Colonial Rebellion Quotes
This was written more than a year before the American Revolution Battles began. It took time to ship the men and supplies to America and the British did not handle that task with much efficiency. See {636926} for another of the King’s statements.
The penchant for Southern conservatives to always blame outsiders whenever there were local people demanding change or reform may have begun here. It reached its peak in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. There was however, a conscious effort of the Massachusetts Patriots to have descriptions of their revolutionary activities sent as newspaper articles throughout all the colonies quickly after the events. The Americans thus were able to frame all the issues, before the reports could get to London and the British thus got their viewpoints to the public weeks and months after the revolutionists did.
While the official battles of the American Revolution did not begin until 1776, parts of the American colonies were in a de facto state of rebellion and the British could not enforce their laws. See {636925} for another of the King’s statements.
In the war year of 1813 all costal fishing and maritime trading was prohibited by the Madison administration, to eliminate contraband trade:
The French were carefully watching the events in the American Colonies.
We are so used to hearing the freedom seeking reasons for the American Revolution that we overlook the more selfish and venal motives. This quotation shows that the large merchants of the colonies had banded together in an illegal conspiracy trust and monopoly and managed to keep many British competitive products out of the colonies. The British, for equally venal reasons, began to enforce the laws in favor of free trade. Many large American merchants were getting huge profits (and American consumers paying more) from their protectionist illegal monopoly. A Revolution would de facto assure that monopoly for many years to come, so they became supporters—patriots—of the American Revolution. As the Revolution drew closer, the Americans made efforts to protect the protectionism and monopoly of some of the richest Americans. See {636861}.
Although the French were great Admirers of American idealism, and Benjamin Franklin was extremely popular in France, one of the major French motivations for helping the Americans was to vex their arch enemy, England. French diplomats and agents watched the coming of and the progress of the American Revolution very carefully.
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.
His advice was not taken. The result was as Franklin predicted.
