What must King George III have thought, when he sat down to read the Declaration of Independence?
He was born into a royal family. He had succeeded to the throne of England because of that fact. At his coronation, many reasons had been mentioned to justify his assumption of the greatest title in the land. One reason was not mentioned: no one said that he got the job because the people had chosen him to get it. So he is sitting there on the throne, and everyone bows to him. And then he gets the Declaration of Independence from a bunch of his subjects living off in the wilds of America (where he has spent a lot of money fighting wars). And there it is, written right down in the boldest way: “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed….” • Why Consent? • To “consent” is to give your approval, to agree. According to the Declaration, you have the right to give your consent to the government under which you are to live. This follows from the logic of equality See how this works. When we form a government, we
