Introduction
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the economic and cultural prosperity of the North American colonies was not only a source of profit for Britain. The unceasing struggle for power and spheres of influence between English governors and local legislative assemblies, and the increasingly frequent rebellions against the colonial administration, testified to the profound crisis afflicting the empire. Against this backdrop, a group of educated elites who wanted to create a workable system for the functioning of an independent state was particularly vivid. Political figures called patriots used radical methods to achieve their goals and largely led the country to victory in the struggle for independence.
Main body
The main ground for patriotism was primarily a person’s strong ties to the metropolis. The methods patriots used to operate included civil resistance demanding the right to independence and the boycott of British laws. And the opposition itself gradually became more and more aggressive. Thus, by the end of the summer of 1765, the North American colonies increasingly shifted from peaceful and lawful methods of struggle to aggressive and unlawful ones (Brands, 2022). On August 14, in Boston, a mob of small craftsmen and shopkeepers led by the Loyal Nine, a secret organization later renamed the Sons of Liberty, stormed the home of tax collector E. Oliver. They looted his property and hung an effigy of the escaped official on the gallows in the town square. Fearing for his own life, Oliver resigned (Miloszewski, 2019). On the night of August 26, the mansion of Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson was ransacked to the ground.
It should be noted that it was not the size or designation of any particular tax that displeased Americans. However, the very desire of Grenville and his supporters to restore the crumbling British Empire, to restore it to its former glory at the expense of the finances of the colonies an illegal, contrary to the English constitution (Brands, 2022). The English Constitution, or rather the two laws, were, according to enlightened colonial elites, the cause of the wisest, most just, free, and perfect system of government that had ever existed.
While many Western and Central European countries of the Age of Enlightenment were characterized by Anglophilia as a phenomenon of political and spiritual culture, admiration of the English polity in North America was particularly important in the development of the ideology of the patriotic movement on the eve of the War of Independence. The eighteenth-century intellectuals viewed the right order of society and government as being in harmony with nature and the wrong order as distorting and destructive (Miloszewski, 2019). The enlightened colonial elite admired the English constitution not because it was an ideal creation of the human mind but because it was created “in harmony with the laws of nature (Brands, 2022). The enthusiastic perception of the country that had first protected the “sacred flame of liberty” and extended it to neighboring countries was retained by patriotic Americans during the crisis of 1765-1766, but this enthusiasm was now coupled with contempt and hatred for corrupt officials.
The patriots were unsuccessful in their attempt to establish the first government. Under their proposed Articles of Confederation, each state saw its sovereignty and authority as paramount to the national good. This led to frequent disputes among the states. In addition, the states were unwilling to give money to support the national government financially (The American Yamp, 2018). The national government was powerless to enforce any acts passed by Congress. Further, some states began to enter into separate agreements with foreign governments. Almost every state had its army, called a militia. Each state printed its own money. This, along with trade problems, meant that there was no stable national economy.
As economic and military weakness became apparent, especially after the Shays rebellion, Americans began to ask for changes to the articles. They hoped to create a stronger national government. Initially, some states met to work together to solve their trade and economic problems. But as more states became interested in changing the Articles and the national feeling grew stronger, a meeting was called in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787 (Brands, 2022). This became the Constitutional Convention. The assembled delegates realized that change would not work, and instead, all the Articles of Confederation should be replaced by a new U.S. Constitution that would define the structure of national government.
Conclusion
Thus, the formation of the revolutionary ideology of the American colonists (the patriots, or Whigs, as they called themselves in memory of the leaders of the anti-Jacobean opposition in England during the reign of James II Stuart) was a complex, uneven process. Through the purposeful actions of the patriots, a crisis in the relationship between Britain and its North American colonies was emerging. During this crisis, J. Adams, J. Otis, P. Henry, and other representatives of the enlightened colonial elite formulated their understanding of the essence of the English Constitution, the “natural rights” of the colonists, and the natural equality of metropolitan and colonial inhabitants. It later formed the basis of the ideology of the patriotic movement in North America, which culminated in the War of Independence.
References
The American Yawp. (2018). Americanyawp.com. Web.
Brands, H. W. (2022). Our First Civil War. Anchor.
Miloszewski, N. (2019). Patriots and Loyalists. PowerKids Press.