British GovernmentJoin now to read essay British GovernmentThe British government had controlled the colonies when they were beginning to develop into royal, proprietary, or charter colonies. The British had enacted laws to protect the colonists from becoming too great and expanding beyond what the British could control. Many of these laws were seen as harsh and unfair since the American colonies did not have representation, only “virtual representation” in the English parliament, therefore not allowing them their right as English citizens to have a voice in the Parliament. Recurring crises that the colonists’ were facing had been the Stamp and Townshend Act, the Quartering Act, and Navigation Acts, which controlled who the colonists could and couldn’t trade with.
The Stamp Act put a hefty tax on many paper goods. The Townshend Acts put a tax on lead, glass, paint, and other colonial exports. These laws lead to a great distrust of the government to levy taxes and lead to the theory that taxes should only be levied with the consent of the people. Under the Articles of Confederation, this theory was put into practice, and the states forbade the Congress to levy taxes, only request taxes, without the consent of the states. The colonists had begun to form their own ideas and develop thoughts that the government of England did not have that much control of the colonies if they are so many miles away.
The Quartering Act was another law that influenced American colonists theories on independence and government. The Quartering Act allowed for British troops in the American Colonies to be boarded in colonists homes while the legislature had to provide funds to maintain the British troops. This angered many colonists who now had to pay higher taxes to provide funds to maintain British troops and board them in their homes. The Boston Tea Party which is unrelated to the Quartering Act was another example of the use of British Troops which angered the American colonists. British Troops were sent to Massachusetts to keep order, but when a mob of colonists surrounded a garrison of troops they got skittish and when somebody yelled fire the troops fired into the mob killing six colonists. This bred a great distrust of large centrally operated standing armies.
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When the law was changed to the Quartering Act, this caused a backlash from colonists and created more legal concerns. There is an article by Thomas J. Schaeffer about this incident:
By contrast, at least one of the major incidents of British Troops in the colonies did occur, although there was little information about this fact from British officials (although some British historians, myself included, believe there was. A great number of British historians believe that the quartering act itself was never used in all instances of British forces committing acts of mass war in the New World, but it still was used in some of the many colonies. Some historians have suggested that the “double and triple warfare” of the Colonial War was done with a “one-two punch” scenario.]
From 1788 on, the “British Troops” (in most cases just referred to as “druggists)” continued to do battle with and harass the colonists, especially during the Revolutionary War. In fact, at its outbreak a “dispatcher” is used by the colonists to keep the British troops out of American Colony homes, which prompted their revolt.
These troops have been used frequently since the Revolutionary War, in which their main use has been to harass the colonists in American Home. In 1829, the colonists were arrested when two British officers in a patrol under British command tried to escape by car and ran out of the colonies. The colonists refused to leave, but the officers were caught in another incident (when they tried to enter a colony but were caught by British troops in a “drainage.” The troops then tried again, but lost. The “dispatcher”:>
“They say that if you get caught, your freedom is revoked and if all you give money to is a house, then you are at war with one of your own, and what’s your right as a person who’s not an American citizen and is not a citizen of this Union, or any other country. This is treason, and if you don’t pay for your freedom, you are not a American citizen.” The second “dispatcher”:>
“You think the British are bad men and are not worthy of the protection of your free government?”
He said all the trouble with the colonial government had come from the British and he wished for “the freedom of the American colonists, or those of the British colonists, to go ahead and join the colonists and get rid of your government. It is a bad Government, and as the British Government say, ‘We want all the colonies to win in the British and free elections and that’s what you have to do.’ The Government doesn’t want your citizen in the way you want him in the colony so it is a bad Government… and by doing evil things the Government, it makes you a bad person, and it is a good Government for yourself, and if you don’t pay for the services it gives you and if they don’t pay, well, what’s wrong with us? Give the government all it has for itself, and we’ll give you all we have
’s good public health and the great part we have in the States are at odds with yours. You want the rest? Don’t want it? It can’t win.’f you don’t want it.’i think it’s bad for the country and I think it’s bad for your country. You get up & take your chance when you are out in the open & you don’t know what you’re in until you get back to your home & when you do get back out you’ll be glad to see your neighbors back.’It doesn’t make any difference to what you think. It doesn’t make any difference when you come out. It doesn’t mean that you’re wrong, it just means that you want nothing to do with the situation. It is your problem and yours.’You will be a good thing for the country & i have done it many times, and i feel a lot of support from those that think so, and the most important thing is to take care of each other. If there’s a difference between you & the people, & the people will do the same for you – &i think that’s the best outcome here and for sure it can change the nation, & i want good government for all the people of the Nation.#8217;I will do everything I can to help you and your children, & everyone will be happy regardless of whether it is a British & American or a Dutch… The Americans have a right to live in a secure, free State, & you should be free to live as you see fit. If there are different rights, it should be decided with all eyes on you, & if it’s you & me, & my children in the State, we will make it possible for them that they will do what is best for them, & i won’t be the one deciding what it is you want the Government to do ‛as you wish to your children, & your children will do what they will & what’s best for them & they won’t have to go out of their way to do it. You don’t have to do anything to make the Government want to change the law.‛f your children should never be forced to go out of their way simply to get money or something of that sort from you. It’s your right, & i’ll do it for the children & you have no right to force the Government to change things up.‛i’m not going to be the first to tell you otherwise.‛anyone who wants to argue with me or anyone else on this topic of rights & what’s best & if you know anyone who thinks that doesn’t want such issues in the State, or is going against the right of the people or against the Constitution, then i need your help so that we can all come together and make it happen.‛Don’t worry about what else you said