HIS 101 Primary Source #2: The Declaration of Independence and the Preamble of the US Constitution

The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States are two of the most important documents in the history of the United States.  The Declaration makes clear the ideas upon which this country is founded, and the Constitution is the highest law of the land.

For this assignment, you need to write a short essay with two short paragraphs (the entire essay should be no more than one full page – use the usual format: arial font 11, double-spaced).  The primary source documents for this assignment are a selection from The Declaration of Independence, and the preamble of The Constitution of the United States (available in the link at the bottom of this page).

For the first paragraph, you need to read the selection from the Declaration of Independence.  The do the following, using quotes (or paraphrasing when more appropriate) from the document:

• Identify the purpose of the document.
• Identify the “truths” the Declaration finds “self-evident”.
• Identify the purpose of government.
• Identify the source that gives governments their authority.
• Identify what justifies the Colonies in declaring Independence from Great Britain.

• For the second paragraph, which will probably be much shorter than the first, read the selection from the Preamble of the Constitution.

In this paragraph,

• Explain how the Constitutionis in the political tradition you discussed with the Mayflower Compact.
• Identify any connections you can make between the Preamble and the points you discussed about theDeclaration of Independence in the first paragraph.

Both the selection from the Declaration and the Preamble are available in this link: The Declaration of Independence and the Preamble of the Constitution.

P.S. The rubric is included to see how the grade for this assignment is weighted.

This assignment contains a Microsoft Word document.

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