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Originally Posted by GarthB
Jefferson, in his letters, refers to a pamphlet he wrote in 1774, "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," which shares some of the form of the Declaration of Independence and the listing of grievances. I'm sure you can find the document on the internet somewhere. Check it out, it will look familiar.
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Garth,
Personally. I find the first three "articles" of the
Virginia Declaration of Rights to be obviously, let's just say, "inspirational" to the Declaration of Independence. Especially the actual declaration of independence part.
Most of the remainder (until the end) is clearly a progenitor to some of the basic principles embodied in the text of the Constitution and the following Bill of Rights,
"
A Summary View of the Rights of British America", on the other hand (having first read it after your post earlier this evening), strikes me as more like the "Articles of Impeachment" section of the Declaration of Indepedence. As you said, it begins to articulate the grievances of the colonies in regard to their treatment by the British Crown; but I find it significantly less eloquent than the Virginia Declaration in the assertion of rights against those grievances.
JMO.
JM