What Governments Are For

Revisionist historians have claimed that the Declaration of Independence’s most essential part is not the famous opening passages, but its list of 27 grievances against King George III. These injuries, it is said, are the real meat of why the Americans sought to escape British rule and were willing to wage war to attain independence. Yet these revisionists make the mistake, in Alexander Hamilton’s words, of affirming “that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master.” The series of grievances serves as evidence of unjust government under a higher standard of what just government ...