The American colonies were morally justified in declaring independence from the British government. The British government infringed on the rights of the colonists by forcing new laws and regulations on the colonies. The government also forced soldiers into the homes of the colonists for them to house and supply food. They violated their natural rights as well as imposed new taxes. The government created many of the new taxes to raise revenues, but they did it on their own terms and did not consent to the colonists, thus they had taxation without representation.
The Coercive Acts of 1774 were a breach of the colonists’ liberty. The Massachusetts Government Act brought the Massachusetts government under control of the crown. The colonists did not want to be forced to be loyal to Britain. They felt that they could govern themselves without the crown or Parliament. The Administration of Justice Act made it so that royal officials no longer had to face trial in the colonies. If they felt that their trail was going to be unfair they could move it to another place. They did not have to hold their trial in the colony where the offense was made. They could go to a neighboring colony or all the way back to Britain. This was not a fair rule because the colonists had no say in the matter and it put the high class above the law and it protected them from justice. The Boston Port Act was another setback. After the Boston Tea Party, Great Britain thought they could outsmart and persuade the colonists to pay them back for dumping their tea by closing their ports. By creating these new rules the colonists were losing their freedom of speech in a sense, since they could not vote on these regulations. The British government was taking away their freedom to vote for such regulations.
The Rule of Law says that leaders and rulers are not above the law. The British government broke the rule of law when King George III created a more powerful government by placing men who were loyal to him to work for him. The British government also violated the rule of law each time they put a new act into place. These acts were not represented by the colonists. The government took it upon themselves to create regulations that they deemed fit. The government was created by man to protect their rights. If man does not give their government the power to act, and they do it anyway, then they violate the rule of law. When they do these things, they put themselves above the rule of law and those that they should be governing.
The Quartering Act was put into place in 1765. The colonists were forced to take in British soldiers in their homes and supply them with food. The soldiers also occupied empty homes in the colonies wherever they could find them. This act took away part of the colonists life due to new responsibilities placed upon them by the British government. Having the soldiers in their homes also took away their privacy. The government was oppressing the colonists by making them house the soldiers. The British government wanted to punish them for their acts of rebellion. This was especially hard on those already poor colonists who could hardly feed their families. They now had to ration their food to feed the soldiers. That was an infringement on their life because they could no longer care for their family the way they would like to.
Taxing the colonies was another way the government oppressed the American colonies. The British government put the Sugar Act into play in 1764 and used that to raise revenues. It increased the duties on imported sugar and other items such as textiles, coffee, wines and indigo. It doubled the duties on foreign goods reshipped from England to the colonies. It even forbade the import of some foreign goods. The following year they enacted the Stamp Act. This imposed a new tax on all printed materials such as newspapers, pamphlets, bills, legal documents, licenses, almanacs, dice and playing cards. The Stamp Act was the first direct tax put on the colonies. The Tea Act of 1773 put a tax on all the tea that was being imported from the East India Trading Company. This made the colonists especially upset since tea is central to British culture, thus it was a common item found in the households of the American Colonies. In 1776 the British government put in place the Declaratory Act that declared that Britain could regulate and tax the colonists in any way it saw fit. This act stated that Parliament had the absolute power to make laws and changes to the colonial government at any time, and in any case, even though the colonists were not represented in Parliament in any way.
Great Britain was an empire and the king wanted it to stay strong. King George III was afraid of colonial independence because it diminished Great Britain’s significance as a powerful empire. The king wanted to expand his empire as far as he could. The king knew that if the American colonies rebelled, it would jeopardize his ability to control other colonies or expand further, and ultimately end his empire.
The colonists had different reactions to the diverse regulations. The most notable was their reaction to the Tea Act of 1773. The colonists carried blankets and hatchets and disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians by painting their faces. They quietly boarded the ship and when the order was given they tossed the chests of tea into the harbor. In reaction to the Stamp Act, Samuel Adams voiced the opinion of many others when he brought up the point that if they were being taxed in their trade, where would it end? Property? Possessions? Other reactions made by the colonists to the Stamp Act included protests in the streets that helped the colonists to band together for a common goal against the government. Reactions to the Sugar Act were mostly expressed in Boston and New York where they reduced their imports of British luxury items and encouraged and increased in local manufacturing.
The colonists had several justifications to reinforce their behaviors and rebellions against the British government. Because their natural rights were infringed upon, they felt that their only options were to rebel and work against the oppressive British government. The American colonists wanted their voices to be heard by the British government and they did so by rebelling and making sure their rights were known. The very Acts imposed to keep the colonies under control served as the catalyst for the Revolutionary War which ended in the freeing of those colonies and the formation of the United States of America.
