaction of events that came to shape a nation, an independent nation. After reading the document over a few times while writing this paper I have come to realize something, I have never actually read it. Sure I knew its significance in history and I knew what it was about but I never actually took the time to read it through. The first two paragraph of this document sum up what it is to be an American and to be a patriot and I have overlooked it for some time. Our founding fathers, to use the cliche, were true patriots and wanted nothing more than to be free from the grasp of England.
             In the first two paragraphs of the document Thomas Jefferson eloquently explains to us, the people who were later to become known as Americans, we were born a free people and can no longer be oppressed by an overbearing and unjust mother country. He states that everyone is born with certain unalienable rights. These opportunities are bestowed upon everyone. Now we look back on this document and realize that some of these statements may be from a utopian point of view due to the fact that there was still slavery going on in almost all of the southern colonies, but for our purposes we shall analyze the values that Jefferson expresses and overlook that fact. His main concern in the document is to give an understanding that not just Britain, but any government that is "destructive of these ends" must be overthrown by the people and a new government must be put in its place. Jefferson realizes that no government is flawless and everyone makes mistakes, but when that governme!
             nt becomes unjust and overbearing, as England had become it was time to turn over a new leaf. Jefferson's words seemed to summarize the overall sentiment of the colonists to a TEA.
             The colonist...