Student Question
How did the colonists' government ideas in the 1760s differ from the British?
Quick answer:
In the 1760s, American colonists increasingly opposed British government policies, particularly taxation without representation, such as the Stamp Act, which they viewed as violations of their rights. The British sought to impose taxes and assert control following the French and Indian War to manage debts and administer the colonies, leading to tensions. While colonists considered themselves loyal subjects, they perceived British actions as abuses, contrasting with the British view of these measures as necessary and reasonable.
Colonists' ideas about government (or at least the ideas of many colonists) were beginning to differ from those held by Parliament in the 1760s primarily in that the colonists opposed the imposition of additional taxes and regulations by Parliament in the wake of the French and Indian War. For many years, the colonists had benefited from lax enforcement of imperial regulations, a practice referred to after the fact as "salutary neglect." However, in the wake of the war, the British government began to exert more direct control over the colonies, and the colonists argued that these changes represented a violation of their rights as British subjects. Particularly objectionable was the Stamp Act, passed in 1765, that essentially placed a tax on official documents by requiring a revenue stamp on them. The colonists, lacking representation in Parliament, claimed that this was a violation of their rights, and engaged in protests that...
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eventually led to the repeal of the law. Parliament, however, continued to claim the right to legislate for the colonies in all cases, and this would be the major difference between the colonies and the British. So it could be argued (and indeed has been by many historians) that the colonists' ideas about governance and their proper relationship with the British Empire did not change, but that the British approach to governance did. The colonists responded by asserting their time-honored rights, and only eventually turned to more radical ideas like natural rights and eventually independence.
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How did colonists' ideas about government differ from the British in the 1760s?
The crucial and most often-cited difference was that the colonists denied the right of Parliament to levy internal taxes on the colonies. Parliament had not, in fact, done so previously, and their attempts to do so with the Stamp Act led to violent protests and boycotts in almost every colony.
But internal taxes were not the extent of American complaints. More broadly, the colonists objected to British attempts to exert more control over them. This was a direct result of British exertions and gains made in the French and Indian War, which gave them hegemony over all of North America east of the Mississippi River, but also potentially crippling debt. In order to administer the colonies as well as raise funds to service the debt, the Crown sought to reform the imperial relationship. In addition to the Stamp Act, King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. This angered many colonists who hoped to immediately reap the fruits of the French and Indian War. They were further angered by the Townshend Acts, which placed import duties on items the colonists could not manufacture domestically, and that they were not allowed to purchase from other countries.
During the 1760s, the American colonists continued to consider themselves loyal British subjects. But they were becoming increasingly worried--and increasingly vocal in their protests--about what they saw as a chain of British abuses. By the end of the decade, they saw them as a conspiracy against their liberties. The British, on the other hand, saw these actions as entirely reasonable in light of the new realities created by the French and Indian War. These, then, were the most important differences about government between the British and the colonists.
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