So, it’s been a couple of weeks… I have been trying to get an idea of the causes of secession/independence in colonial America - what would cause the colonies to desire independence from England? It’s not as simple as it might first appear.
In fact, the origins seem to be as early as the English Civil War beginning in 1642. Relations between the colonies and England were strained, encouraging the colonies to open trade relations with the Dutch and French.
Later it was the availability of Dutch tea at a much lower price to the colonies, the availability of molasses from the French West Indies at a much lower price, the French and Indian Wars, and the desire of England to regain control of it’s colonies all contributed to an overreach of English power in the colonies.
The trade problems were largely a result of the English economic tradition of mercantilism. The Navigation Acts were an attempt to consolidate the power and authority of England over all aspects of the colonies.
The colonies had originally been granted the right to tax themselves, and to have their own elected officials, which the Intolerable Acts tried to deny them.
This is just the broadest of outlines, but several threads can be delineated.
- An attempt by England to control ALL aspects of the economy of the colonies, through trade restrictions and the taxes imposed on the colonists to enforce this control was anathema to the colonists.
- Eventually England denied the colonists the right to have their own money, requiring the colonists to pay taxes (mostly) using the English pound.
- England eventually removed the right of the colonists to elect their own officials, and restricted the town meetings to only one per year. Courts were staffed by officials appointed by England. Even ecclesiastical courts came under the control of England.
- Smuggling became rampant, as well as a practice of non-importation. But the Admiralty courts did not seat a jury, all decisions were up to a judge, who received 5% of the value of of the cargo in the ships that were apprehended the judge found the defendant guilty. This was a huge opportunity for corruption of all types, on both sides.
Now, let’s look at the later constitution.
- The power to control commerce was given to the federal government. Through a constitutional amendment, the federal government was given the power to lay taxes on individuals. Remember that constitutional amendments are ratified by the states, not by the people.
- The power to coin money was reserved to the federal government.
- State legislatures were required to swear allegiance to the United States, and the constitution and federal laws became the “law of the land”.
- The right to trial by jury was incorporated into our most cherished traditions. Later, the courts were given the right to control how juries were selected, and jury duty became just that, a duty.
All of the same things that the colonists found objectionable were later incorporated as powers of the federal and state governments, with no power to the people, regardless of the rhetoric of both the constitution and the politicians.
The colonies were from the beginning self-governing, but the “supreme law of the land” took away the right to self-government of the states.
The people just simply exchanged the English king and parliament for the US constitution and the federal government.
Similar trade restrictions and the right to self-government were also at the root of the civil war, and of today’s secession movements.
I will expand on all of things in the weeks to come. Let me say for now that the people of the United States are less free today than at the time the colonists seceded from England.
