Thomas Gage Quotes

Fox was one of the opposition leaders who were opposed to the heavy handed policies that the British King and Government had used.

Several years before the Battle of Bunker Hill, revolutionary activity had already broken out in the American colonies—See {634132} for an example. This law gave the British authorities much more “clout” in dealing with the “seditious” American activities. It protected English law enforcement officials from being tried in local Colonial courts for murder or assault in putting down insurrections. George Washington and other Patriots were outraged over this law. See {634131}.

Wilkes was a strong advocate for the American cause—so much so that some in Parliament tried to deny him his seat in Parliament for his disloyal point of view.

The treaty ending the Revolutionary war guaranteed that the English bankers and merchants who had debts going back to before the American Revo
lution would have “no impediment” in collecting their debts in America. However, Rhode Island and Virginia in particular placed many impediments and made it virtually impossible for debts to be collected in their states. The John Jay led Supreme Court, in particular, overturned state actions on the grounds that they had implemented Patrick Henry’s sentiment and hence violated the treaty.

The French were carefully watching the events in the American Colonies.

He was acting as French Foreign Secretary at the time.

The crackdown on Boston which was intended to set an example and intimidate all of the other colonies backfired, and the British were told about it by their own officials in America. But they were so rigid and ideological about monarchy, that the stimulated rebellion rather than suppress them.

This was written more than a year before the “blows” began. It took time to ship the men and supplies to America and the British did not handle that task with much efficiency.

2nd Earl of Guilford. This bill cut off all trade with the American Colonies. It was meant as pressure to cease the rebellion. It did not work.

The British had closed Boston Harbor until the English merchants who lost their goods at the Boston Tea Party were paid for their damages. A convention was called to discuss a response to the closing of Boston Harbor and New York City convened a public meeting to come up with instructions for their delegates to the conference. One amazing thing was that they advocated a boycott of English goods. What was amazing was that there was no nation and New York and Massachusetts were separate entities and sectionalism was rife, yet New Yorkers were willing to sacrifice to help Bostonians. The New York sacrifice was all the greater because most of the imports from England landed at New York harbor where there was work created for New Yorkers and business for New York companies. New York stood to lose the most with a boycott. Philadelphia which also advocated a boycott, lost little as they were not a harbor for imports. New Yorkers also provided assistance to their competitors, the Bostonians who were out of work. See {589413}.

Americans were by no means united in wanting to take up arms against Britain. Relatively few of the loyalist quotations have come down to us, but here is one. It also illustrates why some Americans wanted complete independence: So that they could escape their debts to English merchants. Most however had more noble and unselfish motives. As a matter of fact, the American Revolution is unusual in the sense that there were so many men of substance who sacrificed much of their material wealth for the American ideal. There were also the rogues and opportunists as Galloway describes.

The Germans allied themselves with the Islamic insurgency of the day as a strategic maneuver. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem broadcast propaganda from Nazi radio in Berlin and was dispatched to organize Muslim fighters in Iraq. Fascism was introduced into the Middle East and the Arabs and Persians saw it as a natural extension of their authoritarian and highly prescriptive forms of religious and civil government. 60 years later, there would be Islamic Fascists throughout the Middle East in control or vying for control of many of the countries.

The Parliament was debating the reaction to the Stamp Act by the American Colonies. One of the members, reflecting a majority view, asked sarcastically when the American Colonies had been emancipated so that they could make their own independent decisions. Pitt then hit this one out of the park by reversing the question.

In the war year of 1813 all costal fishing and maritime trading was prohibited by the Madison administration, to eliminate contraband trade:

1st Earl of Chatham. The Continental Congress had endorsed and sent to England a set of resolutions from Suffolk County, Massachusetts, drawn up by Joseph Warren. Legislators forever since have admired the logic and presentation of the case for America. The King and the Prime Minister failed to heed Pitt’s view, and the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution followed.

The violent IRA logic had always been a little tortured. At the time, the claim was that the British were not wanted in Ireland but were there only by force of arms. However, the British administration of Ireland at the time was not forceful or violent at all. Few others had the freedom and democracy of Ireland as a part of Great Britain. De Valera’s logic was that if the British in Ireland were subjected to violent, terrorist attacks, they would respond with force of arms, and thus show that they held Ireland by force. Most of the Catholics of Ireland preferred independence while most of the Protestants preferred the relationship with England.

In South Carolina, the Patriots, in reaction to the Tea Tax, did not destroy the tea, but stopped it from being landed and sold. Finally Lt. Governor Bull had the tea moved into the Customs house in Charleston. The patriots were satisfied that it was under lock and key and could not be sold or distributed and the tea tax was thus not collected. The British Secretary of State for America, however did not regard the compromise favorably.