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The language is exceedingly polite, and the entire argument is delivered explicitly from their recognized status as subjects of the British Crown. C'mon guys, flip the king the bird!
The seeds of independence are already sown, however, as they hint that representation in Parliament is nigh impossible.
That the people of these colonies are not, and from their local circumstances cannot be, represented in the House of Commons in Great Britain.Even this early, all of the arguments are couched in terms of securing the "rights and liberties" to which they are entitled. Idle thought: have we gone astray by bleating about freedom all the time instead of liberty? "Freedom" has the connotation, for me at least, of a bird in flight, entirely unbound. This is the image attached to FDR's invocation of positive rights: freedom from "the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment." "Liberty", on the other hand, connotes self-direction, but makes no promises against the entirely natural slings and arrows of life. "Pursuit of happiness" indeed. These guys were good.
I like the argument that the Crown was already profiting enormously from their trade with the colonists, and that any taxation on that commerce would only lessen the benefits already enjoyed. The Laffer curve lives!
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