Declaration Of Independence Grievances Essay

743 Words3 Pages

First, to understand the grievances of the Declaration of Independence we must also understand why it was created. Originally it was written to explain to the British Crown, as well as other foreign nations of whom it might be of interest, why the colonists wanted to separate from Great Britain. It listed many corrupt things that were taking place, the wrongdoings of the Crown, as well as what the colonists wanted to do in order to make all of them right once again. This, in part, also lead to escalations in the early days of the Revolutionary War. As I read through the annotated Declaration of Independence provided on Blackboard, I read all the grievances listed by the colonists to the Crown. As I read through them, I would read the original …show more content…

Instead of choosing to analyze all of the grievances, I chose to focus on the ideals that would serve as more of an umbrella and relate them to issues that have been consistent over time. Processes to change any aspect of the ways in which the colonies were being governed were unreasonably lengthy and usually had no effect on the conditions that were being petitioned. To this day, this has not changed much. It can take as little as 10 days for a bill to pass, yet it usually takes months. First this bill must be approved by the House, then the Senate, then the President. If the president vetoes the bill, then the bill can return to Congress but must receive a two-thirds vote in order to overturn the president’s decision, which very seldom happens. A vast majority of the population were not being represented well, and most times were not represented at all, in the legislative body in Britain and therefore had no say in the policies and laws enacted by the government. The phrase “taxation without representation” derives from this grievance. To combat this, the Senate has two seats per state, while the number of seats for the House of Representatives is based on the population size