Revolution War What Led to the Revolution

Revolution War

What led to the Revolution War

This paper aims to discuss main ideas that led to the Revolution War as explained by Edmund S. Morgan in the third edition of his book "The Birth of the Republic' (1993). This book was initially published in 1956 and then republished another time in 1977 and then in 1993. It provided a tremendous overview of the major events of the history of America during the revolutionary period.

Morgan in the first part of the book examined the relationship between the 13 U.S. colonies and British Parliament. He emphasized primarily on the unjust taxation that was imposed on the colonies by the English and other violations of liberties committed by British Parliament. In fact, Sugar and Stamp Acts of 1764-1765 turned out to be a great shock to the colonists, that declared that in future additional taxes will be taken from the colonists. 1 In its reaction, the colonists put a demand that they need their direct representation in the British Parliament. This demand proved to be the first of a sequence of demands that later on ended in the reconsideration by colonial settlers in deciding the nature of their affiliation with Britain for future.

US colonies agreed that Parliament holds rights to utilize duties, that may generate additional revenue but it is not right to impose duties with an intention of generating revenue. Edmund S. Morgan's description of the Revolutionary period admits that due to the dispute of British taxation, Americans were motivated to look for new constitutional standards to defend their freedom. He further explained that new constitutional principles were not abstract set of guidelines of political theory

1. Daniel K. Richter, Before the Revolution: America's Ancient Pasts, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; First Edition, 2011, 500- 510

But ideas growing out of the urgent needs and experiences of the colonists, held with fervent certainty, and integrated, at last, resulted in the foundation of the new United States of America.

Morgan explained that several factors like the one mentioned above resulted in the development of unpleasant relations between the two of them and eventually led to the declaration of independence. As the Americans initiated their struggle for independence, they began to recognize themselves as a nation and started to describe their identity as a nation independent from Great Britain. Such ideas were not raised due to the remarkable political theory that was prepared by the Americans residing in the colonies, but, these were formulated as result of the demands and past experiences of the people in these colonies.

Morgan explained that colonists had the distinctive relationship with Great Britain as the mother country. Later on, this relationship grew from being incredibly comfortable to being tremendously bitter. Morgan explained it to the readers very clearly that the break up between the colonies and Great Britain which was started originally from issue of tax grew more serious because of no representation from them in the Parliament. Nevertheless, in opinion of the colonists, there was a limit on Parliamentary supremacy and authority in America: It could make law, but it was not allowed to implement taxation. (p. 27). 2 But, the authority of taxation in the colonies laid with the

2. Edmund, S, Morgan. The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89 (The Chicago History of American Civilization), University of Chicago Press; Third Edition, 1993, 27.

elected members of the colonies. This law remained valid all through the Revolutionary period, not merely as a conceptual declaration of political theory and not just as an instrument to avoid particular taxation, but as an approach to protect their freedom they so greatly loved. (p. 52) 3

He further explained that, in spite of the desire of colonists to sustain the freedom they truly valued, they were still eager to preserve their past. They did so by utilizing history of Great Britain as a model to justify their constitutional status, to give evidence that they were still in favor of English rituals, but actually, they were in a process of discovery of a pathway that took them to the rule of human equality. (p 66) They were not just discovering a new path, but they exhibited it in an extraordinarily integrated manner as compare to the past. According to Morgan, this form of unity together with the principles of independence, impartiality and freedom belonging to this era, would always be remembered from this significant era in history.

Morgan avoided to talk about military concerns in detail and mostly discussed the political issues concerning revolution and how different thoughts and attitudes developed. His book covered military issues of the war in just a few pages.

He effectively explained the negative aspects together with the achievements and positive aspects of the Articles of Confederation. He further explained that problems were identified later on and the framers identified the need to rectify issues and revised the articles that consequently led to the establishment of an updated federal Constitution that led to the establishment of a new national government.

3. Edmund, S, Morgan. The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89 (The Chicago History of American Civilization), University of Chicago Press; Third Edition, 1993, 52.

In his book, Morgan talked about certain important problems of those times like slavery and land repeatedly, and manages to effectively rationalize the intentions of the framers comparative to the former and the latter. What colonists actually demanded was to have equal rights of liberty and representation as English population in and outside of England, not merely because of the taxation system being imposed upon them but more than that, the settlers had concerns about sincerity of jurisdiction of the British Parliament about them. This was the main reason behind foundation of Constitutional Convention in 1787, four years subsequent to signing the Peace Treaty by the colonists.