On July 4th, 1776, Thomas Jefferson published the Declaration of Independence for the purpose of explaining to the world the reasons why the colonies wanted to become independent from Great Britain. Inspired by John Locke, Jefferson explained the reasoning behind why the colonists needed to seek Independence from Great Britain. Jefferson argued that Great Britain violated the natural rights of the colonists. Some have argued that the colonists were justified because Jefferson was accurate in his assessment. However, in some cases, the British didn’t violate the natural born rights of the colonists. In addition, the cases where they did violate the natural born rights of Colonists, they had very good reasoning for violating these rights. Therefore, …show more content…
However, the reason behind the colonists’ natural born rights being violated was to crack down on smuggling and to protect from invaders. Smuggling was very important to stop during this time period and very tough to do so. All warrants had to be passed through colonial courts which gave reason on why it was difficult for the British to crack down on smuggling cases. This is where the Writs of Assistance came into play as it gave the British the best opportunity to crack down on smuggling without the colonists knowing beforehand. The Writs of Assistance were documents which served as a general search warrant allowing custom officials to enter any ship or building that was suspected of carrying goods that were smuggled. Another way the British violated the natural born rights of the colonists for their benefit was the use of standing armies. The reason behind standing armies was to protect colonies from violence such as the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. Following the Boston Massacre eight soldiers were arrested and charged with murder. All eight soldiers were Defended by lawyer and future American president John Adams, six soldiers were acquitted, while the other two were convicted of manslaughter and given reduced sentences. Finally, Revere's engraving was not accurate, Revere captures the idea that the British were the ones who caused the massacre, when in reality the Colonists cornered British troops and antagonized