Did you know there was a rebuttal to the Declaration of Independence?
Jul 4, 2012, 6:46 AM | Updated: 8:05 am
Today, we celebrate the Declaration of Independence,
but haven’t you ever wondered how the British reacted to
it?
Did you know there was a rebuttal?
Well, there was. A 142 page rebuttal (pdf- page
107) by a Tory pamphleteer named John Lind titled
“Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress”, and
written in the same snarky tone as an attack ad.
But like most attack ads, it also contained a few facts
that the rebels didn’t want to face. You remember the part
where the Declaration says King George (quote) “has
incited domestic insurrections among us…”?
John Lind points out that what the rebels were really
upset about was that the King had “offered freedom to the
slaves.”
(QUOTE) “Is it for them to say that it is tyranny to
bid a slave be free?”
Lind goes on to mock the founders for writing noble
words stating, “all men are created equal” and asserting
“Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” and then in
the same document, complaining about the King for
encouraging the slaves to rise up.
“Is it for them to complain of the offer of freedom
held out to these wretched beings? of the offer of
reinstating that equality, which, in this very paper, is
declared to be the gift of God to all?”
Of course the British knew a wedge issue when they saw
it, and they also had a military agenda in wanting to free
the slaves, but even as we celebrate our separation from
the mother country, we have to acknowledge, as Jefferson
himself would have, that on this point at least, Mom was
right.