Detailed Analysis: Declaration of Independence (list of Grievances)

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Grievance 12: "He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislatures." The King would send soldiers to remain among the colonists in times of peace, when no soldiers were needed to supervise. The soldiers were also occupying the colonies without the consent of the governed or the legislature.

Grievance 13: "He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power." He established a military which was in favor of the King and had superior power to the people.

Grievance 14: "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." The King subjected the colonists, with the help of others, to a code of rules unlike that of their constitution. He also gave his attention and allowance to these acts, thus creating something of a false legislation.

Grievances 15-23 " For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.

For protecting them (King's armed troops), 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 benefits 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."

King George III has forced the colonists to house his armed troops, he is protecting them by basically exempting them from any crimes commited against the colonists, he cut off the colonists' trade with the rest of the world, he taxed the colonists without consent or representation, he took away the colonists' right to a trial by jury, he shipped colonists' across the ocean for them to be tried for an offence not commited, he abolished the set of laws that are to be followed in England and established his own form of government in order to ensure his tyrannical powers, he abolished the colonists' most important laws, and he drastically altered the colonists' forms of government.

Grievance 24: "He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us." He is falsly governing the colonists' by declaring them no longer under the protection of the King or Great Britain and by waging war upon them. This act alone separates the colonies from Britain.

Grievance 25: "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people." The King's troops have murdered colonists. This was displayed in the Boston Massacre. He destroyed the lives of the colonists.

Grievance 26: "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 totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation." The King created an army to complete killings of the colonists and innocent people. The writers of the Declaration agree that he is completely unworthy of governing or leading a nation that was or is civilized.

Grievance 27: "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." King George III captured and forced fellow colonists to point their guns at their allies thus forcefully making them enemies of their own homeland. He forces them to join forces with Great Britain and take part in the executions of their fellow citizens of the thirteen colonies. If they refused to do so, then they would perrish by the hand of the enemy.

Sources:

https://wordcounter.net/

http://patriotsline.com/how-well-do-you-actually-know-the-declaration-of-independence/the-declaration-of-independence-the-grievances/

http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/declaration-of-independence.html

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=A0LEV7yM.VxWfy4At60nnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?qid=20091210105448AAiwNXl

Actual Word Count: 1,601

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