LAD #3: Declaration of Independence

1. The first portion of the Declaration of Independence basically says that over time it happens that a group of people feel the need to break off from their former nation and these are the reasons why. It says that all men are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and government is instituted, by the people, to preserve these rights. When these rights are violated by the government it is the right of the people to abolish the government and set up a new one tailored to their rights. It also says that men are more inclined to suffer under a bad government than to overthrow it, but in the case of the colonies so many abuses have taken place that it is their duty to overthrow the tyrannical regime that controls them. Then it proceeds to list these abuses that justify their "abolition" of the government.

2. The Declaration in its second third is a list of all the grievances they have against the King. First it says that the King has failed to institute good and just laws and has prevented the colonies from making, for themselves, such laws. Then it says that in several instances the King either doesn't allow legislative bodies in the colonies, makes them inoperable,  or even dissolves them. Next it states that he controls immigration to the colonies and won't allow them to set up their own courts, while making the judges loyal to him through a royal salary. The King made many new offices in the colonies that harass the people and has kept an army, out of civil control, in the colonies in times of peace. Then it says he has instituted a series of laws that were not agreed upon by the colonial peoples in a legislature that they are not represented in.  These laws include, having to quarter British troops in private homes, allowing British troops trials in Britain for their crimes, as well as trials for Americans in Britain, not allowing colonists a trial by jury, cutting off their foreign trade, and taxing the colonies without their consent. Next it lists more of these laws, such as making a neighboring colony an absolute government that tries to impose this on the American colonies, editing American laws and governments, and controlling American legislatures. Then it states how George has started a war on the Americans, hiring mercenaries and destroying American lives.

3. In conclusion, the Declaration states that the colonies have humbly tried to address these oppressions and gain their rights, which George has denied and has been deemed a tyrant. It says they even appealed to their British brethren who have not heeded the calls of the American populace. So as a result, the Declaration ends by saying by these wrongs the American people have decided to dissolve all ties to Britain and become free and independent states capable of governing the American people.