DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
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Introduction
The founders of America believed in the universal principle that all men were created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. The rights included the right to life, the right to liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To achieve this, governments were to be instituted by the consent of men and were to be conducted a way that could ensure the provision of the basic fundamental rights of the subjects. The principle was outlined in 1215, after the signing of the Magna Carter by King John. Consequently, if the government deprived the people of their rights, they were obligated to abolish it immediately or alter it and institute a new government. This essay analyzes the principal causes of the American Revolution and the consequent separation from the British monarchy and government.
Conditions for Separation from the British Monarchy and Government
The subjects of the British Monarchy in North America cited several grievances that prompted the American Revolution. According to the citizens, the history of the then king, George III, was a history of repeated injustices and usurpations, all of which led to the establishment of tyranny over the thirteen states in North America. First, King George III had refused to consent to laws that would enhance the public good. Such laws were critical in ensuring that the subjects enjoyed their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, the refusal made it difficult for the citizens to live in peace and were instead subjected to dictatorship.
The then king of the British Monarch further regulated the functioning of the governors. This was done by forbidding the governors from passing laws of prime importance and pressing on the people. However important they may have been, the king asserted that such laws were to be suspended until he consented to them. The act was worsened by the king’s failure to assent to the laws at the requisite time to enhance their implementation.
The American people believed in the rights to due representations in the legislature. King George III, however, refused to assent to laws that would accommodate people from large districts. For such people to be accommodated by the laws, they had to relinquish their inalienable right to representation in the legislative body. The aspect created room for a tyrannical system of governance in the region, as most people from such districts were left with no choice.
The then king was bent on imposing his stringent measures on the people. As a result, he often forced the legislative representatives to meet at unusual and uncomfortable places. The king ensured that the meetings were conducted in places far away from the depository of the public records with the sole intention of fatiguing them. The act often coerced the representatives into signing the king’s dictatorial rules. On several counts, the king had dissolved the House of Representatives. The dissolutions were always a result of the representatives’ repeated opposition against the king’s invasion of the citizens’ unalienable rights. Such acts prompted the thirteen states, with the help of France, to fight for separation from the British Monarch.
Conclusion
Governments are always built by the people, with the people and the people, to enhance the fundamental rights of the citizens. According to the founding fathers of the United States, all men are created equal and must enjoy the basic rights to life, liberty, and happiness. The continued invasion of the unalienable rights of the people by the then king of England prompted the thirteen states of North America to fight for the declaration of American independence.
Bibliography
Smith, Bradley. “Life, Liberty, and the House in the Suburbs. The Political Construction of the Homeownership Model of Happiness in the United States.” Revue Interventions économiques. Papers in Political Economy 62 (2019).
https://journals.openedition.org/interventionseconomiques/6499