LAD #3: Declaration of Independance

Declaration of Independance

Artist's rendering of the Declaration's signing.

1.) The Declaration of Independence contains a number of references to the democratic principles of those who wrote it, such as the opening line "all men are created equal" and those which follow it, saying that governments get their power from the governed, and thus the people must be the highest concern of the government (and when it is not, and tyranny arises, it is the right of the people to rise up). Also notable is one of the main protests of the colonists that the British government taxed them without their consent (which they found abhorrent because they had no elected representation in Parliament), but more on that in point two.

2.) The Declaration contains a rather long list of American grievances against the King, but they can best be summarized in these key points:

a.) The King and Parliament placed extra taxes on the Colonies without their consent or any representation in Parliament.

b.) The King and his Royally-appointed governors repeatedly got in the way of progress and the colonial legislatures through both direct opposition to some proposed acts, and the lengthy process of Royal approval often needed for large projects.

c.) The King often forced Colonial Legislatures to meet in poor or undesirable conditions, to tire them into voting his way; as well as flat-out disbanding some representative bodies.

d.) The King maintained a standing army America in peacetime, and his troops and officers were quartered in colonist's houses without their consent, and these soldiers often stole from and pillaged local houses, with no punishment.

e.) The colonists had "repeatedly petitioned for redress" and the British Government had answered only with violence.

3.) The Declaration is essentially a long list of grievances against the King of Great Britain and his government meant to justify and explain the colonist's reasons for leaving the Empire to both the British, and the rest of the world. It concludes with a final command that the colonies be respected as a free and independant nation, and a pledge by its signers to stand by one another in the fight for independance.

I related the famous Declaration of Independance to the much wordier Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union, which was the document presented to the union explaining South Carolina's reasons for secession. Both were essentially meant to list grievances ("brought about by tyranny") and justify the leaving of a Union/Empire.