In June 1772, a British schooner, known as the Gaspee, commandeered by Lieutenant William Dudingston, sailed across Narragansett Bay to the pursuit of smugglers (Park, 54-55). During the chase, the ship ran aground and the crew became stranded in the shallow waters. The armed military ship was suddenly boarded by an angry mob; the commander was shot down, the crew disembarked, then the Gaspee was set on fire (Park 54-55). The attack on a British naval vessel would become known as the Gaspee Affair, and it led the British government to demand that those involved be tried in Britain, outside the colonies (Blinka, 54). The people involved in the Gaspee Fire were never properly identified (Park 54-55). No trial ever took place, but the aftermath of the Gapsee Incident set off a series of events that stoked American resistance and ultimately led the 13 colonies to declare their independence from Great Britain. In 1776, four years after the burning of Gaspésie, Thomas Jefferson included in the Declaration of Independence the accusation against the king, "for having transported us beyond the seas to be judged for alleged crimes." When Jefferson included this passage in the Declaration, he was referring to the law passed in May 1774, known as the Administration of Justice Act; a law that was one of the measures included in the "coercive acts", which the Americans called the "intolerable acts" (Selesky, 1). The Coercive Acts were the British government's response to the events of December 1773, known as the Boston Tea Party. The Administrative of Justice Act was aimed primarily at residents of Boston and Massachusetts (Ammerman, 1). For Americans, the Justi Administration...... middle of paper ...... the oppression they received from the British government. To the American people, a jury trial was considered a fundamental right. Taking away the right to a fair trial was an offense they did not take lightly. A jury trial stated, “…the raw power to determine facts and law protected the people from the oppression of the king, the judges, and even the legislature” (Blinka, 57). The British government's threat to diminish this power was an act that the colonists viewed as a threat to their civil rights and liberties. By enacting the Administration of Justice Act in 1774, the British government directly worsened Americans' views on the right to a fair trial. Disagreements between the colonists and Britain would lead to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and an indictment of a king and government they declared unfit to rule..