Thomas Paine's Radical Proposal

Now, you already know that Thomas Paine wrote the book "Common Sense". But here is a short biography, to let you know a little bit more about his life:

Thomas Paine is a fascinating figure from the history of American politics. Born in February of 1737, he published numerous pamphlets and contributed valuable insights to the political discourse of his time; the depth of his impact on American society is impossible to know.

Tomas Paine was born in rural England. In early life, he attended grammar school and then was apprenticed to his father, who was a corset stay maker. After a brief stint as a privateer, he became a master stay-maker and opened up a shop. He married in 1759, but his wife died of complications from her first pregnancy. In England he was involved in a brief second marriage and various business and civic ventures until, legend has it, Benjamin Franklin suggested that he immigrate to America. After a difficult passage that took him some weeks to recover from, he gained citizenship in the colonies and started work editing Pennsylvania Magazine–a post he would follow with an illustrious career as a propagandist and writer.

So, now Thomas Paine's influence was not quite over with the book. He proposed a totally different direction on things, which where:

1)Independence from Britain.

2)Republican State Government.

3)Union of States.

Paine saw the king and the Aristocrats as parasites and frauds. He thought that the king was an enemy to the American Liberties. He wanted common people to elect the government, and he did not like the class structures that were marked. Of course, he also hated the smothering of people just because they did not have a noble title. His ideas were, to create a republic where everyone had the opportunity to improve. By uniting to create a republic, America would be a role model for the rest of the countries. He wanted to create a democratic model so that he could achieve this. 

In spring of 1776, Pain's ideas made the independance possible. The congress selected a committee to draft the declaration of independance, and explain the reasons in it, Thomas Jefferson, was the man for this job.  On July 2nd, America was free. I'm guessing you all know what happened the 4th of July? the Declaration of Independence was approved!. 


As told before, the declaration of independence contained some of Paine's ideas; like denouncing the king as a tyrant, and the idea that all men were created equal and born with natural rights that could not be taken away by the governement. These natural rights were called the unalienable rights by Jefferson. Although, it seems like the whole independance process is complete, unfortunetely, it is not. writing a declaration of independence was very different from actually achieving it. The colonists had to have the courage to face the many obstacles that were presented to them, before succeeding on their major goal. First, they had to declare independance from an European empire.


In conclusion, we could say that the declaration of independance was nothing but a long list of colonial grievances that were just taken in consideration, but did not really mean the absolute independance from this empire. Imagine how hard it was back then?

Loyalists oppose to Patriot's Demands

A series of events were responsible for the Revolution. John Adams and Jonathan Sewell were discussing the crisis. This happened in summer 1774. Sewell told Adams that England was not going to change. He had to accept it, or deal with the consequences. Adams replied that event though he knew that was the truth, he would still remain in his own determination. 

According to stereotypes, many loyalists were wealthy. Others were just farmers. They did not like taxes, or having to pick a side. they also disliked the Militia. They resented the Patriots because they shut down the Loyalists' newspaper. They appealed to the Native American and the enslaved people. Indians wanted hel`from the British to stop the settlers from moving. Most people preferred to join the British, because they considered them as the true champions of Liberty.

Later on, in January 1776, a book was published. It was short but powerful, in favor of independence. it was called "The Common Sense", written by Thomas Paine, but first published anonymously. Thomas Paine came from England. He used to be a tax collector and an artesan. Some of his ideas can be seen in the Declaration of Independance. 

"COMMON SENSE"

Published anonymously by Thomas Paine in January of 1776, Common Sense was an instant best-seller, both in the colonies and in Europe. It went through several editions in Philadelphia, and was republished in all parts of United America. Because of it, Paine became internationally famous.

"A Covenanted People" called Common Sense "by far the most influential tract of the American Revolution....it remains one of the most brilliant pamphlets ever written in the English language."

Paine's political pamphlet brought the rising revolutionary sentiment into sharp focus by placing blame for the suffering of the colonies directly on the reigning British monarch, George III.

I would very much enjoy reading this book, for it seems that it really meant a lot for the American Revolution. It was necesary to create conscience on this people.

"He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to Defender of the Faith, than George the Third."- Thomas Paine

The Second Continental Congress

The Revolution was starting now, and the colonies had to find a way to get together. In 1775, delegates from all the colonies, assembled in Philadelphia, and the Congress was bravely assuming the responsability for the war. The New Continental Army was created during this Continental Congress, and the command was given to George Washington, who was a colonial officer during the French and Indian War. In those times, Virginia was considered the most powerful colony, so having someone from Virginia in the Congress, would clearly help a lot. Fortunetely, George Washington was born in Virginia. Some members of the Continental Congress wanted to declare independence from Britan, but they believed that not all the colonists were ready for this. On July 1775, after 3 months of war, the Congress sent an "Olive Branch Petition", which represents peace. They sent it to the king, but he rejected it and instead of accepting peace, he sent new troops to Boston.

Declaring Independance

After many wars, and many disturbed colonists and British, Independence was finally being declared. But not so soon, another war had to happen first. (we never get enough!)
In 1776, the colonists made three decision that would mark their whole process of independence.
1)they would declare independence from Britain.
2)they would choose a republican model for their new government.
3)they confederated the 13 states as the United States of America.

You may think that colonists were putting themselves out there too much, but what you don't know is the amount of strength they showed the world during these three important decisions.

War was starting in Concord. General Thomas Gage was currently the governor of Massachusetts. He found out that John Hancock and Samuel Adams were hiding arms and other weapons in Concord, and that they were governing Massachusetts without him. This provoked Gage to send an order to the British troops to arrest Hancock and Adams, thinking that this order would be a secret, but it did not stay like that. You might have heard about Paul Revere, who was actually the man responsible of letting the colonists know that war was starting, with his famous phrase: "The British are coming, the British are coming!", yelling it while riding his horse. 

The militia was fighting against british. These were full time farmers and part time soldiers, and they were also called the minutemen, since they could get ready in minutes. The British, on the other hand, were called Redcoats, because they used to wear red. They marched into town at dawn, and as they ordered the militia to disperse, someone ran a fire. This shot was called "The Shot Heard Round The World" because it was the one that actually started the war. When shooting stopped, 8 patriots were dead, and the British thought they had won the war. But as they marched on to conquer, hundreds of Militians attacked them. They were hiding behind the trees, wounding more than 200 British soldiers. Here, you can easily find out that no matter the amount of people, or the training they have received, if they do not use strategies, they might loose.

Colonists Unite Against Hard Measures

Ok, so you read about the Boston Tea Party. This caused a lot of damage. and the Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, because they decided that Boston had to be punished for their actions. These acts were also called the Intolerable Acts, since colonists were not planning on tolerating them.
The Intolerable Acts included:

• Boston Port Act
• Quartering Act
• Administration of Justice Act
• Quebec Act
• Massachusets Government Act

The Boston Port Act consisted of closing all the port facilities, until the colonists urged to obey and payed back the destroyed tea and the damage they caused to the custom offices.

The Administration of Justice Act forced the colonists to house the British troops and also alow them to be trialed in England. British soldiers did not mind taking advantage of the colonists at all. 

The Massachusets Government Act was the hardest of all, in my opinion, since it provided a greater amount of royal control. The crown had to control every movement that the colonists did. They could not even have town meetings unless they were aproved by the governor. Very harsh.

The colonists, as you should have figured out by now, were very stubborn. You can imagine how they reacted  with all of these acts. They were violent, they used weapoms and they were trying to force the courts of laws to shut down. They assaulted every person that worked for the government, and everyone that was looking forward to obbeying the Parliament. They started using their old ways, like tarring and feathering. remember?

In 1774, all the colonies but Georgia, met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was their first Continental Congress. This is when the famous Patrick Henry gave his outstanding speech. I think you may have heard this phrase many times:

They were establishing another boycott. Their plan was to create a new government that they would elect, and the only government that they would obey. Since there was a lot of common people working in the governement, the rangs were expanded, and new jobs were open.

John Adams helped a lot in the process of independence. he decided that he lived in a new country named America and he believed that colonists could unite to defeat the British. He would always encourage the colonists and tried to mantain unity between them.

PATRICK HENRY

Patrick Henry was recognized by his Virginia contemporaries as "the man who gave the first impulse to the ball of revolution." Born at Studley plantation in Hanover County, Virginia, on May 29, l736, Henry received most of his education from his father, who had attended King's College of Aberdeen.

New Taxes Lead to New Protests

So, as you know, the Stamp Act was repelled, but then other taxes were imposed. Protests were not over yet. The Bristish Government still needed money to pay the debts and support the troops. Charles Townshend was the crown's chief financial officer. He thought that colonists would accept indirect taxes, so in 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Act, which taxed the glass, paint, paper, lead, tea. Anyway, Charles Townshend was wrong, because the colonists still didn't want to pay taxebout Charles Townshend:

Charles Townshend was a brilliant and witty man, and a member of the British Parliament who strove to please those he thought could do him the most good. He is mostly remembered for the Townshend Acts of 1767, which taxed and angered the American colonies to revolt. The acts had a huge and fatal impact on relations between the colonies and Great Britain, and for this reason Townshend will always be remembered as the man who did so much to bring on the American Revolution.

Charles Townshend was born on August 27, 1725, to Charles Townshend and his wife, Audrey, daughter and heiress of Edward Harrison. Charles was their second son and one of five children.

ok, so this brought many more riots.
a merchant ship called Liberty that belonged to a wealthy merchant called John Hancock got rich by smuggling, but later on, it was seized. The seizure brought other riots, this time, against custom officers. To stop this riots, the crown sent 4,000 troops. The prescence of these troops, of course, angered the colonists even more. So, one night, they decided they couldn't take it anymore, and a group of colonists started trowing snowballs and rocks at the British soldiers. The British soldiers were nervous and did not know what to do, so they fired their weapons and killed 5 colonists, including Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Galdwell, Crispus Attucks, and Patrick Garr. This became known as th Boston Massacre.







after the Boston Massacre, another big event occured. Parliament decided to take away the taxes, and only left taxes on tea. To help the company that was not in a very good economic situation, the parliament passed a bill allowing them to sell tea directly to the colonists. They thought this would help, but the colonists were not "buying" anything from them, they thought they were tricking them into paying taxes, since the tea was very expensive. 
Aren't you exausted to hear about all of this riots and stuff? ok, so anyways, the colonists decided to get it over with. They dressed up like indians and boarded three Bristish that had landed with tea, and threw all the boxes of tea into the ocean. This was called The Boston Tea Party. (no, it did not mean to sit around a table and drink tea).

                

THIS was the Boston Tea Party.

And again, NO, they did not sit down and have tea, like Alice in Wonderland.:)

Colonial Protests Intensify

Ok, so you have read in the last posts, that the incresing of taxes led to many protests, and upstet colonists. The colonists used three forms to try and avoid paying taxes. they used intelectual protests, which were the panphlets and resolutions. Violent intimidation; angry mobs started destroying the houses of some tax collectors, tarring and featherig, which they would carry out by pouring or paiting hot tar into the tax collectors and then throwing or make them role in feathers. This was very painful for British, but very effective for the colonists. Another form of protesting was boycotts, which meant that they would stop buying goods from them. This technique affected the economy a whole lot. All of these actions surprised a man called John Adams, who got to be the second president of the United States. He was also a distinguished lawyer in Massachusets.

New Taxes, increase violence

Ok, first of all, you all read my last post, about how the French and Indian war affected the economy, and the situation in England. The Seven Year War doubled England's national debt, this brought a lot of troubles, and a lot of new taxes. This made the colonists very angry.

Because the economy was very bad, people in Britan were increasing taxes, so that people could help out.

Colonial merchants got rich by smuggling also, which, if you didn't know, means Moving  goods across a customs frontier, evading coustom control. In this case, they were evading taxes.
In 1764, George Grenville was the new prime minister in England. He wanted to raise money to collect money. He put in effect the Sugar Act that put a three-cent tax on molasses. He created tax collectors, and persecuted smugglers. He thought that with all of this ways, he was creating some sort of discipline on the colonists, and that they would understand that they needed to pay taxes. In early 1755, Parliament passed the Quartering Act, which required colonists to feed and house British troops in their homes. They could invade the homes of the colonists anytime, and they had to accept this. Obviously, colonists complained. wouldn't you?

Here is a small biography of George Grenville:


George Grenville

George Grenville was the second son of seven children born to Richard Grenville and his wife Hester, Countess Temple. His elder brother was Richard, Earl Temple, Lord Cobham; his sister Hester married William Pitt. Grenville was born on 14 October 1712 at Westminster in London. He was educated at Eton between 1725 and 1728, going on to Christ church, Oxford in 1730. He was called to the Bar in 1735. In 1741 he was elected as MP for Buckingham, a pocket borough of his uncle Richard, Viscount Cobham. There were only thirteen electors. In his early years in parliament, Grenville was a member of his uncle's faction whose members were known as "Cobham's Cubs" and included Pitt the Elder. This group opposed Walpole's government which fell in 1742. In 1744 Grenville entered Pelham's government but was dismissed by the Newcastle administration in 1755, only to be brought back into government in 1756 as Treasurer to the Navy.

So, anyway. On march 1765, the parliament passed another bill, this was called the Stamp Act. They taxed everything on paper. Colonists complained that they wouldn't have any money left to survive, They also argued that they didn't have any representation on the parliament, they called this "taxation without representation", They didn't want to let them impose taxes, because they thought that if they let them do it, then they would keep wanting to impose more and more taxes. British thought that the colonists were being very selfish.

As you can see, the Seven Year War brought many problems betweent the colonists and the Parliament. TAXES was the big word here.