Thomas Jefferson tried to base the Declaration of Independence and its “self-evident” truths on his strong religious beliefs. 

Benjamin Franklin wisely noted that any kind of appeal to religious sentiments would be out of place in the Declaration of Independence. 

although the “self-evident” truths in the Declaration of Independence are considered uniquely American, they were in fact copied from David Hume’s “analytical truths.” 

at least one of the “self-evident” truths mentioned in the Declaration of Independence had an apparently multinational and multicultural history. 

Benjamin Franklin wanted to show that the “self-evident” truths of the Declaration of Independence were based on the ideas of Euclid, Jesus Christ, and David Hume.