How the Declaration of Independence Could Have Been Declared Out Loud in a Speech

Many might assume that Ronald Reagan was America's first President to utilize a form of acting in his speeches that he'd learned in his prior acting career. The reality is, every politician (especially the President) has to use elements of acting in order to sell their political ideas to the American public or the Reps and Senators in Congress. Some of them have had to learn that craft the hard way as they go along in their first term...but we won't name any names. Yet others have known how to do it effectively right away without any particular training or perhaps training learned during their educational years. What a lot of people probably don't know is that Thomas Jefferson was fascinated with the elements of acting and how it could be used to make ideas cogent to the masses without giving the impression that one is actually doing any acting. The only trouble with his fascination of that was one thing: Jefferson was extremely afraid of public speaking and would always avoid making speeches whenever he could.

This might surprise some people when Jefferson was the true architect of our liberties in America and obviously one of the greatest thinkers in the world. It may prove one way or the other that being a brilliant mind and being a brilliant public speaker don't always go together. Many brilliant minds struggle with stage fright for their entire lives--no matter how much coaching they get. Jefferson certainly received some suggestions from various well-known public speakers of the mid-1700's. Despite that coaching, he already had a deep understanding that an effective speech had to denote sincerity in order to sell a particular idea. He also studied the work of famed actor at the time: David Garrick. Garrick was considered one of the great stage actors (or at least of early America) who could bring an element of believability when speaking his lines in plays of the time. Still, Jefferson would always back out of speaking engagements when the time came that he had to. He always avoided speaking for Congress by faking illness. He did give a few speeches, but was always self-conscious and would usually make his nervousness quite apparent to those in the audience. It's probably a good thing large-screen monitors weren't around in those days...or Jefferson's lack of speaking ability and nervous tics could have harmed his political career somewhat outside of his intellectual capabilities.

Despite his inability to speak in public, he was getting ready to sell a new and monumental idea inspired by Thomas Paine's treatise "Common Sense" that had become overwhelmingly popular. In 1776, Jefferson was drafting a document that would outline a declaration of independence from English rule and would provide a new set of laws to live under for the people in this new country.

In a 1993 book written by Stanford University professor and scholar, Jay Fliegelman, (that details Jefferson's efforts in studying acting in speech and in how he wrote the Declaration)--Fliegelman writes that Jefferson's studies of effective speech also led him to music where new ideas of musical expression were being written in Europe and influencing musicians around the world...including Jefferson himself. Wolfgang Mozart's father, Leopold, had written an essay for violinists twenty years earlier (Jefferson studied violin) that expressed playing techniques of "good delivery" to make an audience believe in what you were playing. Leopold Mozart also emphasized that the musician in an orchestra is more important than the soloist--because he has to comply with the style of the other musicians in order to get an overall agreeable result that doesn't involve a cacophony of disparate styles clashing with one another. Jefferson absorbed these ideas and other academic books on musical communication written at the time--which ultimately helped further shape his intellectual prowess in how to reach people. And it ultimately played a major part in how he approached writing the Declaration of Independence.

The technique of writing in the "voice of the people" helps shape the Declaration...

It's interesting to note that the core of the new thought behind persuasiveness in musical performances was in church music. The earlier-mentioned new expressions of thought for musicians found its true instigator when people were demanding more complex fugues or group chorals during church ceremonies. This caused a lot of discord with those used to the traditional sounds. But it helped shape the concepts of bringing people together into an idea rather than letting one individual give a final word on a hymn or outside of that in secular classical works. Jefferson drew on these new musical philosophies as well as ancient text writers. Purportedly his most favorite author who influenced his ideas for communicative writing more than anyone was Homer (the Greek...not Simpson).

Perhaps the idea has been lost to only academics in more recent years, but Jefferson and his contemporaries all agreed during his time that Homer was the greatest author in writing as a voice of the people. Most authors living after Homer's era wrote in a more singular voice that expressed individual opinion rather than a persuasive idea that could be mutually agreed upon by everybody. Jefferson (and Benjamin Franklin) both noted that using the word "I" in all its variations was something to avoid when conveying a political idea in speech. Homer was writing for his people and wanted his people to share in his stories and ideas--and it ultimately worked when he became the greatest writer of his own generation.

Once Jefferson started to work on his draft of the declaration...he put careful consideration into eliminating any indication of individual opinion in fear that the people would ultimately balk at going independent from England. Instead, he made powerful, persuasive arguments that would be irrefutable by the people--plus making the people part of the process.

Jefferson places speech markings in his draft that indicated he planned to speak it...

In Fliegelman's book cited above, scholars in the 1970's had discovered a rare proof copy of the Declaration of Independence with various quotation marks Jefferson had placed around certain phrases. These scholars came to the assessment--since forgotten by most Americans--that Jefferson placed these markings there with intent on speaking it to the Continental Congress at some point in July of 1776 (or maybe August when Congress officially signed the document). Fliegelman's book advanced this hypothesis as suggesting the quotations were brevity marks as an aid to Jefferson in remembering when to give dramatic pauses if he had to speak it. Jefferson had studied the art of pauses in acting and how it could increase interest and anticipation. It's still an acting technique employed in political speeches today. Everything from State of the Union addresses to televised addresses--every modern President studies his speeches, rehearses them numerous times, and gets pointers from advisers on where to put slight pauses.

It has to be admitted, though, that not all Presidents are effective at communicating, so pauses in selling a political idea doesn't always work as we've seen in long-ago and more recent televised speeches. It's probably best Jefferson didn't ultimately recite the Declaration of Independence to Congress (or anywhere else)...because his tepid nature in public speaking may have watered down the powerful statements he'd written in the document.

The Declaration of Independence gets live readings later...plus during a special televised event 230 years later in 2001. The latter thanks to a legendary TV producer...

Even though Jefferson didn't speak his monumental words he'd written as a birth to a new nation--the Continental Congress later gave out a mandate that the declaration be read out loud by ministers, magistrates and all other people in states of power throughout the burgeoning nation. It started a tradition for a while that the declaration would become a true performance piece as did Lincoln's Gettysburg Address during the 20^th century. Unfortunately, the Declaration later became more of a document read by one's self either in school or as a reprint in books during the 20^th century. While other great speeches (Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as mentioned) became set to music and read at concerts regularly during the year, nobody really made reading the Declaration of Independence a communal event outside of it always being on people's minds.

In 2000, a major discovery took place: A previously-unknown 25^th copy of the Dunlap broadside version of the Declaration of Independence was found. Legendary TV producer Norman Lear took interest in it and bought it (along with a friend) for millions of dollars. Later, he took the document on tour around the country with the title of "Declaration of Independence Road Trip" that visited every major museum in the U.S. up until 2003. To kick off that tour--Lear put together a TV special for ABC in July of 2001 that would feature the reading of the Declaration by numerous celebrities known for their effortless ability to communicate effectively. Morgan Freeman and Mel Gibson were only just a couple of the celebrities on hand for this event that was ironically taped (in Philadelphia) a mere two months before 9/11. A short film version of this event was later released in the spring of 2002.

Those who remember that TV special probably remember how powerful it was to hear the Declaration spoken by some of our most memorable actors and voices. It really brought a renewed interest in the Declaration in how it could be not only a historical document, but also a powerful piece of entertainment in how it can be interpreted out loud. Many of those actors possibly had no idea that they were fulfilling something that Thomas Jefferson couldn't do well.

Reading the document out loud can be done by anybody during any time of the year--and not just on July 4. If you're interested in acting or doing voiceover work, try speaking it out loud at a family get-together...or just to yourself while you practice on Windows Voice Recorder. You'll be surprised how fun it is to speak Old English...while reminding one how it's one of the most profoundly effective political documents ever written.

And if only a future President would manage to squeeze in time to give it a read on TV or other media-it would give the document a new sense of power. With fairly good TV and movie actors having intentions of running for President in the future...that might just happen.