This is why it was considered that the cry for independence from the British was also a cry for a peaceful and secure future for the next generations. Thomas Paine argued that the time had indeed come for the colonies to be excluded from the continuous clashes that had defined their past. Thus, because of the British's traditional inclination towards war, such an objective was hard to reach under the Empire's constant control. Consequently, the time had come for the colonies to break apart and search their peace as an independent state.
Looking at the historical development of the events, it is easy to see that aside from any political or economic altercations, a fundamental issue that marked the relationship between the British and the Americans was the intrinsic system of moral values. It may be that the Americans develop a different set of values as a reaction to the negative practices of the British. Even so, they create a set of values that contrasted with the ideas on which the English relied. This contradiction was presented by different thinkers of the time. On the one hand, the American colonies considered the authority of God as being above any other distant ruler and recognized only the divine will as being decisive for the destiny of a nation. Thus, Patrick Henry's idea comes in contradiction with the British perception of the omnipotent rule of the king. In addition, people such as John Adams, who advocated compromise, put a high price on the need for independence outside the range of the British in regulating internal politics
. Thus, as the Englishmen tried to exercise stronger control over American affairs, the colonists, both the radicals and the moderate, supported an independent position. From this point-of-view, the revolutionary outcome was inevitable.
The major taxes imposed by the British Empire in fact represented the peak of a constantly restrictive economic policy practiced by England in its relation with the American colonies. In this sense there were a series of acts which targeted certain practical issues such as stamps, navigation, or trade.
In 1765, the Stamp Act imposed taxes on legal documents, papers, pamphlets, playing cards and dice. The official motivation for the imposition of these taxes was the "granting and applying (of) certain stamp duties, and other duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America, towards further defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same; and for amending such parts of the several acts of parliament relating to the trade and revenues of the said colonies and plantations, as direct the manner of determining and recovering the penalties and forfeitures therein mentioned"
. The response of the population invoked their legal right to be represented in the British Parliament in order to be willing to pay the tax. Indeed, the "no taxation without representation" idea was considered, thus refusing to abide by a rule related to an economic element not so much from the perspective of what it meant in financial terms, but rather out of political considerations.
The colonists responded that such decisions cannot be imposed to them because they were not represented in the House of Commons and invoking the liberal beliefs "it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people and the undoubted right of the Englishmen that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent given personally or by their representatives (…)the only representatives of the people of these colonies are persons chosen therein by themselves and no taxes have ever been or can be constitutionally imposed on them but by their respective legislature"
. Such perceptions of the political importance of the parliamentary power and the need for a democratic legitimacy for the decisions made played an essential role in the establishment of a common idea about the way in which the American political system must function and placed in deed contrast with the British one
The Townshend Act was also essential for considering the relationship between the British and the Colonies. This Act was designed for "granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs upon the exportation, from this kingdom, of coffee and cocoa nuts of the produce of the said colonies or plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on china earthen ware exported to America; and for more effectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in the colonies and plantations"
. The Act in itself...
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