A recent Rasmussen poll found that 70% of Americans “Still
Agree with Declaration of Independence.” If that is the case, it may be that
they haven’t recently read beneath the fold to the fine print.
There, among others, we find as reasons for revolution a
government’s
— refusing Assent to Laws,
— refusing to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people,
— invading the rights of the people,
— obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners;
refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither,
— obstructing the Administration of Justice,
— keeping among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies
without the Consent of our legislatures.
— affecting to render the Military independent of and
superior to the Civil Power,
— subjecting us to a jurisdiction foreign to our
constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws,
— quartering large bodies of armed troops among us,
— protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any
Murders which they should commit,
— imposing Taxes on us without our Consent,
— cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world,
— depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by
Jury,
— transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended
offences,
— taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable
Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments,
— transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to
compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny.
Because “In every stage of these Oppressions We have
Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have
been answered only by repeated injury,” the writers and signers of the
Declaration conclude that the government is "unfit to be the ruler of a
free people."
In their case, they did something about it.
