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.