Another major aspect of the reasons for which there was a substantial desire for the maintenance of the British rule was a mere economic one. It was a rather well-known fact the idea that the British represented one of the most important trading partners for the colonies (Jenkins, 1997)
Newly arrived immigrants from Britain, Scotland, Ireland, et al., didn't want to support the aristocratic colonial leaders, so they would often aid the British" (Walton, 2007) Therefore without disregarding the political and identity problems of the Loyalists it must be said that in the end one of the reasons for which they adhered to the British cause was the fear from a potential win by the British
Importantly, the Founding Fathers would have observed that the Native American stressed the need for wise counsel and rule by an informed and virtuous leadership that could be held to account, that is impeached, if it deviated from the norms of accepted conduct. (Black, 1988, p
As soon as this need ceases the natural bond is dissolved." (Brooks, 1996) Rational adults act according to rational laws
made with all the colonies, royal governments, as well as charter ones, and once this contract was violated, the King was beyond the constitutional intent of his powers. (Eicholz, 2001, p
" In this version, the contracting parties form an alliance which gathers together the isolated strength of all the allied partners and binds them into a new power structure in which all the co-associates partake, "so that each individual should possess the strength of the whole number." (Kalyvas & Katznelson, 2006) Separation of powers would achieve the dual goals of protecting the rights of each individual, and of all individuals, by increasing the relative strengths of each position
James Madison agreed wholeheartedly, and urged in "Government of the United States" that a constitutional government based on separation of powers was the only sure way of preventing the country from taking the "high road to monarchy." (Morgan, 1988, p
In Common Sense, Paine declares that a republic government is more natural than a monarchical one, and more likely to preserve peace. (Paine, 1995, p
Thomas Jefferson was an avid reader of Rousseau, taking his ideas and adjusting them to the needs of the new American Republic. (Shafer, 2002) the republic that Jefferson would later be instrumental in formulating would include the idea of a social contract between the government and the governed
For Jefferson, the "dead have neither powers nor rights over" the world and as such, any document such as the Constitution, which purports to bind into the future, is contrary to right and illegitimate. (Strang, 2005) For Jefferson, society, and the government that sprang from that society, were living organisms
In his eyes, the wide-open spaces of the American wilderness were a paradise of freedom and liberty. (Toth, 1989, p
Bowen (1966) notes the problems involved in creating the Articles of Confederation and some of the failures of that document and the system it supported: It had taken five years, beginning in 1776, to write the Articles, argue and vote on them in Congress. The Articles were in fact America's first constitution (Bowen, 1966, p
One of the primary arguments at the Convention was over how much power the states should have as compared to the federal government. One group feared that the Constitution would concentrate power in the national government at the expense of the states, and they wanted to modify and update the Articles of Confederation instead (McKenna, 1994, pp
Some wanted a thorough overhaul of the articles of Confederation, and in the end that is what they got. Morgan identified the war and the era following the war as part of "the search by Americans of the Revolutionary period for principles on which they could take a common stand" (Morgan, 1977, p
In all but Pennsylvania, only property-owning white males could vote or hold office, and excluded were all Native Americans, persons of Africa descent, women, indentured servants, and white males without sufficient property. Property qualifications for holding office were higher than for being able to vote, thus making it certain that the government would be headed only by members of a largely wealthy elite (Parenti 49-50)
The English were politically supportive of their King in the respect of foreign policies and military might, and Middlekauff asserts that on the domestic front, the English people concerned themselves with liberty and parliamentary government. No nation in 1760 could match England" when it came to expansion, to concentrating power and energy to tasks at hand (Middlekauff p
" This rejection sparked even more aggression from the American revolutionaries who went on, in the same year, to attack and capture Montreal, Canada and attempt to capture Quebec. The following year, George Washington led the Continental Army to capture Boston and drive out the all the British troops from the region, thus taking back full control of the 13 colonies that had been demanding independence from the British Crown (Berkin, 2006)
It happened on the 19th of April 1775, when the American revolutionary militants interfered in the British Army's surge into Concord to commandeer weapons and detain the revolutionaries in the area. This was the very first direct fight in the American War for Independence (Brinkley, 2010)
This escalated to complete boycott off all British goods by the colonies and it was Benjamin Franklin's appeal to repeal the stamps on the basis of payments for wars that ended up being accepted by the British rule in the Declaratory Act of 1766. The downside in the Act, though, was that the British rule still retained all the authority to make laws for the colonies in every sphere and instance (Chisick, 2005)
This clash on the 19th led to all 13 protesting colonies sending their reinforcements to surround Boston. This siege was followed by the Battle of Bunker Hill that took place on the 17th of June 1775 and even though, the British won this battle, even though it caused a major dent in their arsenal and militancy with over a 1,000 British casualties compared to the 500 American casualties who did have a much larger armed force to begin with (Ferguson, 2000)