LAD #3: Declaration of Independence

Writing the Declaration of Independence

Summarize the Declaration of Independence in 3 parts:

1. Democratic Principles

The Declaration of Independence opens with the idea that there were certain rights everyone possessed that no government could take away from them; specifically, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It goes on to say that if a government was attempting to take away those rights or otherwise was not working in the favor of the people, then it is the prerogative of those people to dismantle said government and form their own. This was, in essence, what the founding fathers were doing with the Declaration of Independence.

2. Grievances

The document listed many offenses incurred by the King of Great Britain, George III. A few major offenses were refusing to ratify or completely ignoring laws which would benefit the people, as well as denying governors the right to pass those laws in his absence, dissolving representative houses and preventing them from being reformed, controlling the outcomes of trials for his benefit, and imposing unfair taxes on the colonists. These and other grievances were meant to point out how the king had been restricting and removing the personal freedoms of the colonists.

3. Conclusion

To close out the Declaration, the founding fathers remind the British that they had tried to settle these matters amicably, that they had tried to come to a compromise with their British rulers that could benefit both sides, and had time and time again been rejected or ignored. This was their last resort, and in it they clearly stated that, if the British chose to deny them their freedoms, which they clearly were intent on doing, that the colonies had no choice but to sever ties from Britain and become self-governing.