258 THE VIRGINIA TEACHER [Vol. 11, No. 9 NOTES ON THE AMERICAN 4. English imperial policy formulated middle of 18th Century. REVOLUTION A. Independent executives and judges. Following are some teaching 1. To be paid from money collected at custom houses. notes on the American Revolution B. Defensive system improved. unit with partial bibliography ap- 1. Albany Congress of 1754. pended : 2. Pontiac rebellion. 3. Colonies pay part of expenses of late FACTORS MAKING FOR AMERICAN wars and up-keep of troops by Stamp Act and Trade Laws. NATIONALITY a. Reception of Stamps in America. 1. Character of settlers—individualistic. b. Stamp Act Congress. 2. Distance from Europe—distance only name c. Non - importation - consumption for time and effort. 3. Adequate natural resources sufficient to agreement. maintain large population. C. Enforcing trade regulations. 4. Rapid increase in population. 1. Writs of Assistance. 1700—275,000 2. Admiralty Courts. 1720-475,000 3. Revenue cutters to patrol coasts. 1740—900,000 a. Gaspee incident. 1760—1,600.000 b. Capture of ship Liberty 1768. 1775—2,500,000 4. Two regiments sent to Boston. 5. Experience in Colonial Wars. Resentment a. Boston Massacre. of British officers. Knew each other. b. Removal of troops. 6. Expulsion of France from North America 5. Government aid to East India Com- which took away desire for protection. pany. 7. Long practice in self-government. a. Allowed them to send tea direct 8. Indifference to English trade regulations. to colonies. English laws not enforced. b. Reception of tea in America. FACTORS MOVING TOWARDS UNION c. Boston Tea Party. 1. Same race—r e 1 i g i o n—consciousness of d. Five Intolerable Acts. kind—more alike than different. 1. Closing port of Boston. 2. Expansion of settlement which brought 2. Changing Massachusetts char- people nearer together. ter. 3. Geographically a unit. Near together after 3. Trial in England. all. All along same coast, etc. 4. Quartering Act. 4. Communication developed—roads built— 5. Quebec Act. postal union 1720. e. Committees of Correspondence. 5. Co-operation incident to Colonial Wars f. First Continental Congress. and Indian troubles. Inter-colonial meet- 1. Non-importation and consump- ings. Menace of Indian a unionizing fac- tion agreement. tor. 2. Provided for Congress follow- 6. Frontier conquered by Germans, etc. Peo- ing year. ple who do not have feeling of loyalty to g. Gage governor in Massachusetts. Colonial Government or English Govern- 1. Call for Assembly. ment. Without strong colonial ties. 2. Assembly meets at Cambridge. 7. Common religious interests. Church rela- 3. Ignores government of Gage. tions overswept borders. 4. Militia drilled and arms col- 8. Colonial sympathy against English prero- lected at various places—Con- gatives. Interchange of reports against cord, Lexington, etc. crown and governor. 5. Gage attempts to seize these FACTORS AGAINST COLONIAL UNITY stores, April 19, 1775. 1. Colonies had individual history. S. Fundamental question; Should Brit- 2. Difficulties of communication. ish Parliament rule Great Britain in 3. Boundary disputes. all its parts or should Parliament 4. Disputes as to commanders in colonial rule England, and colonial assemblies wars. rule Colonies, with only a federal 5. Ill feeling between different colonies. bond between. 6. Obstacles against solidarity within each a. English conception of representa- colony. tion. b. American conception of represen- POLITICAL CAUSES OF AMERICAN tation. 1. America populated by radicals and dissent- ers. BRITISH IMPERIAL PROBLEM 2. Act of Uniformity not extended to Col- Three distinct concepts of nature of Empire. onies. 17th Century a period of laxity in colonial 1. Theory of Colonial Dependency. affairs. Britain regarded as head and mistress of her December, 1930] THE VIRGH A TEACHER 259 dominions and the dominions as children, than from English West Indies. New England proper subjects for exploitation under the old traded with French. The French products were colonial system. Adherents to this view be- about 25% cheaper. England attempted to pro- lieved that the Parliament then existing at hibit this trade by a heavy tax, but the act was Westminster was in fact an imperial Parlia- not enforced at this time, and it only led to smug- ment, in the form it then had, i. e., that the gling, openly connived at, which in turn led_ to Lords and Commons of Great Britain were disrespect of law. England, by not enforcing adequate representatives of all the outlying her acts, helped to establish that disrespect of law portions of the Empire as well as of the con- which became a habit in the thirteen colonies. stituencies which they happened to represent on the island of Britain. They believed that CHANGE IN IMPERIAL POLICY this Parliament and political supremacy and ABOUT 1750 overlordship over all the Dominions wherever England now centralized the control of Indian situated. affairs and western lands. The support of troops 2. There were those who believed that there for the protection of the frontier was now shifted should be an Imperial Parliament, but that the in part to the colonies. She also started to en- Parliament as then constituted was not such an force her past acts in regard to the colonies. assembly. These men held that the British The English policy at this time must be thought Empire was in essence a federal state, and of in the light of the Hundred Years War, fought that as such it should have a Federal Parlia- over large areas of the earth's surface. The ment, representing all the dominions, with su- English had carried this burden until they could preme jurisdiction over all the empire and carry it no longer, and now asked the colonies to paramount over all subordinate legislatures. help defend themselves in the future. These were the advocates of "imperial feder- From 1754 to 1763 the British War debts, al- ation." ready heavy, increased five fold. Therefore, Eng- land did not feel that she was laying a burden 3. There were those who held to the theory that upon the colonies when she asked them to adhere the colonies in America were in fact states in strictly to the new British system and to stop the the political sense, that their local legislatures illegal trade with the French. were the supreme power over them, under the Crown; that their sole connection with Great A. The Congress which met in Albany in 1754 Britain lay in the Crown. "Commonwealth of wanted to: Nations." This view never carried to its logi- 1. Regulate Indian policy. cal conclusion." 2. Purchase Indian lands. ECONOMIC CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN 3. To raise and pay an army and navy. 4. To levy taxes in time of war. REVOLUTION 5. Make laws for union with consent of American Revolution was not a conflict caused Crown. This plan of union fell through by King George III, nor a spontaneous uprising because of particularism. on the part of the people of the colonies, neither does "Taxation without representation" cover the FORCES TENDING TO PULL COLONIES cause of the conflict. OUT OF EMPIRE The causes of the Revolution must be consid- 1. Feeling of individualism. ered from economic, intellectual, social, political, 2. Distance from England. psychological, and religious viewpoints. 3. Environment. A. Economic Viewpoint: Colonists came to New 4. Disrespect of English law. world because 1. Of the economic, religious, and social con- GREENVILLE POLICY ditions of the Old World. 1. Sugar Act. An act for revenue mainly. 2. Business men wanted England to expand. £40,000 a year from act at cost of £13,000 3. Government wanted source of supply in for collection. This act building up commerce and navy. Wanted a. restricted trade to confine exports of colonies to mother b. took specie out of colonies country. Would discourage industrial de- c. diminished industry in New England velopment in colonies if same could be d. caused unemployment and business de- made at home. Enumerated certain articles pression. , which had to be sent to England entirely, 2. Stamp Act. A revenue act supposed to get such as tobacco, indigo, sugar, rice, molas- £61,000 annually. No specie in colonies to ses, naval stores, copper, iron ore, ashes, pay it. beaver skins, whale products, and hides. 3. Mutiny Act. A defense act. Colonies to Also forbade farmers growing tobacco in pay for expense of about 10,000 troops. England. Southern colonies and West In- Business depression forbade more taxes of dies were more important to England than this type. the New England Colonies. The prohibi- 4. Proclamation of 1763. Closed the west and tion and navigations laws were for the cut off a cheap supply of land. The colon- most part ignored. ial governments were forbidden to grant lands west of the mountains, and the set- MOLASSES ACT OF 1733 tlers already there were told to get out. Molasses from French West Indies cheaper This act also proclaimed that all lands west 260 THE VIRGIN A TEACHER [Vol. 11, No. 9 of the Mississippi were reserved for the Patrick Henry: Virginia Resolves on Stamp Act. Indians. May 30, 176S. 5. Currency Act of 1764. This act forbade Resolved therefore, That the General Assembly the use of paper money and there was very of this Colony have the only and sole exclusive little hard money in the colonies at any one right and power to lay taxes and impositions time, so this act was bitterly protested by upon the inhabitants of this Colony . The the debtor class. inhabitants of this Colony are not bound to yield obedience to any law or ordinance what- POLITICAL THEORIES OF THE ever, designed to impose any taxation whatso- AMERICAN REVOLUTION ever upon them, other than the laws or ordi- All this time the colonists were spinning politi- nances of the General Assembly.