Happy "27 Grievances Leveled Against King George III of Great Britain" Day!
As we celebrate America's 247th birthday let's be mindful of the battles that lie ahead we must decisively win to ensure the continuance of our Constitutional Republic.
When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence in its entirety? For me it has been perhaps 3-4 years. I often ponder how Thomas Jefferson was able to pull this all together. It was very clear the 13 colonies, soon to become States, were fed up with a tyrannical King, but, what to do?
We are all (presumably) familiar with our Preamble BUT what I find almost as compelling is how our Founders were building the foundation for their case to not only state grievances BUT to also substantiate the justification for what was certain to follow!
THIS, this is why words matter...
"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."
Imagine the list of grievances We the People could level against a tyrannical ruler "today":
GRIEVANCE 1:
"He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."
GRIEVANCE 2:
"He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them."
GRIEVANCE 3:
"He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only."
GRIEVANCE 4:
"He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, and also uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures."
GRIEVANCE 5:
"He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people."
GRIEVANCE 6:
"He has refused for a long time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and convulsions within."
GRIEVANCE 7:
"He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands."
GRIEVANCE 8:
"He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers."
GRIEVANCE 9:
"He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries."
GRIEVANCE 10:
"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."
GRIEVANCE 11:
"He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures."
GRIEVANCE 12:
"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power."
GRIEVANCE 13:
"He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:"
GRIEVANCE 14:
"For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:"
GRIEVANCE 15:
"For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:"
GRIEVANCE 16:
"For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world".
GRIEVANCE 17:
"For imposing taxes on us without our consent:"
GRIEVANCE 18:
"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of jury trial:"
GRIEVANCE 19:
"For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:"
GRIEVANCE 20:
"For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:"
GRIEVANCE 21:
"For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:"
GRIEVANCE 22:
"For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever".
GRIEVANCE 23:
"He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us."
GRIEVANCE 24:
"He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people."
GRIEVANCE 25:
"He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and unworthy the Head of a civilized nation."
GRIEVANCE 26:
"He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands."
GRIEVANCE 27:
"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."
There were increasing tensions and countless events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “We the People” were charting our new course for Freedom. On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his great speech on the Rights of the Colonies, before the Virginia Assembly, convened at Richmond
“Gentlemen may cry, ‘Peace, Peace,’ but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? ... Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"
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Thank you for reading.
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