![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The people had doubts and fears that America could not maintain Independence and would either revert to English rule or become a subject of France, who at the time were allies. Many colonists were still loyal to England. Maier points towards Thomas Paine’s Common Sense as one work that helped convince the people. While Congress and the signers of the Declaration were mostly in on the American experiment, by forming armies and holding meetings, many of the people or masses were still skeptical. The idea that the Declaration of Independence is owned by the American people comes from a few facts about the colonists that Maier discusses. ![]() The second argument is that the document is malleable and that it and other texts can be changed to fit the ideals of the American people, but only if they do not lose sight of the documents true purpose. The first being that the document and the ideas surrounding it are owned by the American people and that they are for the American people. In Pauline Maier’s American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence it is possible to see two arguments pertaining to the near mythical document. ![]()
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