| June 29 |  |
Editor says, what if one of the key causes of the American revolution didn't happen, muses Eric Lipps?
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In 1767, on this day the so-called "Townshend Acts" were voted down in the British Parliament.
Originated by Charles Townshend and designed to collect revenue from Britain's American colonists by imposing customs duties on imported glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea, the acts were rejected as likely to cause even more resistance than had the recently-repealed Stamp Act.
Townshend Acts by Eric LippsFrustrated partisans of the Acts demanded to know, as one of them put it in a letter to a friend shortly after the vote, "How, if it be barred that we collect monies from the Colonies in duties for Trade, or by direct Taxation, we can be expected to provide for the Defence, of those selfsame Colonies? Yet if we do not, their Agitators will cry that we have Abandoned them, to the French and to the Savages which do infest that Continent.
One might almost think they consider themselves, an independent Country, yet demand Tribute from England in the form of Protection from Attack".
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Liberty Fails Source: Wikipedia Labels: America, Britain, British Empire, Revolution, Imperial America.
~ This might have averted the Revolution, particularly if the British told the Americans that they were now expected to shoulder the burden of their own defense.
Comment from Walter H. Hunt on Facebook: I'm all over this one. But I prefer the Proclamation of 1763 as the villainous event here
Comment from Patrick Hooker on Facebook: one of the key problems was that England saw the colonies purely on an economical basis. They didn't share information, or even consider telling the colonies anything dealing with policy. This led to constant miscommunication between the two, and only helped broaden the gap arising between England and America
~ Of course, communication wasn't helped by the fact that it could take two months to make the crossing between England and the colonies in those sailing days.
~ Good irony.Independence w/o war?
~ So the would-be Townshend Acts were a good historical footnote instead of a must-know for civics class. We've still got Sam Adams and other rabble-rousers to deal with.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
