•Music's Role in America•

I have recently started a writing program called IEW and it's really great. This is my first writing assignment, and I though it would motivate me to do well if I posted it on my blog. Hope y'all enjoy!

Music’s Role in America

By: Karis Brown

9/22/2009

The well-known men who courageously assisted in the signing, and writing, of the Declaration of Independence primary consisted of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. Although Thomas Paine wasn’t officially one of the committed members, he still justly assisted in this great task that lay before them all. There were more bright men who were also a part of this great task, but they were not familiar to most nor were they as famous. The first draft of this document was complete and agreed upon and it contained the basic points, but they all knew that the language used in the final draft would need to be artistic as well as inspiring and precise. Adams too rough, Franklin too sick, and Paine too controversial to author the final draft, so the task fell upon Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson’s landlady recorded in her journal that Jefferson was struggling to complete this substantial task that was given to him, and in the rooms above she wrote that she would hear him endlessly pacing only to gain daily frustration. He anxiously sent home for his violin, and when it finally arrived after only a few days Jefferson would pace a little, play his violin and then there would be silence, except for his feather pen writing what would soon be the Declaration of Independence. Music may have helped unlock his linguistic genius, or perhaps it made him more receptive to the word of destiny: “When in course of human events…” Either way, few people are fully aware of the great importance that the violin had in the founding of our country.