Colonial Reaction and The Rule of Law

1. Colonial Reaction and The Rule of Law

2. The development of the early colonies was impacted by what was going on in England (Europe) at this time period (1600’s – 1700’s) • The Reformation led to the challenge of the papal authority. • There was political turmoil with the various and ongoing religious wars over authority. • There was additional economic turmoil between the class systems in England. • As such, the Americas and all it offered provided England with a means to maintain the wealth, to maintain the power and to remain the dominant world force. They controlled the money and they controlled the power. (Mercantilism)

3. Colonial America was in transition. • The communities had been established and were thriving. • Immigration from Europe was increasing day by day • Colonial America was developing it’s own leadership, in the wealthy, land owning men. • This leadership was highly educated, well read and influenced by the Enlightened mind set. • Colonial people were beginning to develop a sense of identity.

4. The French and Indian War had just ended • The dynamics of the colonies were dramatically changing • The British are going to make an attempt to maintain control • The colonists are going to react • This is what Chapter six is about! • The transition of a people from being complacent English citizens • To the United Colonies who seek to break away from the British control and to determine their own fate!

5. The British victory in the French and Indian War had a great impact on the British Empire. • It meant a great expansion of British territorial claims in the New World. • However, the cost of the war had greatly enlarged Britain's debt. • This war also brought resentment towards the colonists among English leaders, who were not satisfied with the financial and military help they had received from the colonists during the war. • All these factors combined to persuade many English leaders that the colonies needed a major reorganization and that the central authority should be in London. • The war had an equally profound but very different effect on the American colonists. First of all, the colonists had learned to unite together. Before the war, the thirteen colonies had no common ground and coexisted in mutual distrust. But now they realized that by working together they could be a power.

6. British Aggressiveness • Following the French and Indian War, the British abandon the hands off policy of Salutary Neglect. • The English Parliament recognizes their need to maintain financial control of the colonies (Mercantilism) • The colonists were starting to exert their desire for involvement in decisions that Parliament made. • Parliament needs to keep these colonist in check, after all the primary purpose of the colonies were to totally support England, the Mother Country.

7. the acts • The more the colonists questioned the English authority, the more taxes were initiated to maintain financial control. • Who ever controlled the money controlled the power. • The English sought to control all economic aspects of the colonists. • Navigation Acts – an example control the shipping industry and maintaining the practice of mercantilism • Woolen and Hat Act – an example of controlling the manufacturing • Stamp Act - an attempt to control communications • Sugar and Tea Act – an attempt to control their daily lives • Proclamation of 1763 – everything could be understood as a form of tax and control

8. So how did the colonist react? • Meeting establishing committees for communications. • Publishing articles in papers and handing out leaflets. • Boycott • Mass protests (Mobs formed) • Waged economic warfare • Non Importation, Non Exportation • Organized representative meetings • Stockpile weapons, ammunition and gunpowder • Spies

9. Why is The Rule of Law significant • The foundation of our country is defined by moral justice. • The Law of what is right must rule our country • As Americans we have fought for the rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness • We cannot allow the rich, the powerful, the mobs to control our country. • That is what defines the United States of America as the greatest country that humanity has ever witnessed. • Although we have our differences and problems. Although we fight in wars and let our emotions get the better of us into inciting violence at times. • At the end of the day, the Rule of Law defines who we are as a people, as a community of law abiding citizens and as the greatest example of human democracy!

10. If you can read this quietly raise your hand! Then I will know who is paying attention. When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness