Declaration of Grievances to the Constitution

If you count the grievances in the Declaration of Independence, you’ll find there are 27. It was promulgated in 1775 and by the summer of 1787, we had fought a long war with England to gain our independence and realized that the Articles of Confederation were not viable. Hence, the Constitution Convention was convened and tasked with creating a replacement.

The challenge the writers of the Constitution faced was translating the ideals and grievances of the Declaration of Independence into a viable governing document. They were tasked to include the lessons learned from trying to create a new country under the Articles of Confederation, which was not workable.

Four months after the Convention began discussions, out pops the Constitution of the United States along with the first 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights. Five states demanded inclusion of those amendments – Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia – as a condition for ratification.

Space will not allow coverage of all the links between the two documents in this post, but here are six. Note there are more. As a reminder, the “He” in the Declaration of Independence is King George III.

Grievance 5 – He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people”. Along with Grievances 21 and 22, Grievance 5 focuses on the Massachusetts Government Act, which was one of the Intolerable Acts that dissolved the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s legislature. Other colony (state) legislatures were ordered to be disbanded by the king. Note in the Constitution, the president does not have the power to disband either house of Congress.

Grievance 7 states “He has endeavored 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 Appropriations of Lands.” This is a biggie. Land ownership was a huge draw for those wanting to escape life in Europe. First, Article I – Legislative, Section 8 Clause 4 says “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization” which clearly puts the issue of immigration in the hands of the House of Representatives. The President and the executive branch are charged with enforcing the laws passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by either the sitting or past presidents. The land issue was dealt with a series of laws passed shortly by Congress to facilitate the sale of Federal land to settlers.

Grievance 9 – He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. In the Constitution, the judiciary branch is independent of the legislative and executive branches of government. Checks and balances are written into the Constitution, i.e., the President nominates individuals for appointments to the bench and the Senate approves them. Salaries have to be approved by the House and placed in the budget.

In Grievance 12, the Declaration of Independence states “He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.” Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 makes it clear that an elected leader is the head of the U.S. military with the words The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; 

Grievance 14 makes it directly from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution, – For quartering large bodies of troops among us: – which appears as the Third Amendment. No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

And last, Grievance 17, “For imposing taxes on us without our consent:” This rallying cry of the American Revolution – no taxation without representation – made it into the Constitution in Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 with the words: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; 

The lesson learned is that the Declaration of Independence stated what our Founding Fathers believed was wrong with English rule. They were willing to take on the richest and most powerful in the world to put in place a system of government of the people and by the people. The Constitution of the United States is the longest-serving document of its kind in history. Its survival is a testament to the brilliance and out-of-the-box thinking that created this great nation—period full stop.

1775 Painting of King George III. Artist unknown.