When Thomas Jefferson sharpened his quill and began drafting the Declaration of Independence, he wasn’t simply writing lofty poetry about liberty and equality. He was building a case—an indictment of King George III and the British system that treated the American colonies less like partners and more like neglected stepchildren. Jefferson’s soaring words about natural rights tend to get all the glory, but two-thirds of the document is grievances. Cold, hard accusations. Facts submitted, as Jefferson put it, to a candid world.