Linda Colley Quotes
From the American Revolution right up to the Second World War, the U.S. was more likely to provoke suspicion among members of the British establishment than deferential approval. It was seen - with good cause - not just as a potential rival for empire, but also as dangerously egalitarian, worryingly innovatory, and excessively democratic.
Colley, Linda. Acts of Union and Disunion. Profile Books, 2014.
This resolution was the trigger that began the debate which became the Declaration of Independence.
This resolution of independence was voted upon a month before the Declaration of Independence. It was approved by 12 of the colonies but not by New York. The Congress appointed a committee to draft what became the Declaration of Independence and that was approved by all the colonies. The resolution was introduced by Richard Henry Lee on instructions from Virginia. The graphic is of Lee’s original notes.
He was addressing the Conservatives of Ulster, the Northern Ireland province that was the center of the Orangemen movement of Irish Protestants who were fighting to retain 'Protestant Ascendency' -- which was the social, political and cultural domination of the Protestants (the minority) over the Catholics (the majority). This was best achieved by keeping Ireland a part of Great Britain as opposed to having Ireland as a separate, independent country.
Publicly warning Louis Napoleon against his adventure in Mexico:
This article reached America where the insult proved a patriotic rallying point.
Ultranationalist Secret Organization. Unlike the Italian Black hand for whom it was named, the Serbs were not interested in money. The were a right wing death squad that assassinated all who opposed a single, unitary, Serbian nation. Dimitrijevic was executed in 1917.
The French Revolution was out of control and terribly bloody. Most Americans and even English who supported the principles and reasons for the French revolution ceased their support because of the Reign of Terror. Jefferson, however, saw a link between France and American democracy and was reluctant to end support.
Buleihi is one of the few Arab intellectuals who are not totally negative about Western colonialism and interference in the affairs of other countries who he believes benefit from the Western influence and have developed such an insularity that they will not be changed or modernized otherwise.
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.
Madison was defending the proposed Constitution against a vocal minority who complained that the Federal government would be dominant over the States and the large cities. Madison pointed out that it was people who fought the Revolution and sacrificed for it, not States or political entities. The Constitution was to be for the people, not the existing governmental entities. It was for Americans and not for local politicians. The “State’s Rights faction lost the debate, and the Constitution and Bill of Rights was adopted. That is why this quotation is so important. The slavery enthusiasts, racists, and others have constantly tried to diminish the Federal supremacy even to this day.
Nostradamus made thousands of prophecies most of which seem not to have occurred as he predicted. However there were a few that some people believe predicted later events. In this case some think that he predicted the colonization and independence of America.
Linda Colley, CBE, FBA, FRSL, FRHistS is an expert on British, imperial and global history from 1700. She is currently Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University and a Long Term Fellow in History at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala. She previously held chairs at Yale University and at the London School of Economics. Her work frequently approaches the past from inter-disciplinary perspectives.
