Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality

While the complaints against the king are perhaps less well known than the Declaration’s early sections, Allen asserts that the evidence here is our best means of evaluating the colonists’ claims. While it may seem that we need deep historical knowledge to do this, Allen argues that the catalog invites us to consider “general ideas” about government and everyday life. 

First, she considers the complaint that the king would not pass laws the colonists desired unless they gave up all formal right to Parliamentary representation. While the specific example came from Massachusetts, Allen points out that it is possible to analyze it generally. If a citizen gives up all right to representation in exchange for a particular law, this may get an initial need met—but it leaves people without future recourse if further needs arise. The king, then, is undermining democracy, as subsequent grievances about the dissolution of legislatures and their distance from many citizens attest. His legislative bodies also meet “distant from the depository of their public records” (211). This matters because citizens generally need to “live by the rule of law,” and written repositories make these standards transparent and known to all. In short, the list is meant to prove that “we should live by the rule of law.