Declaration of Rights and Grievances

(noun)

The Declaration of Rights and Grievances was a document created and passed October 19, 1765 by the Stamp Act Congress, declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional.

Related Terms

Examples of Declaration of Rights and Grievances in the following topics:

  • Liberty and Property

    • On October 19, 1765, Congress drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances to protect British colonists from unconstitutional taxes.
    • The Stamp Act stirred activity among colonial representatives to denounce what they saw as the disregard of colonial rights by the Crown.
    • To protect the rights of colonists, delegates of the Stamp Act Congress drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional.
    • The Declaration of Rights raised fourteen points of colonial protest.
    • Differentiate between the Declaration of Rights and Grievances and the Virginia Resolves

  • Swelling Protest

    • After 1765, the major American cities saw the formation of secret groups set up to defend their rights.
    • To protect the rights of colonists, delegates of the Stamp Act Congress drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional.
    • The Declaration of Rights raised 14 points of colonial protest.
    • The officers and leaders of the Sons of Liberty largely consisted of middle and upper-class white men—artisans, traders, lawyers, and local politicians.
    • Their initial goal was to ensure their rights as Englishmen.

  • Women's Rights

    • After two days of discussion and debate, 68 women and 32 men signed a "Declaration of Sentiments," which outlined grievances and set the agenda for the women's-rights movement.
    • A set of 12 resolutions was adopted, calling for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women.
    • Another advocate of women's rights was Lucy Stone.
    • Her "Declaration of Sentiments," presented at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, is often credited with initiating the first organized women's-suffrage movement in the United States.
    • Lucy Stone, the first American woman recorded to have retained her own name after marriage, was an important figure in the women's-rights movement of the nineteenth century and an organizer of the National Women's Rights Convention.

  • The Constitutional Right to Petition the Government

    • In Blackstone's Comment, Last published in 1765, Americans in the Thirteen Colonies read that "the right of petitioning the king, or either house of parliament, for the redress of grievances" was a "right appertaining to every individual. "
    • In 1776, the Declaration of Independence cited King George's perceived failure to redress the grievances listed in colonial petitions, such as the Olive Branch Petition of 1775, as a justification to declare independence: "In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.
    • Historically, the right can be traced back to English documents such as Magna Carta, which, by its acceptance by the monarchy, implicitly affirmed the right, and the later Bill of Rights 1689, which explicitly declared the "right of the subjects to petition the king. "
    • While the prohibition of abridgement of the right to petition originally referred only to the federal legislature and courts, the incorporation doctrine later expanded the protection of the right to its current scope, over all state and federal courts and legislatures and the executive branches of the state and federal governments.
    • The right to petition includes under its umbrella the right to sue the government, and the right of individuals, groups and possibly corporations to lobby the government.

  • A Brief Definition

    • Through collective bargaining, employers and employees negotiate the conditions of employment.
    • Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights identifies the ability to organize trade unions as a fundamental human right.
    • Item 2(a) of the International Labour Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work defines the "freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining" as an essential right of workers.
    • The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.
    • Define the monopoly union model, the right-to-manage model, and the efficient bargaining model as theories of collective bargaining

  • The First Amendment

    • The First Amendment to the US Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights, and protects core American civil liberties.
    • The text of the First Amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. "
    • A French revolutionary document, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, passed just weeks before Congress proposed the Bill of Rights, contains certain guarantees that are similar to those in the First Amendment.
    • Although the First Amendment does not explicitly set restrictions on freedom of speech, other declarations of rights occasionally do.
    • Lastly, the First Amendment was one of the first guarantees of religious freedom: neither the English Bill of Rights nor the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen contain a similar guarantee.

  • The First Continental Congress

    • The first Continental Congress was held between 1774 and 1775 to discuss the future of the American colonies.
    • In September, the first Continental Congress, composed of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies—all except Georgia—met in Philadelphia The assembly adopted what has become to be known as the Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress.
    • The document, addressed to his Majesty and to the people of Great Britain, included a statement of rights and principles, many of which were later incorporated into the Declaration of Independence and Federal Constitution.
    • When the first Congress adjourned, it stipulated another Congress would meet if King George III did not acquiesce to the demands set forth in the Declaration of Resolves.
    • By the time the second Congress met, the Revolutionary War had already begun, and the issue of independence, rather than a redress of grievances, dominated the debates.

  • The First Amendment

    • The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights.
    • Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
    • State the restrictions imposed upon the federal government and the rights accorded individuals by the 1st Amendment

  • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

    • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a non-binding declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, partly in response to the barbarism of World War II.
    • The International Bill of Human Rights consists of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols.
    • The Declaration has served as the foundation for two binding UN human rights covenants: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
    • Eleanor Roosevelt with the Spanish language version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
    • Understand the purpose and legal effect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  • The Declaration of the Rights of Man

    • The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 1791) is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human and civil rights.
    • In August 1789, Honoré Mirabeau played a central role in conceptualizing and drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
    • The absence of women’s rights prompted Olympe de Gouges to publish the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in September 1791.
    • The Declaration, together with the American Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, inspired in large part the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
    • The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789  by Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier.