Evening star., 1933-04-19
PATRIOTS DAY EMPHASIZES
VOTELESS DISTRICTS PLIGHT
Capital Remains Without Representation
$50 Years After Revolution Won
It for American Colonies.
BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.

BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.
This is Patriots day. Throughout
the United States it is being celebrated
with appropriate ceremonies. It marks
the sesquicentenary of the termination
of the Revolutionary War, the end of
the long struggle for independence. 1t
also marks the l58th anniversary Of the
beginning of that memorable contest
| The battles of Lexington and Concord
were fought on April 19, IT'S; George
| Washington proclaimed the re-estab-
lishment of peace on April 19. 1913. No
other dates in American history are
more important
Both anniversaries have particular
significance to the people OF the District
of Columbia, because here there exists
a condition of civic disability which Is
strikingly similar to that which was the
| fundamental and basic grievance Of the
| Colonies in their differences with the
British crown decade more than cen
tury and half ago. Here in the Nations
Capital there is taxation without repre-
sentation, the same inequlty against
which the Colonies complained and
against which, when their petitions were
ignored or neglected, they at last rose
in arms.
The source of the problem which burst
into action when Paul Revere, riding
through the night from Charlestown
reused the countryside to oppose the
Redcoat march to Concord Village, lay
deep in the aftermath of the French and
Indian War. the Western phase of the
Seven Years strife. which devastated
Europe and eliminated France from
participation in the development of
North America. The question was:
Who should pay the costs of the con-
f1ict? Parliament, meeting on the banks
of the Thames at Westminster. more
than 5000 miles from the Colonial
towns of New England. New York.
Pennsylvania and Virginia, decided that
the Colonists should pay. The error Of
judgment was fatal mistake. 1t cost
England the richest possession she had
ever held. 1t made democracy the
fashion throughout Christendom. 1t
determined once and for all the west
ward course of civilization. 1t brought
in liberty and dedicated to the propo-
Some Causes Remote.
But what was the basis Of Parlia-
ment's error? How did it happen that
such mistake occurred? Historians
testify that the fault derived from the
ancient notion that people may be
taxed against their will. or at least
without their consent. That idea was
as old as government, and it never had
been challenged successfully before. Not
even the great Cromwell had been COM
petent to win permanent victory in
that regard. Fate left the task to
George Washington.
The chronicle Of the origins of the
Revolution is fascinating to read. Some
of the causes of separation were re-
mote and in themselves Insignificant
Henry William Eison says: The two
people unconsciously grew apart
and when England attempted to play
the part of parent. the fact was brought
out that the relations of parent and
child existed no longer between the two
countries. Quebec had fallen and
British arms were triumphant in all
parts of the earth. but, w1thal. the Brit
ish debt had risen to alarming propor-
tions. The Colonies also had incurred
heavy debts by the war and a small
portion of them had been paid from the
English treasury. There was now a
general feeling among British states
men that the Colonies should, in some
regular and systematic way, be made to
bear a portion of the burdens of the
empire" The same writer tells how
Parliament decided that the navigation
acts, the hated molasses act of 1893
and the detested sugar act of 1854
should be enforced, and how a spy sys-
TEN Of customs officers armed with
"writs of assistance" general search
warrants, was set up to aid the policy
OF coercion. James Otis, brilliant
young Boston lawyer, gave utterance to
the wrath Of the oppressed, and, says
Elson, "the people took up the cry,
and it spread from the New England
hills to the valleys of the Hudson. the
Delaware and the James. In q short
time the whole country was reused to
resistance" There followed the famous
Parsons cause" with Patrick Henry
as its hero; the rapid decline of crown
authority. promoted by the Sons of
Liberty and other volunteer societies;
the parliamentary proposal to maintain
standing army in America: Benjamin
Franklin's eloquent but unavailing ap-
peal to the House of Commons; the
passage Of the stamp act OF 1765, af-
fecting 54 kinds of documents, includ-
ing newspapers and marriage licenses;
the meeting of the Stamp act Congress
in New York, with nine groups of
Colonial representatives cooperating to
frame a declaration of rights and to
petition the King: the first disorders in
Boston and in New York when the
stamps arrived for sale; the passage OF
the declaratory act of 1865 and of the
Townshend acts of 1857, the latter lay
ing an import duty on tea glass, lead
and other articles used in the Colonies;
the Boston Massacre of ITO and the
Boston Tea Party of 1773, and finally
the irrevocable clash by 'the rude
bridge that arched the flood" where
the Minute Men fired the shots heard
round the world"
Losses Put on Colonies.
John Fiske traces the same process
OF evolution. He declares: when
European nations began to plant
colonies in America they treated them
in accordance with theory which pre-
vailed until it was upset by the Amer
ican Revolution. According to this
ignorant and barharous theory, a
colony was community which existed
only for the purpose of enriching the
country which had founded it. = Laws
were made to regulate trade so that,
as far as possible. all the loss might
fall upon the colonies and all the gain
;5J!!llM