The Indictment — Abuse of Legislative Power

The following charges have been grouped by category for easier reading.

Abuse of Legislative Power

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

The King routinely vetoed laws passed by colonial legislatures that were beneficial to the colonies.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

Royal governors were ordered to delay all local laws until the King approved them. Often, the King would ignore the requests for years, effectively paralyzing the government.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

The King told colonies they could have new laws only if they gave up their right to vote for their own representatives.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

When colonial assemblies stood up to the King, he simply disbanded them (dissolved them) and sent everyone home.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

Forcing politicians to meet in inconvenient, hard-to-reach places so they would be too tired to argue.