rmer, and since the rhetoric had already been widely accepted once, why not try it again? Now lets take a closer look at the significant changes and implications that were made in creating the new document. In the very first paragraph, of both documents, although a slight word variation, it is set out that their intentions in this document are to “declare the causes that impel them to such a course”. The causes for Jefferson may differ in the literal sense, but in essence, they were both writing these documents on behalf of their own people, demanding freedom, whether it be from the tyrannical rule of King George, or the tyrannical rule of man. In the first line of the second paragraph, the original copy read, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal”, while Stanton’s copy read “that all men and women are created equal. As normal as that sentence may sound now, back in 1884, it was a controversial proclamation. The next significant change that was made was the omission of the words “among men” in the line, “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men”. Stanton believed that males only should no longer run the government. It was time for women to gain the right to political power as well. The final notable change was in the concluding sentences before the grievances were listed. Stanton changed the original, from labeling the Colonies, as the ones who have suffered in the hands of Great Britain’s King, to read it was “the patient sufferance of the women under this government”. By making this change it is easy to see the irony that this American government, which the people created to escape the tyrannical rule of Great Britain, was the same government that was imposing its’ own tyrannical rule over women. Like the Declaration of 1776, Stanton’s version of the Declaration included a list of w...
