Justified Declaration Of Independence Essay

Soon after the Seven Years’ War, the British and the colonists learned that victory came with a rather expensive price (Kennedy, Cohen, & Bailey, 2010). Great Britain tightened its grip on the colonies in North America, expecting colonists to pay for their financial struggles. In order to make colonists pay for the war, Great Britain reminded the North American colonies who had authority by controlling the colonists to submit to various ordinances ratified by British Parliament. This action only showed that arrogance leads to rebellion socially, economically, and politically. Socially, a lack of communication between Great Britain and the North American colonies was to blame for the Revolutionary War.

Some of the taxes that were implemented onto the Americans were the Sugar and Stamp act, Navigation act, Wool act, Hat act, the Proclamation of 1763, the Quartering Act, Townshend Acts, and the Coercive Intolerable Acts, (Document Five). Each one of these added more stress on the colonist persuading their final decision of starting a revolution. Not only did the taxes install hatred into the colonist but also events and actions that the British did harmed their cause. Those events included; the boston massacre, the French Indian war, Boston Tea Party, and many more, (Document four) As seen the British lead themselves onto the wrong path by trying to tighten their grip on the colonist but ended up hurting themselves when their actions added more fuel to the Americans fire.

“…..All men are created equal, they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This phrase, from the Declaration of Independence, was written more than 200 years ago declaring America’s Independence; the colonists formally announcing their break from Britain. Written by the main authors--Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman--on July 2, 1776, and signed by the 56 delegates of the Continental Congress, this document symbolizes and celebrates our freedom. Historians analyzed the Declaration of Independence in four significant sections: the statement of purpose, the contract theory of government, grievances, and the conclusions.

The colonists endured many hardships from British rule, hoping the king would come to his senses and see the effect his rule has on the

On the eve of a modern era, July 4, 1776, a select committee of five representatives sat down to document the separation of the American colonies from the despotic reign of the English Monarch, King George. It was on this day that Thomas Jefferson put pen to paper to write “The Declaration of Independence” and courageously declared autonomy from Great Britain and their harsh and unlawful actions which, the colonists, can no longer be content with. Jefferson proclaims the separation of what will later become the United States of America from Imperialistic Britain. Jefferson addresses King George directly to state his intentions as well as the Patriotic Colonists in order to persuade them in favor of the liberation of colonial America and obtaining

Trade has made the colonies an extremely wealthy place, so the king is therefore cutting-off the colonies’ success. The Declaration of Independence is then supporting Paine’s argument, a rebel-justifying-another rebel situation. According to Martin Howard, a loyalist, “wether born in Great Britain, on the ocean, or in the colonies; and it is in this sense we are said to enjoy all the rights and privileges of Englishmen,” (89). Another loyalist, Joseph Galloway in 1765 wrote to the New York Gazette that America along with the colonists “will pay her proportion of aids when requisite and demanded,” (Colonists Respond to Stamp Act, 7). To enjoy the rights and privileges of Englishmen, every subject including the colonists had to pay their taxes.

However, the engagements of England were not fully unjustified. While the colonists took advantage of the protection and steady flow of commerce that England provided them with, they were participating in tax evasion which is a criminal offense even in our own society today. The colonists were complacent and unappreciative and that was partly the English government’s fault. The English unintentionally conditioned the colonists to maintain certain expectations, and when those expectations failed to match with reality the colonists became confused and angry. Put simply, the colonists were akin to spoiled petulant children, and the English were incompetent and incapable of properly employing their power over the

Parliament’s acts of taxation and the different acts was “unconstitutional” which means the colonists were angry. “The Quartering Act forced colonists to

First, the colonists are not armed in this picture, and it can almost be assumed that the colonists were peaceful before the British attacked. This is a false hood as Preston’s account of the Boston Massacre in Marcus depicts the colonists as “striking their clubs and bludgeons.” The colonists were also armed with snowballs, but snow is not depicted in Revere’s engraving. The engraving also features the colonists reacting to the soldier’s violence, when this is a falsehood as the colonists instigated the violence, as Preston says the colonists “…surrounded the sentry there, and with clubs and other weapons threatened to execute their vengeance on him” (Marcus, pg. 104). The colonists that were involved in this mob would have been young men of the laborer class, as the Boston Gazette and Country Journal points out (Marcus, pg. 110).

It all started in 1764 when the parliament started putting taxes on items and the colonists didn’t like it. The colonists thought this was unfair because they were getting taxed on out of nowhere. “... So how can the British Parliament place this tax on us?” (Henry,1765).

The British government was not looking for the best of the people. They were only thinking about what they wanted; the government was not interested in what the people wanted so they decided to make decisions on their own, which resulted in changes that form the United States today. Because of this, they were justified in rebelling and declaring independence.

Many of the reasons the American colonies believed they were justified in their rebellion from England lay in trade and taxes. When George III inherited the throne at the end of the Seven Years’ War England’s debt had risen to 145 million pounds and his chief minister believed that the American colonies needed to help shoulder the debt. (Nash, et al., 2007. , p. 134) In attempting to collect these taxes from the colonies to relieve the mounting debt Parliament passed a range of acts, which led to discontent among the colonists as many of them restricted trade, their political maneuverability and left many believing they infringed upon their “right to be taxed only by their own consent.”

The Declaration of Independence acts as the American Colonies’ formal set of grievances against the King of England. Before citing the injustices experienced, the statement begins with a formal introduction contending that the people have the right to create their own government when necessary. Following is a more philosophical assertion which argues that when a state begins to harm the given rights of the population, it is completely justifiable to begin a revolution to overthrow the subjugator. Next comes the list of complaints directed at the Crown, which range from the abolition of American charters to the dissolution of the Representative Houses. Finally, it concludes with a denunciation of the situation and announce the United States

The three main points of the Declaration of Independence 1.All men (?) are created equal. 2.Therefore, no men are wise enough to rule over other men without their consent. The way to resolve this paradoxical situation is through liberal democratic instutitions that combine majority rule with the right of the minority to express itself. 3.The English government (personified as King George III) had shown an unwillingness to extend these rights to American colonists — even though (1) above implies that colonists ought to have no fewer rights than

This was a war where the fight was with the New World and France. The British King tried to imposes taxes on the thirteen colonies to help pay for the cost. Thomas Paine talked about these types of “burdensome taxations” in Common Sense as well as in his other writing titled Rights of Man. He talked about these issues because he knew the colonists were angry. Writing about the injustice would appeal to them (Hacht, 178).