American History

According to Locke (1976), a bill of rights is a list of the rights that are considered important and essential by a nation or a state. The principle of these bills is to protect those rights against infringement by the government or the law breakers. The term bill of rights originates from Great Britain, where it referred to a bill that was passed by Parliament in 1689. In many governments, an official legal bill of rights recognized in principle holds more power than the legislative bodies.

A bill of rights, on the other hand, may be weakened by consequent acts agreed upon by the government, and they do not need an approval by vote to alter it. One of the important principles in declaration of independence is the concept of liberty that is more of political philosophy than just a theory. Liberty identifies the condition in which an individual has the right to act according to his or her own willpower. In feudal times, liberty and individual freedom were altered and abused by the ruling class. Liberty and freedom of an individual relates and when dealing with the bill of rights, it is worth noting that there are two types of rights the natural rights and the acquired rightsartificial rights.

According to John Lockes definition of a constitution, it is the fundamental law and that it determines the fundamental political principles of a government. It is the set of regulations which govern the conduct of non-political entities, whether incorporated or not. Such entities include corporations and voluntary associations (Locke, 1976).

What led to declaration in 1776
A few months before Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year. Relationship between the colonies and the mother country had worsened after the end of the Seven Years War in 1763. The war had endangered the British government deep into debt, and so Parliament endorsed a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies. It was therefore expensive to keep managing the affairs of the colonized states as a result of financial strain.

The declaration of independence came into reality a month after the congress selected a Committee of Five to draft a declaration to the world presenting the colonies case for independence. The committee consisted of John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. The committee delegated Jefferson the task of writing the original document for the approval. After slight alterations that were subsequently made by Franklin and Adams, the document was submitted to Congress for approval. On Monday, July 8, 1776, America was declared by the colonial government as Independent.

On analyzing the individual freedom and fundamental rights, it is essential to look into the provision of rights of an individual. In America today, liberty and fundamental rights of an individual has improved with a better percentage.Traditionally, there had been always a war of colorracial war to an extent of a black not being in a position to contest in a political position, something that has been challenged by the fact that Obama, a half cast and a black man is the current President of the United States.

It is important to note that the current Government under the leadership of President Obama has secured the rights of individuals by deriving the powers from the consent of the governed. It symbolizes the freedom of expression and proper representation of people in terms of policy modification. The American government is structured in a way that the principles and the bill of rights are organized in such a way that it does not affect safety and happiness. This can only take place if peace and security of the people are taken into consideration. It is always believed that mankind is more disposed to suffer. In the modern America, liberties of individuals are rarely abused since the government guards the rights and freedom of individuals. However, when the government ceases to protect its citizens, then there must always be a negative setback on the freedom of an individual (Edward, 1950).

The famous preamble of the declaration of independence was basically concerned with the individual provision of natural law. Natural law is therefore the ability of a people to assume political independence, and acknowledges that the positions for such independence must be rational, and therefore reasonable, and ought to be explained (Edward,1950).Looking at the current state of American Government, many opportunities has been created to support social programmes for individual development both locally  and internationally. On the contrary, most people especially the American youths have resolved to be non aggressive for the opportunities available thereby violating their own rights to access government opportunities.

Youths in America compared to other states have opportunities in academic scholarships and education that others do not due to Affirmative Action, yet many of them dont take these opportunities to pursue their objectives in life. According to Edward (1950), individual rights can be violated by hisher own self but majority blames it on the government. One has the freedomliberty to choose to work or not in any of the well-off countries in the world, but they choose not to be equal by theirblatant inaction andattitude of entitlement. These are the people who expect the new USPresident to pay their mortgages and their taxes for them while they wait for help.

Declaration of Independence therefore meant a lot to America rather than just freedom and bill of rights it meant that positive habits and personal individual effort was greatly important in the realization of freedomliberty of the NationState. Liberty can be classified in two categories positive liberty and negative liberty. It is important to understand that liberty is based upon deep-seated principles and not philosophies or policies. Principles, which are based on reality, are constant and timeless philosophies and policies are erratic and changing and are based upon theories, conditions and opinion. Again, liberty is not free. It must be both earned and guarded. Lastly, liberty requires public morality or benefit. However, threat to our liberty today results from the gradual erosion of good qualities.