![]() William and Mary had, moreover, given the colonists a full share of the rights of British subjects. ![]() Both sides were Englishmen who gloried in the name of England. Nor can it, as is often thought, be called a war between different nations. Nor was it at first so much for gaining new liberties as for preserving the old. The American Revolution was not, then, any struggle for emancipation from slavery and the colonists were free men. Of all the race they were the most tenacious of their rights and the most jealous of their liberties. Then, because they were not satisfied with church ordinances, they were driven by Archbishop Laud to seek religious freedom across the sea. These were the Puritans, who had fought the wars of liberty in England. Precedents, then, are by no means wanting among Englishmen for the successful resistance of arbitrary despotism whenever it encroached upon their liberties.Īnother fact that must be noted is the character of the colonists, and especially those of Massachusetts. It is the descendants of those very freemen described by Tacitus, who not only dictated the policy of Edward the Confessor but extorted the great charter of human rights from King John in the thirteenth century.Īnd during the next four hundred years, too, this spirit was not dormant, but came to the surface on three great occasions–the confirmation of the Magna Carta by Edward I, the Petition of Right to Charles I, and the Revolution that drove James II from his throne.Īlthough it is characteristic of Englishmen to have great love for a king so long as he respects the liberties of the people, yet the fact that they drove out one king, rebelled against two and executed three, shows clearly enough that there was always a strong idea of the divine right of the people as well as of kings. Such an honorable antiquity of political ideas has made the race very conservative of self-government. ![]() It is the same genius for freedom that has led the race from the primeval forests of Germany to the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution. ![]() When history looks beyond the immediate cause of the American Revolution for the justifying principles, it is very soon brought back to the spirit of English liberty. Title: The Principles Fought for in the American RevolutionĬontext: The Sons of the American Revolution awarded Coolidge a gold medal for best essay on “The Principles Fought for in the American Revolution,” in a competition open to the seniors of all colleges of the nation. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |