A Tradition of British Neglect Towards America
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Some of the earliest settlers in America, Puritans under the leadership of John Winthrop, came to New England in hopes of inspiring their fellow countrymen in England and furthermore saving the nation. “The City on the Hill” was an unsuccessful set of reformed churches conspicuous to the sinful mother country. The attempt failed merely because the mother country paid no mind the settlement. England paid little attention to all of the colonies. Charles S. Miller and Natalie Joy War write in History of America, Vol. 1, “The English government wrongfully assumed that once the colonies were establish, often without any help other a written charter they could be ignored much of the time. Most people in England had little interest in the colonies” (Miller and War 94). This period of “salutary neglect” officially was instituted under George I reign. Charles Sellers, Henry May, and Neil R. McMillen write in A Synopsis of American History, Vol. 1, “Sir Robert Walpole, who became the kings chief minister in 1721, believed that it was Englands interest to let the colonies flourish without interference; and his policy of salutary neglect continued until the 1760s” (Sellers, May, McMillen 21). The colonies, however, had been easily ignored from their birth. Rossiter writes in First Amiercan Revolution that the long distance and English indifference allowed numerous colonies, such as Connecticut and Rhode Island, to form pseudo-independent governments and prosper with only as much as a charter. This period of benign neglect would develop the colonies culture of independence, recalcitrance, and liberty.
After the British victory in the French and Indian Wars, a massive fiscal predicament developed, a Ј137 million debt. It seemed natural that after spending so much blood and gold protecting the colonies throughout the war, the inhabitants pay a minuscule
tax to help raise revenue. Compared to the average twenty-six shilling tax in Britain, colonists paid virtually no taxes, a mere one shilling per person. Colonists, however, viewed this stance as an attack on their precious liberties and prosperity. They ironically affirmed their cherished identity as liberty-loving Britons while insisting that a free man paid taxes only levied by his own representatives. Raised in an environment of British ancestry, but otherwise extreme neglect from the mother country, this confusion was only natural as the definition of Briton transformed into the prosperous American free man. The standard that had altered so greatly between the two now presented a dire quandary for the indebted Britons. The economic issue was minuscule
; most colonists could easily pay the tax. The powerful cultural rift strengthened by the massive Atlantic and years of neglect would