The Dolores star., 1921-06-24
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These laws We're comprehensive strict. being
designed to give British merchants n monopoly
OF trade with the colonies and to protect British
manufacturers against colonial competition. War
ships were now placed along the coast to stop
the colonial trade with France and Spain and
their West Indian colonies The ..Wrts of AS
sistance' were general search warrants given to
customs officials to enable them to break into and
search any premises at any time. james Otis,
the famous Boston lawyer, opposed the right of
the British government to issue the wrlts or even
to pass an act of trade imposing tax on the
colonies. John Adams said of Otis celebrated
speech: 1t breathed into this nation the breath
of life" Undoubtedly this situation was one of
the contributing causes of the Revolution.
Then King George demanded that the colonies
pay the expense of u British army of about 90
900 men to be quarered in America to protect
the colonies against the Indians The colonies
suspected the purpose of this army and would
have none of it. Here the beginning of real
trouble a little later.
The Boston Tea Party" was serious affair
not in itself but because parliament Immediate
ly took measures to punish Boston and Massa-
chuSetts The closing of the port of Boston, the
removal of the seat of government to Salem the
appointment of General Gage as governor of Mas
sachusetts and the remodeling of the charter OF
Massachusetts constituted a warming to nil tn,
colonies that free government was in immnen
danger everywhere. On top of this came til,
act providing that British officers or magistrate
charged with murder or other capital crime shoul,
be tried in some other colony in England: tn,
act billeting soldiers on people who failed volun
tarily to provide quarters and the act extending
the boundaries of Quebec to the Ohio river and
establishing an arbitrary form of government
This cumulation of activities on the part of the
crown seems to have convinced the colonies that
their only salvation lay in getting together for
united action. So the First Continental Congress
met. This congress was merely deliberatve and
n of RIGHT In
formed an association for carrying out the nom
importation agreement; 1t forwarded petition
to the king and set out an address to the col
onies it provided for another congress to meet
in 1913. Still there open discussion of
Independence.
1t Massachusetts which finally set off the
powder barrel. General Gage summoned the pro-
vincal congress to meet in Salem, but put off the
date of assembling. The delegates met without
him and his counsellors They provided for tho
appointment of n committee of safety and issued
call for 1000 Minute Men, Parliament then
declared Massachusetts to be in IL state of re-
bellion. Next was the expedition out of Boston
to seize powder and to arrest the two chief trait.
Ors"
Then came the "shots heard round the wordo
and bloods,ed. The fight was on. And still tbera
was no open movement for independence until
after II year Of bloody fighting. 1t was not until
June T. 1116 in the Second Continental Congress,
that Nirginias instructed delegate, Richard Hen.
ry Lee introduced the resolution beginning, .rba,
these united colonies are, and of right ought to
be, free and independent states"
The Declaration Of Independence ms drafted
by Thomas jefferson with the aid Of John Adams
Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert
X. Livingston and amended by congress, consists
of two principal parts statement of American
political theories in justification of Independence
ana list of abuses by King George III that had
operated to absolve the united colonies from, a,I
allegiance to the British crown. The facts here
In set forth make clear most Of the abuses as out
lined In the Declaration.