Were the colonists justified in declaring their independence? What events led up to the document's writing?

Question

I'm in American Government online and I need help on writing this essay. Also what you determine to be the strongest grievance in the Declaration of Independence, and evidence from at least one other British colony?

Answer 1

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. 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.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

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.

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.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

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 mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured 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.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

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:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

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.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured 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.

Answer 2

Its Always aboout ECONOMICS!!!!

the Rich people in the Colonies were tired of the Uber Rich people in London taxing them without remorse!  

Small example....  The British East India Co. (Wal-mart of its day) was granted a Monopoly o'er distribution rights of tea (coffee of its day) thereby cutting off the small to medium sized merchants from making their "middling" living (sound familiar) the merchants and their minions dressed up as Indians and destroyed a very expensive cargo in Boston Harbor.  (sound familiar?)

Another still...the American colonies were prohibited from manufacturing finished products that would "hurt" British made goods they exported to their "market"!  So Benjamin Franklin had to purchase his paper and printing presses from London mfg concerns...  BTW, Franklin was the biggest paper distributor in the colonies at that time.  He retailed to the other printers almost as a monopoly!

The "Spice Islands" were more valuable to the Brits than the Am colonies because Spice was a far more profitable commodity than was cotton or pelts or any other Raw Material making its way to England from the "New World". So their battle with the French for dominance over those valuable Caribbean Colonies was of far more Importance than the Am colonies!!

So the rich people in THIS case, really put it "all on the line", when they not only had to finance this cessation with their own property as collateral, but they also had to convince the people, Cannon Fodder, that it was in "their" best interest as well, to support the Independence movement from Mother England!! (sound familiar?)

Answer 3

Thank you for asking this question...i must be in the same class as you