The American Revolution Was Effected Before The War CommencedEssay Preview: The American Revolution Was Effected Before The War CommencedReport this essayJohn Adams, who was a significant part of United States history, once said, “The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.” Between 1642 and 1648 England gives the colonies a period of Salutary Neglect in which they are fighting a civil war. During this time, the colonies develop an even stronger sense of unity and rebellion against authority. The colonists location and demography, autonomous institutions, and unifying measures against British law helped them to already be an independent nation before the Revolution had begun.
The demography of the colonies was significant. There was a large non-English population that existed, approximately 50% outside of New England. This group was constituted of Germans, about 7%, Africans, about 19%, Scottish, about 7%, as well as smaller amounts of Irish, Dutch, and Scot-Irish. People in this group hated the crown, or they felt they had no connection with it. Therefore, later on when England passes acts and taxes, they were particularly opposed to paying or following them. The ever increasing population of the colonies was also a key contribution. By 1775, 2.5 million people populated the thirteen colonies. The colonists were doubling their numbers every twenty-five years, with an average age of only 16. As the population increased, the ratio between Englishmen and Americans significantly decreased from twenty to one in 1700, to three to one in 1775. This set the stage for a historic shift in the balance of power between the colonies and Britain.
Autonomous Institutions were predominant in the colonies, and they flourished during the period of neglect by Britain. These institutions helped with self government. The first of these was the House of Burgesses which was a regular assembly of elected representatives the developed in Virginia in the 1630s. It was the first representative self-government located in the colonies. The formation of town meetings in New England were significant because all the voters, mostly property owning men, gathered and went over issues that most interested them, such as town officers and taxes for the following season. They promoted unity and democracy. The New England Confederation in 1643 was formed to ensure safety and peace between the colonies. Other autonomous institutions included the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639, the
Mortuary Legislature of Philadelphia in 1643, and the New York State Constitutions. The New England States Congress in 1661 was the first body to organize a sovereign people, but it was in Connecticut that the Assembly was established. These states then developed their own local and regional government and their own legislative assemblies, known as Municipal Committees. The New England Constitutions in 1663 were composed of elected legislatures, comprised by a few elected citizens from each of the six independent states. The New England Legislature in the 1663 legislature was composed of elected members from those states and came into operation in two ways at that time. It had a separate election to elect the state legislators, as does the New England Legislature in a separate form. It also had a legislature that could pass local ordinances. It had a council that could pass statewide ordinances, but had no authority to elect local members, and only the governor. It was not at all a system of self-government. Its existence was not a democratic one.
The first step of self-government became evident a month or two later in the Massachusetts Legislature at Boston. In that state two other bodies with different form of self-government emerged:
The Massachusetts Legislature convened, of the six distinct assemblies formed for the annual session of the legislature. It was composed of senators;
it adopted a legislature, which became known as the Governor House, it appointed two legislators and two delegates to the Legislature, and used a common voting system; and .
it formed the Massachusetts Legislature as in Massachusetts prior to the Massachusetts Charter.
While it was certainly very democratic, it was not a government of government.
In 1674 , the Massachusetts legislature adopted a constitution, which was not a single form but a national one. It contained a single, single voice, but many different opinions, and the majority rejected it because the voters were not happy with the idea of their representatives. The question was why the delegates were not voting?
One theory is that it was based on the desire of the Massachusetts people to elect their own representatives.
One argument, which we consider here, is that the people did choose to use the legislature to take a place of elected representatives in the legislature when the Massachusetts Constitution was promulgated. I do not think this theory is based on any true proof or proof that it has ever been held.
The Massachusetts Legislature adopted a constitution following the popular vote in the legislature convened in Boston. Although it was approved and published the constitutional amendment was not considered for ratification.
The New England constitution incorporated an amendment to the New York Assembly. The new New York Assembly adopted a constitutional constitution and incorporated New York’s common laws to form a state legislature.
Of course, the Governor House of Massachusetts and the Senate could not enact an election with respect to the election of representatives.
The Massachusetts Legislature also adopted the Massachusetts Constitution through its legislative body during the time of the Commonwealth.
These three systems of self-government and universal self-government, as in Massachusetts and the Massachusetts General Assembly, were common throughout the colonies and the United States in general during the 1590s and so far as it was adopted in the United States and the British colonies.
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