Declaration of Independence Grievances

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

called for representatives to meet in far away and inconvenient places, just to make it hard.

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:

does not pay any attention to our laws or our constitutions.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

formed many new offices and sent new officers to harass us.

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments

has abolished our laws and governments.

He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

has caused fighting to break out among us with the Indians.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.

has dismissed our representatives from meeting.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.

has kept soldiers around everywhere and they don't have to obey our laws.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

has refused to accept our laws.

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. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

has refused to listen to us when we complained about all of this.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us

has said that he no longer protects us, but rather, has waged war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

has torn up our towns and killed our people.

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 and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

is bringing in soldiers from other countries to try to destroy us.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

made judges follow only what he wants, instead of what is best for the people.

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses

makes us go "beyond the Seas" to be tried for offenses that aren't even real.

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us

makes us keep soldiers in our homes.

For imposing taxes on us without our consent

makes us pay taxes without asking our opinion.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

won't let new people become citizens of our states.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

won't let the Governors of the colonies pass laws without his permission.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

won't let us establish courts of our own.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without and convulsions within.

won't let us get new representatives.

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury

won't let us have fair trials with juries, in some cases.

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world

won't let us trade with other countries.