Morally Justified Essay

Are the Colonies Morally Justified?

The colonists becoming independent from Great Britain was a long, but motivating procedure. I think that the colonists were morally justified. They had to go through so much just to gain back their freedom from a higher power that was greedy. Great Britain had control over the colonies for many years and it took many uprisings to lose control of it.

One of the reasons that the colonists were morally justified was the fact that Great Britain violated the natural laws given to man. King George III wanted to increase his power as a monarch. He wanted to take away the liberties of being a person with natural rights. He said, “Every man may reign secure in his petty tyranny, and spread his terror and desolation around him.” King George being power hungry took many things away from the colonists, life being one of them. A group of British soldiers hatched a plan to assassinate Adams, Hancock, and Warren on the fifth anniversary of the Boston Massacre.   When the soldiers came into the meeting house on March 5^th, 1775, Adams offered them the seats in front of the meeting house. He didn’t want any trouble; he just wanted to hold a calm meeting. The British kept trying to raise up a fight. A group of soldiers broke into Hancock’s mansion and tried to vandalize his furniture and shatter his windows. He wanted them to leave so they did, but not without stating that they were going to claim his mansion and stables first. The British don’t believe in the rule of law. They believe that they are above everyone else and if people don’t follow their laws and taxations, then people are tried for treason and sometimes hanged. The Seven Years War was fought for England and not for America. It seemed that Great Britain was gaining control of everything and fast.

The British believed in taxation without representation. They taxed everything. Adams thought that the economy would collapse if America was over-taxed and he was right. The Stamp Act, Tea Act, and the Declaratory Act all tax the American Colony in an attempt for the British to boost their economy and to gain all the power that they can. With the Declaratory Act Britain decided that they could tax the colonists anyway that they wanted to. The British were almost asking for a revolt.

The way that the colonists revolted was morally sound and it was innocent. With the British “bullying” the American colonies, the colonies almost had no choice; they had to fight back. Adams and the colonists who revolted had a process to their revolt. This was very civilized and had organized revolts. The leaders of these revolts cherished what was most important in their lives.  For example, in the Samuel Adams Father of American Revolution it says, “Samuel cherished his heritage and understood that his ancestors made a great sacrifice for the freedom he enjoyed.” The British had a demagogue for a leader and so Britain was very prideful. As for American colonies, they had leaders who respected God and wanted to protect the natural rights to man. Samuel Adams didn’t want to change a whole society, he wanted to give America back the rights that we already had, which are the ones that God wanted us to have in the first place. Adams even thought that Americans took their freedom for granted. It is very humbling to know that one of our founding fathers had the moral compass to use and step back to think that we need to remember to thank the person responsible for giving us our freedom rather than being prideful and trying to gain more power.

The British tried to use Parliament to their advantage. They applied a law in 1719 that held directors personally liable for losses and cited another all-but-forgotten statute extending England to the colonies. The colonists’ natural rights were being poked and prodded constantly.  Adams wanted to do something about all of this, so he organized things such as the First Continental Congress. It set forth the rights of the colonies and emphasized the abuses of the British. Whenever Adams organized a revolt he always had order to them. He had petitions signed to make sure that revolt had enough people and that it was something he could make sure was right to everyone and not just him. The 1767 Townshend Acts were duties on imports like tea. They were designed to raise revenue and to raise taxes on tea. The colonists wanted things to be fair for everyone and the East India Trading company was a monopolistic company, so they organized a revolt known as the Boston Tea Party. By organizing this revolt they were going to stand up to the British. The colonists believed that the Tea Act violated their right to be taxed by their own elected officials. The British appointed leaders without having the people vote. The British violate the law of liberty.

Great Britain was a powerful empire that hovered over the American colonies. With Great Britain being so big, all the Americans could really do was take a stand for what was right. The British were not morally justified in any of their laws that they established. In some way each one was violating the natural laws given to us from our creator. When God created us he had hopes that we could figure things out and help create his kingdom here on earth. The colonists were men that followed God’s laws. They understood that all men are created equal and that we have rights for our life, liberty, and property. And when you take one of those away you are already going against God. All of the colonists’ revolts were orderly and followed God’s law. Most of the revolts were successful and that shows that you can have something organized and civil and stand up for what is right. I believe that the colonists were morally justified and I think that if anyone looked at what the British were trying to accomplish, then they would agree with me.