In Edmund Burke’s “Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies” he states, “In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole” (54). The fact that the colonists were the freest and least taxed people when the American Revolution started demonstrates that the American people were willing make sacrifices for principles. When the colonists left for the New World they were promised that they would not be treated like second class citizens. John Locke summarizes the tyrannical treatment inflicted on the colonists when he describes tyranny as “the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to” (44). Repeated violation of promises ignited the American people to revolution. England’s blatant violation of the human rights of the colonists was the principle that ignited and fueled the American Revolution. …show more content…
The charter reminds the British Government that the colonists were promised to “have and enjoy all liberties, franchises, and immunities within any of our other dominions, to all intents and purposes, as if they had been abiding and born, within this our realm of England” (37). However, the ulterior motives of the British government are evident in the unjust trade restrictions outlined in the navigation acts to the promotion of a monopoly for the East India Company. The American people valued their liberty over convenience. Creating a monopoly out of the East India Company was going to make tea cheaper for the colonists. With a careful eye on their liberty, the American people refused to be controlled by a passive government over three-thousand miles