XXIII. Wrongs Under King George
The Story Of The Colonists In The Declaration Of Independence
When we first read over the numerous guaranties of the Constitution protecting the American people in their rights, we sometimes wonder why certain provisions were inserted in the Constitution. Being born here in America, never having been compelled to submit to the abuse of arbitrary power, and always having lived under the Constitution, and always being guarded by its provisions against the abuse of power, we can hardly understand why it was necessary to make so many provisions against things which we can hardly imagine ever happened in human government.
Whenever you have a chance, read somethings of the governments of the world under kings or other absolute rulers. In fact, we cannot understand the blessings of our government until we know something of what our ancestors were compelled to submit to under the governments of the different countries of the world a few centuries ago.
While we have in mind the guaranties of our Constitution, it is well for us to have clearly in mind some of the definite things which the framers of the Constitution had before them, some of the wrongs which the human race had endured at the hands of government which the framers of the Constitution were determined the people of America would never have to endure. You can hardly imagine what little regard or consideration was given to human rights in those old days now almost forgotten. I am not going to undertake to discuss the problems of government in different countries the world.[93] The purpose which I have in mind can be fully [pg 166] served by a consideration of the government in this country under the king of Great Britain during the years preceding the Revolutionary War. You understand, of course, that even at that time a great advance had been made in recognizing certain rights of the people. In fact, I think it is generally recognized that England before the American Revolution had attained nearer to a fairly just government than any other country in the world up to that time. There had been many periods during its history when the people had asserted themselves and had forced the recognition of certain rights by the government—by the king, and yet it was still a government by a king. It was a government under a king to which the colonies owed allegiance. It was government under a king against which the colonies finally revolted. It was government under a king which brought. about the Revolution. It was resistance to government under a king which inspired the heroes who won the liberty of the new world. It was the brutality of a government under a king which inspired the framers of the Constitution so carefully to guard against the abuses which the world had known before liberty had been established on American soil. I will not undertake to recite for you the things which the people were compelled to endure under this government of a king. I will let the people of the colonies tell their story. You remember that in 1776, after the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the people of the Colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence which recites in detail the abuses and wrongs they had endured under a government by a king. It is one of the most dramatic recitals in history. Let these colonies tell their own story. I am not going to read the entire Declaration of Independence; I am simply going to read the recital therein of the wrongs which came to the people, the men, women, and children, the human beings, who up to that time were [pg 167] compelled to live here in America under the government of a king.
The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct 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 suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained, and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature—a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.