Injuries in the Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, signed in 1776 by the members of the thirteen colonies, is a document associated with freedom and liberty as well as the founding of a nation. The colonies were breaking free from the British colonial power with the King George III being accused of being a despot and a tyrant. The Declaration justifies the action of breaking free with the values that are put forth and with the assertion that there is a right of the people to alter or abolish the government when it becomes destructive (Becker, 1958). In the Declaration there are 27 „injuries and usurpations‟. These are accusation that can be seen as based on fact; this can be seen by looking at some examples. The King is accused if having “affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power”. It may be argued that there is a basis of fact for this. An example can be seen looking at the Boston Tea Party which took place in 1774. Following this the government tried to make an example out of Massachusetts with a series of acts knows at the Intolerable Acts or the Coercive Acts. The four acts were interpreted by those in the colonies as a direct attack on their civil rights (Ammerman, 1974). The forth of these acts is noteworthy to demonstrate the objections, s this allowed the government to place troops in civilian households in order to use them as lodging or barracks (Ammerman, 1974). This also leads to another claimed injury “he has kept us, in times of peace, standing armies without consent of our legislatures”. The objections