What textual evidence can you provide to support your answer to #3?
a
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.…
b
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
c
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.
d
Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.
To support the answer to #3, the following textual evidence can be provided:
- Statement a: "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." This statement highlights the repeated actions and intentions of the King to establish tyranny over the colonies, suggesting that he is not a suitable ruler for a free people.
- Statement b: "We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends." By emphasizing the necessity and inevitability of separating from Britain, this statement reflects the belief that the actions and behavior of British rule make them more akin to enemies than friends, indicating their unsuitability as rulers.
- Statement c: "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." This statement explicitly states that a ruler marked by tyrannical actions and characteristics is unfit to govern a free people, further reinforcing the opinion that the British rule is unsuitable.
- Statement d: "Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government." This statement reveals the colonies' prolonged suffering and the current necessity to change their government, indicating that the current systems of British rule are unsatisfactory and unfit for a free people.