There are many abstractions in the
Declaration of Independence. These abstractions such as: rights, freedom,
liberty and happiness have become the foundations of American society and have
helped to shape the "American Identity." Power, another abstraction
that reoccurs in all the major parts of the Declaration of Independence plays
an equally important role in shaping "America identity." One forgets
the abstraction of power, because it appears in relation to other institutions:
the legislature, the King, the earth, and the military.
The abstraction of
power sets the tone of the Declaration, and shapes the colonists conception of
government and society. Power in the Declaration of Independence flows from
distinct bodies within society such as the King, the legislature, the military,
and the colonists.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines
power as, "the ability to do or effect something or anything, or to act
upon a person or thing" (OED 2536). Throughout the ages according to the
dictionary the word power has connoted similar meanings. In 1470 the word power
meant to have strength and the ability to do something, "With all thair
strang *poweir" (OED 2536) Nearly three hundred years later in 1785 the
word power carried the same meaning of control, strength, and force,
"power to produce an effect, supposes power not to produce it; otherwise
it is not power but necessity" (OED 2536). This definition explains how the
power government or social institutions rests in their ability to command
people, rocks, colonies to do something they otherwise would not do. To make
the people pay taxes. To make the rocks form into a fence. To make the
colonists honor the King. The colonialists adopt this interpretation of power.
They see power as a cruel force that has wedded them to a King who has "a
history of repeated injuries and usurptions." The framers of the
Declaration of Independence also believe powers given by God to the people must
not be usurped. The conflict between these spheres of power the colonists
believe, justifies their rebellion.
The uses of the word power set the tone
of the Declaration of Independence. In the first sentence of the Declaration
colonists condemn the King's violation of powers given by god to all men.
When in the
Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature
and of natures God Entitle them (Wills 375).
In this passage the writers of the
Declaration of Independence are explaining their moral claim to rebel. This
right finds its foundation on their interpretation of the abstraction of power.
Colonists perceive power as bifurcated, a force the King uses to oppress them,
and a force given to them by God allowing them to rebel. In the Declaration of
Independence the colonists also write about power as a negative force. In the
following quote power takes on a negative meaning because power rests in the
hands of the King and not the people, "to cause others to be elected;
whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned"
(Wills 376). Power when mentioned in association with the power of the people
to make their own laws has a positive connotation, "He has affected to
render the Military independent of and superior to Civil power" (Wills
377).
These two different uses of the word
power transform the meaning and tone of the Declaration of Independence. The
meaning changes from just a Declaration of independence from Britain because of
various violations of tax laws, military expenditures, and colonists' rights;
to a fundamental disagreement about power. Whether the King or civil
authorities have a right to power. The colonists believe in the
decentralization of power. The British support a centralized monarchy. The
colonists believe power should flow up from the people to the rulers. The
British believe power should flow down from the King to the subjects.
The two different uses of the world
power also change the tone of the document. The colonist's definition of power
as coercive in the hands of the King and good in the hands of civil authorities
identifies the King as the enemy. He takes on the role of the enemy because he
clutches the power in pre-colonial society. The tone of the Declaration of
Independence becomes more severe; the Declarations vilifying of the fundamental
power imbalances between the colonies and the King make the break between the
two unbridgeable. The break between the colonies and the King became not just a
tax or policy difference anymore, but a fundamental philosophical difference.
The colonists meaning of the word power
changes depending on who possesses the power. In the hands of the King power
corrupts in the hands of the colonists and the people it takes on divine
qualities. The colonist's analysis of who has power fascinates. The colonists
believe power to be a force that emanates from fixed points in society. In
contrast more modern thinkers such as Nietzche and Foucault believe power flows
throughout all of society (Miller 15). The colonists perceive in England power
emanates directly from the King. Because of this interpretation they blame the
King for the many wrongs they list in the body of the Declaration of
Independence. The colonists do not blame the people of England or the English
legislature. This allows the tone of the Declaration of Independence to soften.
Instead, of being an attack on the institutions of English society the
Declaration only attacks the King, the holder of power. Foucault's
interpretation of power would differ sharply from the framers of the
Declaration Of Independence. Foucault sees power as coming from the many
technologies that society uses to control people: tax systems the law,
patriarchy, family systems, legislatures, and even democracy. These
technologies according to Foucault all represent different ways in which
society controls its members (Foucault 307). The King under Foucault's
interpretation of power bares little responcibilety for the grievances
colonists have with England. The King in his view plays merely a role in the
web of different technologies of control. Foucault would see the King as being
controlled by many of the forces in society. Fulfilling his role is not so much
his manifestation of his power as the power of English society and its ability
to control the colonies and their inhabitants. If the colonists when writing
the Declaration of Independence had this conception of power in mind the, the
tone of the document would have been much stronger indicting all of English
society.
The colonists interpretation of power
has serious repercussions on the subsequent formulation of the US government.
Because the colonists philosophical break with England was over the power of
the King the framers of the Declaration of Independence sought to prevent a
monarchy from arising in the United States. They sought to disperse power among
the states and set up a system of counterbalancing branches of government that
would prevent any single branch from having too much power. The ideas of
federalism and decentralization were a direct outgrowth of the colonists
interpretation of power. Power, in the Declaration of Independence carries more
than just grammatical significance to the document. It shapes the document's
meaning making it philosophically harsh toward the institution of the King and
tempered toward English society.
Works Cited
Wills, Garry.
Inventing America. New York: Random House, 1978
Miller, James.
The Passion of Michel Foucault. New York: Anchor Books, 1993
Foucault, Michel.
Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage Books, 1975
Oxford English
Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press, 1994
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