How is the act of separation from England and the founding of a new nation as expressed in the Declaration of Independence treated in Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and Freneau's "On the Emigration to America and Peopling the Western Country"?
First we need to know how the act of separation and the founding of a new nation is expressed in the Declaration of Independence. The first sentence of the Declaration (NA VII p. 342) explains that a people have a natural right to assume independence and that the reasons for becoming independent ought to be explained. The second part of the Declaration of Independence is about the principal ideas of the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”(NA VII p. 342) These are very famous sentences of the Declaration which represent the freedom of the new nation and that this freedom must be preserved.
The third part of the Declaration exists of a list of charges against King George III which claim that the King violated the rights of the colonies in America. (NA VII p. 342-345) Therefore the King was not suitable as a ruler and that is why America should become independent.
These three parts tell a great deal about why the Americans wanted to have an independent state. The American thought it was necessary to gain independence and they also thought it was their privilege from God to create a united and...