 Later in the Declaration, we find the list of grievances those facts submitted to a candid world that explain why Americans were justified in dissolving the political bands that connected them to Britain. Few Americans today are familiar with the Declaration's grievances, but to most readers in 1776, they were far more important than the political principles summarized in the second paragraph. Did the actions of the British government, however unwise or unjust they may have been, signify a deliberate design to extinguish American freedom? If this question could not be answered in the affirmative, then a revolution could not be justified. And this is why the list of grievances was viewed as the most crucial feature of the Declaration.