Declaration of Independence

Glossary

• abdicated renounced or relinquished a throne, right, power, claim, responsibility, or the like
• absolved freed from guilt or blame or their consequences
• acquiesce to assent tacitly; to submit or comply silently or without protest
• Appropriations authorizations by a lawmaking body for money to be paid from the treasury for a specific use
• Arbitrary done by individual will or judgment rather than by law or statute
• Brethren fellow members; brothers
• Charters documents issued by a sovereign or state outlining the conditions under which a corporation, colony, city, or other body is organized and defining its rights and privileges
• consanguinity the state of being related by blood or common ancestors or of being closely related or linked
• convulsions violent acts of turmoil; agitations
• divine Providence the foreseeing care and guidance of God or nature over the creatures of the earth
• evinces shows clearly; makes evident or manifest
• formidable of great strength; forbidding
• kindred community
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