"Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" (Latin: in the face of arms, the law is silent)
Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.
I’ll take Prince William if they take Obama;)
As usual with lawyers, barristers, and other sh!t-covered snakes, it's a straw-man argument.
The Declaration of Independence IS a declaration of legality. That's the point of it. That's why we didn't just go straight to a Constitution.
To properly argue this question, you'd have to take on the content of the DOI, since that's where the defense of its existence takes place.
Specifically:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
Defense rests.
At least, that was what lawyers from the UK argued during a debate at Philadelphia's Ben Franklin Hall.
It was until we kicked their ass in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 and then it became, and today remains, very legal.
One thing is for certain, we have too many lawyers.
I guess the Brits want to fight again.
LLS
I concur. Your King George III had ever right, nay, responsibility to act.
If you take Blackstone, the Founders committed treason. Blackstone stated that:
"ALLEGIANCE, both express and implied, is however distinguished by the law into sorts or species, the one natural, the other local; the former being also perpetual, the latter temporary. Natural allegiance is such as is due from all men born within the king's dominions immediately upon their birth. For, immediately upon their birth, they are under the king's protection; at a time too, when [during their infancy] they are incapable of protecting themselves. Natural allegiance is therefore a debt of gratitude; which cannot be forfeited, canceled, or altered, by any change of time, place, or circumstance, nor by anything but the united concurrence of the legislature. An Englishman who removes to France, or to China, owes the same allegiance to the king to England there as at home, and twenty years hence as well as now. For it is a rinciple of universal law, that the natural-born subject of one prince cannot by any act of his own, no, not by swearing allegiance to another, put off or discharge his natural allegiance to the former: for this natural allegiance was intrinsic, and primitive, and antecedent to the other; and cannot be divested without the concurrent act of that prince to whom it was first due. Indeed the natural-born subject of one prince, to whom he owes allegiance, may be entangled by subjecting himself absolutely to another; but it is his own act that brings him into these straits and difficulties, of owing service to two masters; and it is unreasonable that, by such voluntary act of his own, he should be able at pleasure to unloose those bands, by which he is connected to his natural prince."
I won't cite Vattell - but we know that he stated that men were able to choose their allegiances.
Ask the Brits who surrendered.
We won, already - the Brits just need to get over it!!! Geeze!
bump for later. I am a history buff. I love this kind of stuff.
Well, YEAH!!!!! Of course it was friggin’ illegal!!!! They were declaring independence from the friggin’ KING!!!
OMG!!! It just hit me! Obama can apologize for something white guys did. Wait, the white guys were declaring independence from other white guys in England but England occupied Kenya and had colonies in Africa, so if he apologizes to the white guys in England for the white guys in Philidelphia, he’ll be apologizing to Winston Churchill’s posse....and they were all WHITE GUYS!!! my head is hurting. Why, oh why, did the BBC have to break this story now? Yesterday it was Einstein’s theory of relativity and today it is our revolution! Is there nothing left to hold on to? I need a drink!!!!
Of course it was illegal. If they lost the war, they all knew they’d be hanged for treason. Fortunately, they won, and the winners make the rules.
of course it’s legal. It became legal as soon as Cornwallis surrendered. We(our forefathers)made a move and backed it up with the will and the ability to fight for it.
There was a war.
We won.
That's how it works.
Get over it, already.
Winners write the rules and the history books.