The
Court of King George III
London,
England
July
10, 1776
Mr. Thomas Jefferson
c/o The Continental Congress
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dear Mr. Jefferson:
We
have read your "Declaration of Independence" with great
interest. Certainly, it represents a
considerable undertaking, and many of your statements do merit serious
consideration. Unfortunately, the
Declaration as a whole fails to meet
recently adopted specifications for
proposals to the Crown, so we must
return the document to you for further
refinement. The questions which follow
might assist you in your process of revision:
1. In your
opening paragraph you use the phrase "the Laws of Nature and Nature's
God." What are these laws? In what way are they the criteria on which
you base your central arguments? Please
document with citations from the recent literature.
2. In the
same paragraph you refer to the "opinions of mankind." Whose polling data are you using? Without specific evidence, it seems to us
the "opinions of mankind" are a matter of opinion.
3. You hold
certain truths to be "self-evident."
Could you please elaborate. If
they are as evident as you claim then it should not be difficult for you to
locate the appropriate supporting statistics.
4.
"Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" seem to be the
goals of your proposal. These are not
measurable goals. If you were to say
that "among these is the ability to sustain an average life expectancy in
six of the 13 colonies of at least 55 years, and to enable newspapers in the
colonies to print news without outside interference, and to raise the average
income of the colonists by 10 percent in the next 10 years," these could
be measurable goals. Please clarify.
5. You state
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 a new
Government...." Have you weighed
this assertion against all the alternatives?
What are the trade-off considerations?
6. Your
description of the existing situation is quite extensive. Such a long list of grievances should
precede the statement of goals, not follow it.
Your problem statement needs improvement.
7. Your
strategy for achieving your goal is not developed at all. You state that the
colonies "ought to be Free and Independent States," and that they are
"Absolved from All Allegiance to the British Crown." Who or what must change to achieve this
objective? In what way must they
change? What specific steps will you
take to overcome the resistance? How
long will it take? We have found that a
little foresight in these areas helps to prevent careless errors later on. How cost-effective are your strategies?
8.
Who among the list of signatories will be responsible for implementing
your strategy? Who conceived it? Who provided the theoretical research? Who will constitute the advisory committee? Please submit an organization chart and
vitas of the principal investigators.
9. You must include
an evaluation design. We have been
requiring this since Queen Anne's War.
10. What impact will your problem have? Your failure to include any assessment of
this inspires little confidence in the long-range prospects of your
undertaking.
11. Please submit a PERT diagram, an activity chart,
itemized budget, and manpower utilization matrix.
We
hope that these comments prove useful in revising your "Declaration of
Independence." We welcome the
submission of your revised proposal.
Our due date for unsolicited proposals is July 31, 1776. Ten copies with original signatures will be
required.
Sincerely,