Safety & happiness
New guards
Oppression
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Con- sent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
Anti offices, officers
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our peo- ple, and eat out their substance.
Laws of naturalization for foreigners
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appro- priations of Lands.
Declaration of independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are en- dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Gov- ernment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Pru- dence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experi- ence hath shewn, that mankind are more dis- posed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invari- ably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future secu- rity.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of re- peated injuries and usurpations, all having in di- rect object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless sus- pended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has ut- terly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the ac- commodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Rep- resentation in the Legislature, a right inestima- ble to them and formidable to tyrants only.