The Declaration of Independence indicted King George III because:
"He has obstructed the administration of justice."
"He has made judges dependent on his will alone."
"He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people."
"He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies...independent of and superior to the civil power."
"He has combined...to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution...
"Giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation...for imposing taxes on us without our consent."
"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury
"Establishing therein an arbitrary government....introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies."
"For...altering fundamentally the forms of our governments."
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us."
"In
every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress...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."
The King of Great Britain had enacted:
1764 Currency Act,
1764 Sugar Act,
1765 Stamp Act,
1765 Quartering Act,
1766 Declaratory Act,
1767 Townshend Act,
1773 Tea Act,
1774 Boston Port Act,
1774 Justice Act,
1774 Massachusetts Government Act,
1774 Quartering Act,
1774 Quebec Act, and
1775 Proclamation of Rebellion.
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On MARCH 23, 1775, Patrick Henry spoke to the Second Virginia
Convention, which was meeting in Richmond's St. John's Church due to
British hostilities:
"I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery...
We have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on.
We have petitioned; we have remonstrated...
We have prostrated ourselves before the throne...
Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence."
Patrick Henry continued:
"There is a just God who presides over the destines of nations...who will raise up friends to fight our battle for us.
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave...
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."
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