Jefferson

The people are sovereign; when the government no longer reflects their will, the people have a duty to overthrow it. This radical idea was the basis of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. The best known section of the Declaration of Independence, the introduction, explains that when the government refuses to redress grievances, the people have a right to change the government. The government exists to protect the rights of the people. If the government violates those rights, it may be time for a new government. For the Declaration of Independence to be persuasive, Jefferson had to explain what King George III had done wrong. Obviously, the “King in Parliament” that wielded power following the Glorious Revolution shouldered the majority of the burden of these offenses. The colonists had rejected the authority of Parliament, and deferred solely to the authority of the Crown. These accusations were critical to the patriots’ cause; not only did they justify independence in the eyes of the world, but they also showed uncommitted colonists how the British had wronged them. Jefferson accused the Crown of violating the rights the American Colonists should have enjoyed by virtue of living in the British Empire. Most of the grievances he levied against the King were true and justifiable. Some were half-truths, but all were at least rooted in what Jefferson believed to be true. The charges were pivotal in spurring the colonies toward revolution, by showing Americans how their King had offended them.

The New World was rich in resources and the economy—especially in New England—centered on trade. Jefferson charged the King with “cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.” The views of the colonists and the British differed widely. England established colonies to benefit the empire. The reigning economic philosophy of the time—mercantilism—argued that a nation grew in strength by establishing a favorable balance of trade. It had to export more than it...