Abandoned Forum

by **Math_nerd** on Tue Oct 04, 2005 6:52 am

During the period of salutary neglect before the French and Indian war, the colonies had become the most progressive and democratic region in the world. After the war England had a lot of debt and tried to impose taxes and economic restrictions to help pay off the war debt and profit English merchants. The colonists would not stand for these restrictions and taxes, and the American Revolution was the climax of the ensuing conflict. The solders fighting the American Revolution did so to guarantee their rights, a very liberal cause. Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense clearly show the radical element of the Revolution. Above all, the American Revolution made way for an entirely new form of government, defined by the constitution, without fighting or the outbreak of civil war. These are among the reasons the American Revolution was a radical movement.
The purpose of the American Revolution in the minds of the people was to insure their natural rights as citizens of a country. Unless they fought, they reasoned, they would never permanently insure the right to be represented, the right to prosper economically or the right to advance in society. The idea of a representative democracy was of the most radical of ideas in the world. Yet these were the thoughts of many of the rebels fighting Great Britain. The Coercive Acts, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, and the Tea Act were all seen as attempts to infringe on the colonists’ rights as British citizens. In the colonists’ eyes, the British represented all of the things stopping them from enjoying a free and just society.
Many of these rebels were not convinced so easily that war was the only option to secure these rights. Common Sense by Thomas Paine convinced many that separation was the only logical and in fact natural course of action that must be taken by the colonies. He said that it was against the vary laws of nature for an island to control a continent. Paine called for a representative democracy instead of an easily corrupted monarchy. One of the most radical publications in history, Common Sense was a rational to fight to progress.
While Common Sense was an essay for the masses, the Declaration of Independence was a call to the elite and to foreign nations. As a list of wrongs committed by King George III, it was rational for independence and a battle cry. It was a demand to remove the monarchy from power in the colonies and become, if not a single sovereign nation, a sovereign confederation of nations that would permanently establish the unalienable rights of “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
There are those that insist the colonists were fighting to regain the rights that they had before the French and Indian War and because they had experienced those rights before that it was a conservative movement. The logic of this argument breaks down when you consider that they were fighting for equality of all men and a just government, some of the most radical ideas of the time. To say that, because the colonies were already progressing, the revolution was a conservative movement is nonsense.
But what about the rights of women and blacks? True, there was little progress made in securing the rights of women and blacks, but the revolution was the foundation for further civil rights movements. Saying that there was no progress is akin to saying Isaac Newton did nothing to help our understanding of nature because he didn’t discover the theory of relativity. Just a Newton made large discoveries in the laws of physics, the colonists made great strides in human rights during the revolution.
Those that argue that the revolution was a conservative movement based on the length of time between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution fail to take into account the following points. First, the war continued six years after the Declaration was signed and the colonists could hardly be expected to set up a long term system of government while fighting the world power of the time. Second, a temporary government in the form of the Articles of Confederation was in effect before the war was over. Third, the Constitution was completed only four years after the Treaty of Paris 1783 and was adopted by 11 of the colonies in nine months. The Revolution only allowed such radical change so quickly because the leaders of America were thinking progressively.
The American Revolution started because the colonists believed England had infringed on their rights. They fought for economic, social and political freedom. The Declaration of Independence and Common Sense clearly presented the radical views of the colonists. The implementation of a new government without military conflict was amazing for that time. The ideas America was fighting for were the most progressive on the earth. That is why the American Revolution was a radical movement.

by **trumpetprodigy** on Sat Oct 15, 2005 4:25 am

I'm sure that was a very good essay, but it was long and I didn't take the time to read it. Sorry.

by **Math_nerd** on Sun Oct 16, 2005 4:52 am

It got an 8 of 9 and 9 of 9s are almost impossable.

by **vampress** on Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:54 am

why do most people never take the time to enjoy an excellent story or essay. Even though I don't like history I feel that anything that you take time to write needs to be read by someone who appriciates it.