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During Britain’s victory in the French & Indian War, the nation had collected a national debt that reached £130,000,000. The citizens discontent was revived during this period of time due to unfair treatment from British Parliament. Although The Stamp Act allowed England to fund recovery after the French and Indian war, it had also at the same time taken away from the citizens themselves. Outrage was immediate. Political organizations such as the secret Sons of Liberty, the Virginia legislature and other colonial assemblies had passed resolutions opposing The Stamp Act. When nine colonies had sent their representatives to New York to attend a Stamp Act Congress, regardless of their opposition, the Stamp Act was still put into place on November 1st of 1765. With the arrival of the stamp’s colonists began their pursuit of violence and economic retaliation. The Stamp Act pushed the American Revolution by allowing the colonists to see how British government was abusing its’ power. The stamp act allowed the colonies to unite over one common goal and ultimately over rule British government. When Bernard’s letters were found it increased the colonists belief that Britain had been abusing its power in order to benefit the crown as opposed to the colonists themselves.
“Francis Bernard, governor of colonial Massachusetts from 1760 to 1771, was a principal actor in the advent of the American Revolution.” Through the influence of his connections in the Colonial Office, Bernard was given the title governor of Massachusetts in late 1759. ”he undoubtedly owed his advancements in the colonies less to demonstrated merit than to the influence of his wife’s cousin, the second Viscount Barrington, who then served as Britain’s secretary at war,” Bernard proved himself to be a controversial figure. Those who challenged him in government accused him of´ aggressively pursuing customs violations to add to his own income. “ The letters dated from November 1 to December 5, 1768, severely censured the town of Boston and the Council for refusing to cooperate with Governor Bernard and General Gage in quartering the two regiments that had arrived. Bernard also strongly urged that the Massachusetts charter be altered to make the Council more dependent on the crown. People also believed that Bernard had purposefully misrepresented the political conditions to convince the authorities in England to send troops to the U.S. to support the way he was governing. At the end of his governorship, the Massachusetts House of Representatives signed for his recall. Bernard’s letters and other incidental papers provide insight into the personalities and controversies causing Boston to become hostile in the pre-Revolutionary period. “Francis Bernard, governor of Massachusetts from 1760 to 1769, was one of the most unpopular royal servants in America.” Bernard’s adversaries included some of the Revolution’s most venerated leaders, such as Otis’s friend Samuel Adams, the most influential of Boston’s popular politicians, and Samuel’s cousin John, a promising lawyer and future U.S. president. They and other patriots believed that the movement for American self-determination originated during Bernard’s administration of 1760-1771, when the colonists first campaigned against the reform of the trade laws and the introduction of parliamentary taxation.
Essentially, it began as a disagreement over the way Great Britain governed the colonies and the way the colonies thought they should be treated. Americans felt they deserved all the rights of Englishmen. The British, on the other hand, thought that the colonies were created to be used in ways that best suited the Crown and Parliament. This conflict is embodied in one of the rallying cries of the American Revolution: ‘No Taxation Without Representation.’ The geography of the colonies also contributed to the revolution. Their distance from Great Britain naturally created a sense of independence that was hard to overcome. Those willing to colonize the new world generally had a strong independent streak with a profound desire for new opportunities and more freedom. The existence of colonial legislatures meant that the colonies were in many ways independent of the crown. The legislatures were allowed to levy taxes, muster troops, and pass laws. Over time, these powers became rights in the eyes of many colonists. The British government had different ideas and attempted to curtail the powers of these newly elected bodies. There were numerous measures designed to ensure the colonial legislatures did not achieve autonomy, although many had nothing to do with the larger British Empire. In the minds of colonists, they were a matter of local concern. From these small, rebellious legislative bodies that represented the colonists, the future leaders of the United States were born. The French and Indian War led to considerable economic trouble for the British government. Its cost was significant, and the British were determined to make up for the lack of funds. They levied new taxes on the colonists and increased trade regulations. These actions were not well received by the colonists. New taxes were enforced, including the Sugar Act and the Currency Act, both in 1764. The Sugar Act increased already considerable taxes on molasses and restricted certain export goods to Britain alone. The Currency Act prohibited the printing of money in the colonies, making businesses rely more on the crippled British economy. Feeling underrepresented, overtaxed, and unable to engage in free trade, the colonists rallied to the slogan, ‘No Taxation Without Representation.’ This discontent became very apparent in 1773 with the events that later became known as the Boston Tea Party. The British government’s presence became increasingly more visible in the years leading to the revolution. British officials and soldiers were given more control over the colonists and this led to widespread corruption. Among the most glaring of these issues were the ‘Writs of Assistance.’ These were general search warrants that gave British soldiers the right to search and seize any property they deemed to be smuggled or illegal goods. Designed to assist the British in enforcing trade laws, these documents allowed British soldiers to enter, search, and seize warehouses, private homes, and ships whenever necessary. However, many abused this power. In 1761, Boston lawyer James Otis fought for the constitutional rights of the colonists in this matter but lost. The defeat only inflamed the level of defiance and ultimately led to the Fourth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. The Third Amendment was also inspired by the overreach of the British government. Forcing colonists to house British soldiers in their homes infuriated the population. It was inconvenient and costly to the colonists, and many also found it a traumatic experience after events like the Boston Massacre in 1770. Trade and commerce were overly controlled, the British Army made its presence known, and the local colonial government was limited by a power far across the Atlantic Ocean. If these affronts to the colonists’ dignity were not enough to ignite the fires of rebellion, American colonists also had to endure a corrupt justice system. Political protests became a regular occurrence as these realities set in. In 1769, Alexander McDougall was imprisoned for libel when his work ‘To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York’ was published. His imprisonment and the Boston Massacre were just two infamous examples of the measures the British took to crack down on protesters. After six British soldiers were acquitted and two dishonorably discharged for the Boston Massacre—ironically enough, they were defended by John Adams—the British government changed the rules. From then on, officers accused of any offense in the colonies would be sent to England for trial. This meant that fewer witnesses would be on hand to give their accounts of events and it led to even fewer convictions. To make matters even worse, jury trials were replaced with verdicts and punishments handed down directly by colonial judges. Over time, the colonial authorities lost power over this as well because the judges were known to be chosen, paid, and supervised by the British government. The right to a fair trial by a jury of their peers was no longer possible for many colonists.
All of these grievances that colonists had with the British government led to the events of the American Revolution. And many of these grievances directly affected what the founding fathers wrote into the U.S. Constitution. These constitutional rights and principles reflect the hopes of the framers that the new American government would not subject their citizens to the same loss of freedoms that the colonists had experienced under Britain’s rule.
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