Richard Price Quotes
Perhaps, I do not go too far when I say that, next to the introduction of Christianity among mankind, the American revolution may prove the most important step in the progressive course of human improvement.
Richard Price, 1723-1791, Welsh Philosopher, Quoted by Adam Zamoyski in “Holy Madness: Romantics, Patriots, and Revolutionaries, 1776-1781”
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The professor was lecturing to British university students about 75 years after the American Revolution. The “American War” is the term the British use for the American Revolution.
The document was signed in his name by his ministers.
The first sentence of this quotation was a favorite of Paine's. He had earlier used it in Common Sense in 1776. See {635451}.
The enthusiasm for the American Revolution caught the imagination of many throughout Europe. See {631977}.
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.
Majority public opinion does not always prevail in a modern democracy as there are Constitutional limits on the prerogatives of the majority. Also leadership has played a strong role in America’s development where strong leaders have been able to do the right thing despite contrary public opinion.
Daymon was the librarian of Carpenter Hall and had been the go between for French secret agent Julien Alexander Achard de Bonvouloir and the Americans. This was the first contact with the French Government to try to ascertain how they would react to an American rebellion against the English. Draper, Franklin and John Jay were risking their lives and under British law, committing treason. Draper provided Carpenter Hall for the secret meetings and acted as the scribe and sometime translator. This is one of the earliest quotations indicating serious thinking and planning for a revolution.
Mackenzie was a British officer with whom Washington had become friends in the French & Indian War and in this letter, Washington was trying to explain the seriousness of the Boston rebellion for Britain.
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.
Richard Price FRS was a Welsh moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French and American Revolution. He was well-connected and fostered communication between many people, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, Mirabeau and the Marquis de Condorcet. According to the historian John Davies, Price was "the greatest Welsh thinker of all time".
