How many grievances against the king were named in the Declaration of Independence?

Question

(PICK THE BEST ANSWER)
A. 5
B. 13
C. 72
D. 27

Answer 1

D.

Or possibly 26, Read on for details:


Most of the divisions in the Declaration are clear by the paragraph markings in the final draft
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm

Basically, it looks like this,

There are *three* sets of grievances

A) first set -TWELVE charges, beginning with "He has refused his Assent to Law. . . ."
and ending with "He has affected to render the Military independent. . . ."

B) the second set is introduced by the following statement --"He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:"

This is not a separate charge but the setup for NINE specifics, from "For quartering . . . ." to "For suspending our own legislatures" (Note that this set of charges included Parliament in the indictment, but carefully avoids acknowledging that body, even so much as by naming it!)

c) third set --FIVE more charges, beginning with "He has abdicated. . . " and ending with "He has excited domestic insurrections. . . "

This last charge actually combines two charges from Jefferson's original draft.

Thus we have a total of 26 specific charges.

These are followed by two more paragraphs that, in some sense, continue to accuse.

The first is still about the King -- "In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

The wikipedia article seems to read it this way -- see the table at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence#Annotated_text_of_the_Declaration

(So this would make #27)

But I do not think this should be viewed as a separate charge -- it is simply closing the case by saying, 'we have no choice now because the King has refused to respond to our petitions about all these matters'. And it is followed by another paragraph that asserts the same about PARLIAMENT (though again pointedly refusing to refer to it by name).

An EXCELLENT treatment of the list of grievances (how were they structured, the sources for Jefferson's original draft, etc) which does NOT include the above paragraph about redress in the court is found in Paula Maier's book *American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence*, pp. 105-23.


Conclusion: at the very most you might argue for 27 charges against the KING, but in light of the structuring of this last section I would suggest that 26 is the proper number for the final draft. (This leaves out the issue of additional material in Jefferson's draft that was cut by Congress, esp. that regarding SLAVERY. See the draft at http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/rough.htm#transcription)

Answer 2

26

Answer 3

27