It Has

When the Declaration of Independence was printed in London, beginning on August 16, publishers made interesting choices to censor the text. Perhaps the most intriguing censorship strategy—and certainly the most difficult to execute—can be found in the St. James’s Chronicle; Or, British Evening-Post. This newspaper was printed three times a week, and the issue which included the Declaration covered August 15–17, 1776.

St. James’s Chronicle, August 15–17, 1776, p. 1

In the St. James’s Chronicle, the pronouns in the list of grievances were changed from “He” to “It.” Unlike other self-censorship strategies, where printers skipped over the list of grievances or replaced certain words with dashes, this newspaper manipulated the text. Read the transcript of the text to get a sense of how this decision impacted the text (notable adjustments are in bold):

The present History of Great Britain, is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations; all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

It has refused its Assent to Laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

It has forbidden its Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till its Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, it has utterly neglected to attend them.

It has refused to pass other Laws for Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Rights of Representation in the Legislature; a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

It has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with its Measures.

It has dissolved Representatives Houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly Firmness, its Invasions on the Rights of the People.

It has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be erected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their Exercise; the State remaining in the mean Time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

It has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of lands.

It has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing its Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

It has made Judges dependent on its Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

It has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Subsistence.

It has kept among us, in Times of Peace, standing Armies, without the Consent of our Legislatures.

It has affected to render the Military independent of, and superior to, the Civil Power.

It has combined to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws, giving its Assent to pretended Acts of Legislation.

For quartering large Bodies of armed Troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

It has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of its Protection, and waging War against us.

It has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

It is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of Foreign Mercenaries, to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilised Nation.

It has constrained our Fellow Citizens, taken Captive on the High Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

It has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare is an undistinguished Destruction of all Ages, Sexes, and Conditions.

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.—A Government whose Character is thus marked by every Act which may define Tyranny, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

When the Declaration of Independence was printed in the St. James’s Chronicle, King George III was not mentioned once. All of the references to him were adjusted to refer to the British government, or the “present history of Great Britain.” The “Tyrant” was replaced with “Tyranny.” One grievance in particular suffered from the change in pronouns—the grievance which obliquely referenced Parliament. Rather than saying that “He,” the king, “has combined with others to subject us…,” this grievance simply and unintelligibly reads “It has combined to subject us…” 

St. James’s Chronicle, August 15–17, 1776, p. 2

Readers of the St. James’s Chronicle would only know the lengths the publisher went to in order to print the Declaration of Independence if they looked at another London newspaper. Just from reading this newspaper, it would not have been obvious that the text had been changed.