Click2History - The People Rule - Chapter 3 - England: We've Had It!

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>THE PEOPLE RULE</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 3 - ENGLAND: WE'VE HAD IT!</font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">In colonial America, newspapers published all kinds of information on the rights of the colonists. Before, during and after the Revolutionary War, Americans learned about new laws by reading the newspapers. Many times the entire law, or declaration of rights, would be printed in the papers of the day.</p> <p>Eighteenth-century Americans were tired of paying taxes to, and taking orders from, the British Crown. But when the colonists initially rebelled, the British military was there to put a stop to it. The <a href="http://www.awesomestories.com/history/patriot/patriot_ch3.htm" target="_blank"><b>Boston Massacre</b></a> (of March 15, 1770) is just one example. (Paul Revere memorialized that notorious event in a famous <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/ppmsc/00100/00174r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>engraving</b></a>.)</p> <p>Colonists thought about English repression in the context of Bible stories. Not long after the Boston Massacre, <a href="http://www.jtrumbulljr.org/museums/governor.shtml" target="_blank"><b>Faith Robinson Trumbull</b></a> (1718-1780) created a celebrated tapestry, "<a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/vc006408.jpg" target="_blank"><b>The Hanging of Absolom</b></a>." In it, the rebellious son Absolom (an American colonist) takes a stand against his father, King David (George III), and is hanged for it. Notice the executioner is wearing a British "red coat."</p> <p>While King George’s rules still applied, Thomas Jefferson defiantly <a target="_blank" href="images/spelled.out.jpg"><b>spelled out</b></a> the colonists’ legal Declaration of Rights. They were adopted by the Continental Congress (on October 14, 1774) and printed in the newspapers. It would be interesting to know whether any Royal officer reported those potential "fighting words" to the King.</p> <p>Before colonial Americans officially told King George III (on <a href="http://www.awesomestories.com/history/am_colonies/am_colonies_ch5.htm" target="_blank"><b>July 4, 1776</b></a>) they were done with his laws, they put England <a href="http://www.awesomestories.com/history/patriot/patriot_ch2.htm" target="_blank"><b>on notice</b></a> of their intentions. When that failed to convince His Majesty, the colonists <a href="http://www.awesomestories.com/history/patriot/patriot_ch4.htm" target="_blank"><b>fought back</b></a> and justified their reasons in the "Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms" (published in London in <a target="_blank" href="images/gentleman.magazine.jpg"><b><i>The Gentleman’s Magazine</i></b></a>). When English "gentlemen" read <a target="_blank" href="images/this.explanation.jpg"><b>this explanation</b></a> for war (in August of 1775), they likely disbelieved the rebellious colonists would <a href="http://www.awesomestories.com/history/patriot/patriot_ch19.htm" target="_blank"><b>actually prevail</b></a> against England’s might.</p> <p>Not only did they prevail. Throughout their history, Americans have believed - as Lincoln said in the <a href="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/gtran.html" target="_blank"><b>Gettysburg Address</b></a> - that rule of, by and for the people must not perish from the earth. That type of rule permits the people to publicly challenge even (if not especially) the person with the top job: The President of the United States.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="people_rule_ch2.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="people_rule_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="people_rule_ch4.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>