Nagy 1

Laszlo Nagy

APUSH

Mr. Jones

22 October 2017

Being represented in the government, specifically the House of Commons at the time, is

strongly believed to be a civil right of the people. Being a part of the British Empire, Americans

believe that they are naturally owed the right to be represented by their own representatives. The

colonies were hit with multiple taxes over the course of several years, none of which were passed

with the colonies consent. The demand for no taxation without representation became a massive

force behind the American revolutionary movement and a powerful symbol for democracy.

The colonies were promised during the early years that they would stay British citizens

and be treated as British citizens because they were ruled over by the same crown. This meant

that people living in mainland Britain would have the same rights as the people living in the

Americas and neither would be given or denied rights the other wasnt. The Resolution of the

Virginia House of Burgesses implored the Royal Protection of his [the king's] faithful subjects,

and claimed that these promised rights of a British citizen are violated if, Laws respecting the

internal Government, and Taxation of themselves, are imposed upon them by any other Power

than that derived from their own Consent, by and with the Approbation of their Sovereign, or his

Substitute, (Doc 1). Anytime a tax that wasnt created by the colonies legislatures was passed,

their rights as citizens of the Crown were completely violated. This belief is further enforced by

the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress in Section 5 where it states that, ...no taxes ever have
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been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures, (Doc 2).

The argument that taxation without representation was unconstitutional became a leading point

in all cases where the colonies were in fact taxed without their respective consent. The taxes

themselves werent terrible because of the extra money people would have to pay for whatever

was taxed, like tea with the Tea Act or like playing cards and newspaper with the Stamp Act.

The problem lay in the fact that all of these taxes were passed without the colonies input and

that many of these taxes were passed for the sole purpose of punishing the colonies or to just

generate extra revenue for Britain. In the Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in

the British Colonies, Daniel Dulany, a Maryland lawyer, stated, A right to impose an internal

tax on the colonies, without their consent for the single purpose of revenue, is denied, a right to

regulate their trade without their consent is admitted, (Doc 3). Dulany claims that Britain is not

allowed to tax the colonies without their consent if the only purpose of the tax is to generate

revenue. Many Americans saw that the taxes served no just purpose besides that. Britain, ...soon

found that this taxation could not be supported by reason and argument..., and the colonists

were further angered by Britain's pointless oppression, (Doc 4). Failing in convincing the

colonies that the taxes were good, ...it seemed necessary that one act of oppression should be

enforced by another, (Doc 4). As a solution, Britain deployed more troops to the Americas to

enforce the taxes with fear and military might. The violation of the colonists rights to be

represented in government and the use of the military to enforce taxes the colonies legislatures

never agreed to created massive amounts of hate for the Crown. This violation was even the first

grievance mentioned in the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms by the

Second Continental Congress. The first reasoning was that, They [Parliament] have undertaken
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to give and grant our money without our consent, though we have ever exercised an exclusive

right to dispose of our own property, (Doc 5). Besides being unjustified, the enactment of the

involved taxes went against the colonists ideas of democracy. American colonists were angered

by Parliament for allowing these unjust taxes to be passed because they believed that they had

the civil right of controlling what happened to their own property, which money falls under.

They believed the people should have some sort of say in government decisions, especially when

the decision(s) would affect them. Since the problem of unconsented taxing arose on multiple

occasions and it violated their democracy, it ended up being at the forefront of the list of reasons

for a revolution against Britain.

The problem of taxation without representation was around for several years prior to the

revolutionary war and became the primary force motivating the American revolutionary

movement. The taxes were unfair, unjustified, unconsented and a violation of the colonists civil

rights. It was also illogical as, In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its

primary planet, so it made no sense for the island to have ultimate power over the continent,

(Doc 6). More importantly, the American colonies stood for democracy, so when their ideology

was discarded in a careless manner, by Britain, they had no choice but to take up arms and fight

for what they believed in and for what they represented as it was, ... evident that they belong to

different systems, (Doc 6).