Sonora McHan
Ryan Johnson
September 28, 2011
American Foundations
Was it Right?
American History has been studied and criticized for centuries. Many people question the founding of our nation. Over the years the founding fathers and the legacy that they represent has been tarnished by speculation and people trying to humanize them. The question that most debates usually boil down to is: Where the founding fathers morally justified to revolt against Great Britain?
I believe that the founding Fathers were totally and completely justified in revolting. Not only do I believe that what they did was right, the ability that I have to come to this university in the first place would not exist if they had not taken action. There are many reasons as to why they had the right to revolt, Great Britain taxed them without representation, they took away their unalienable rights, and they refused to follow the rule of law. Great Britain was asking for it.
The seeds of revolt were sowed when Great Britain issued the Sugar Act of 1764. The Sugar Act revived “unenforced duties on wool, hats, and iron and increasing customs on a variety of imported goods, including textiles, coffee, indigo, wines and foreign-refined sugar” (Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution; Mark Puls pg. 38) Surprisingly, the colonists accepted the tax and didn’t protest it. Then Samuel Adams stepped into the scene. Adams publicly condemned the Sugar Act, and tried to get the colonists to fight it. For the most part though, the people were too afraid to do anything. And then he spoke at a town meeting saying, “If an outside body such as Great Britain was allowed to tax them, their liberty was gone” (Puls pg. 39). This statement found its way into the hearts and minds of the colonists; they started to realize how unfair Great Britain was treating them.
Although the Sugar Act got the revolutionary ball rolling, the Stamp Act of 1765 lit the colonies on fire. The Stamp Act required “government-issued seals on legal documents, newspapers, and all printed materials sold within the colonies except books; the acted included almanacs, broadsides, pamphlets, insurance policies, ship’s papers, and many other articles, even playing cards and dice” (Puls pg. 46). The colonists did not like this tax at all. Many people began to fight the act, including Patrick Henry and James Otis. Samuel Adams was not alone in his fight for freedom now. This Act was just ridiculous! It was totally unjust to insist on having stamps on nearly everything. The enormity of what the cost would be for the Stamp Act is staggering. Benjamin Franklin told Parliament that he did not believe that there was enough gold and silver in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for a year.
Because of the Stamp Act, the people were riled. They began to boycott British goods. Not only did they boycott, but they became violent. A mob tore down Colonel Hutchinson’s home and hung effigies of figures that they did not like, including an effigy of the stamp master Andrew Oliver. When the ships bearing the stamps arrived from Great Britain, the stamps were unloaded on Castle William Island, and a guard was posted. Also aboard the ship was George Meserve, he was supposed to be the stamp distributor for New Hampshire, he resigned his post before stepping a foot onto land. He was smart! I mean look what happened to the effigies! That could have been him! Samuel Adams did not want the colonists to react violently to the unfair British rule. He encouraged them to have peaceful demonstrations, but to still protest. The Stamp Act became impossible to enforce because every time the British soldiers tried to distribute the stamps, the colonists would destroy them! Go AMERICA!
Great Britain did not want the American colonies to have a Congress. In fact, Governor Bernard of Massachusetts tried repeatedly to stop a Congress from going into session. He even tried to stop Samuel Adams from being elected into the legislature. Great Britain’s rule was becoming more and more tyrannical. They were not following the rule of law at all. The king refused to let the colonists rule themselves. What was his problem?! King George III did not care for the American people in any way shape or form. He was only using them to get out of debt; debt that Great Britain incurred during the 7 year war. The unfair taxes where a way to not only control the Americans, but to pay back all of the money that they owed. Samuel Adams argued that America had nothing to do with the war, and that they should not have to pay for Great Britain’s debt. He was completely right. Why should a nation that is 3,000 miles away have the right to take money from a people who wanted nothing to do with them? It was getting to the point that many colonists were starting to believe that they were little more than slaves.
Another factor that made many colonists bitter towards their British rulers was the fact that Great Britain was issuing writs of assistance. These completely undermined a person’s natural rights. They were basically like search warrants, except for the fact that they had no basis, and that they could be used at any time for any reason. British soldiers could just randomly barge into a colonists home and search for who knows what! In doing this they took away the colonists basic right to property and liberty. How would I feel if our government did these things to me?
There are many other things that Great Britain did to America that justified the founding fathers in their revolt. God had a plan. And the plan was for Great Britain to become unbearable so that the Americans would revolt and form a new nation. The Gospel would be restored on this new nation, and therefore the plan had happen. And it did! You and I are here today to testify of this fact! The founding fathers had a right to revolt. They were morally justified; they were doing what Captain Moroni did in the Book of Mormon: defending their life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness. As an American nation in 2011 we should honor and revere the men that made it possible to be here.
