The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-19
Prize Essay.

 the attention of the Alabama D. A. R. to the very creditable essay, which received the prize medal offered by the Mobile Chapter the first of last May. The writer, now in the high school, was then in seventh grade grammar school of the Barton Academy, and has always been remarkable for the thoroughness, acuracy and interest dis played in her studies. It is the in- tention of the Mobile Chapter to offer a medal every year and hereafter the schools both public and private, in- stead of being limited, as was the case last year, to the Barton Academy. The object of this action on the part of the Chapters is to arouse among the chil- dren greater interest in the study of American history. with the hope of developing through this study ipcreas- ed love of our country.
 Causes of the American RevOlutiOn.
 Bernice Imogene Burnell.
 In looking for the causes of the American Revolution, we are at once impressed by the character of the colonists- Descended from a long line of liberty-loving Englishmen, they only repeated what they had learned in England which was !: Taxation with out representation is tyranny" They were. for the most part, Protestants- religion which, more than any other, leads men to independent thought. But where the Catholic religion pre- vails. as in Virginia and the Caroli- mas, the people, being slave owners the more valued liberty for themselves and their children. Then, too, at that time nearly every one in the colonies was educated, at least enough to read and write readily. Edmund Burke said that the love of freedom was greatly fostered by the general Knowledge of law, and no other class of literature was so widely read by the coIonists This gave them quickness in detect- ing tyranny in any form and skill in avoiding the disagreeabIe laws Eng land was trying to enforce. Their town meetings and other popular as- semblies for the purpose of debate also developed strength and independence Of thought. In those days of slow going ships, America was a long way from England and very hard to govern under any circumstances: and, if Eng land should refuse grants of land, in order to keep her colonies In submis- sion. as some of the Englishmen sug- gested, the hardy pioneer could cross the mountains and take possession of the unoccupied country. When the French were defeated at Montreal in 1760, they ceded to the English by the treaty of Paris. 1763, all the land north of the Great Lakes and the St. Law renee, and all south of the lakes, east of the Mississippi; thus removing the French whose presence together with the Indians might have served to keep the colonists in fear of separating from the mother country. Now these wars with the French and the Indians I IaI t1nD S-L. and England was calling on the colo nists to help pay these debts; which the colonists being very poor, thought they ought not to do, especially as they had to bear the hardship sof the cam paign, while the English. for the most part, were dwelling in peace and secu- rity at home. The colonists were also very much displeased because Eng lend sent over to them cruel and dis honest governors instead of letting them choose one of their own num- Der: thus the colonists could not make any laws displeasing to England. They were also very much annoyed because England would not let them sell hats wooden goods or Iron ware to other countries than England, nor even to neighboring colonies. They were also obliged to buy all their foreign goods from England; their ships must enter only English ports and only Eng fish ships enter their ports They could trade with Indians and get furs with which to make hats, but no one was allowed to send these hats to other colonies. Some of the Governors would not allow the colonists to make war on the Indians, lest the war should inter- fere with the extensive fur trade Gus tom houses were established in all the principal ports for the collection of the duties levied by the king. Those who tried to evade these laws were called smugglers.
 Again. the English statesmen thought if the Governors were paid a fixed salary, this would make them more in- dependent of the colonists and, there fore. freer to do what the king wished; but the colonists, seeing that this would be true, as far as possible. made these Governors dependent upon them selves for their salaries. Thus in one way and another. the colonists were constantly being displease with the treatment they received from England. But the colonists might not have thought of separation from England for a long time yet, had not Parlia- ment in l766 passed an act called the stamp Act which required that all bills and many other documents should pc written on stamped paper which would be sold at a price that would af- ford a considerable amount of reve- nue for England. The colonists thought that if they let England tax them in this way, she would tax them in other ways A lawyer named James Otis. practicing law in Boston, in a speech five hours long. openly denounced tax ation without representation" By some. this speech Is considered the starting point of the revolution. An other eloquent patriot was Patrick Henry of Virginia. whose fiery utter ance, Give me liberty or give me death,' became the watch word of the revolution. The French and Indian wars had given to the colonlsts val uable military training which increased their feeling of independence of Eng land Also from their better knowI edge of the country they knew that by following the tactics learned from the Indians by hiding behind trees stumps and other shelter, they could conquer numbers many times larger than their own.
 The repeal of the Stamp Act was fol- lowed by duties imposed upon certain