The ideas of Thomas Jefferson in The Declaration of Independence

Oleh :
Diyah Kusmiyati - C1304014 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

ABSTRACT 2009. This minor thesis discussed about the ideas of Thomas Jefferson as included in The Declaration of Independence. This research took the form of library research utilizing the descriptive technique. The primary data are the words, phrases, and interpreted statement which in the Declaration of Independence text. The secondary data are collected from books, magazines, journals, and internet websites about Jefferson’s background, the Declaration of Independence, and articles. The purpose of this research is to find out the ideas of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence text. To achieve the goal, the researcher employees historical approach, biographical approach and philosophical approach. Those approaches were related to me each other in order to find out the ideas of Thomas Jefferson as described in the text of Declaration of Independence. Historical approach was applied to explain the event at that time. Biographical approach was applied to understand more about how the author’s intention in the work is related to his background. While philosophical approach was used to know how the philosophy expressed in the one of Thomas Jefferson works. The analysis of this research lead that there were three ideas reflected in the Declaration of Independence values: that all men are created equal, all men have natural rights, and government is used to secure these rights with democracy and freedom.