Name: Circle Period #: 8A / 8B
“No Taxation without representation”? Homework
Focus Question: Why did Americans refuse to pay taxes to the British?
Document #1
Benjamin Franklin Being Questioned by the House of Commons (in Parliament), 1766
Introduction: American revolutionaries used the slogan “No Taxation Without Representation.” This referred to a traditional right of Englishmen. Dating back to the Magna Carta (1215), an Englishman could not be taxed unless that tax was approved by parliament. Every Englishman who owned property could vote for members of parliament. However, American colonists were not allowed to vote for members of parliament but they were still expected to pay taxes. Many, including Benjamin Franklin, though this was unfair.
Question from House of Commons: What will be the opinion of the Americans on those resolutions [new taxes]?
Benjamin Franklin: They [Americans] will think them unconstitutional and unjust. . . . I know that whenever the subject has occurred in conversation where I have been present, it has appeared to be the opinion of every one that we could not be taxed in a parliament where we were not represented [not represented= Americans not being able to vote for members of parliament].
Document #2
Dodging the Check?
An Article Adapted from Andrew G. Gardner
A modern historian writing in Colonial Williamsburg Magazine
Introduction: In this article, historian Andrew Gardner considers whether American colonists refused to pay taxes because they could not vote for members of parliament or because Americans simply did not want to pay taxes.
A fifteenth-century military expert, Marshall Trivulzio, advised France's Louis XII that “to carry out war, three things are necessary: money, money, and yet more money.” More than five centuries later, the advice is as valid. The Iraq adventure cost United States tax-payers more than $770 Billion.
So it was for Great Britain throughout the eighteen century, as it and its long-time enemy France struggled for global dominance. By the end of the conflict, Britain was victorious, but deeply in debt. Three out of every four dollars spend by the British Government directly helped secure a military victory, while borrowing from Dutch and British bankers drove the national debt from £75 million to £133 million. The interest alone on the loans took 40 percent of Britain's tax revenue. Britain faced bankruptcy.
That's when the trouble started. The British attempted to have their American colonies share the financial burden created by the French and Indian War. The means were to be increased taxation. Americans cried “No taxation without representation!” During the course of England's history, the King had lost the right to create new taxes. Only parliament, which contains the House of Lords and the House of Commons (directly elected by the people) can create taxes. It became the right of an Englishman to only be taxed if his elected representatives agreed to it. In reality, during the late eighteenth century only about the richest 3% of people in Britain were allowed to vote, however.
Still, this gave rise to the belief in the American colonies that, since they were not allowed to elect members to parliament, they could not be legally taxed under British Law.
England proposed that the colonists provide $60,000 to cover the $200,000 required to maintain a standing army to police the frontier. To an outsider, a one-third colonist and two-thirds Great Britain split of the costs appears reasonable. At the time, taxes in Britain amounted to a crushing 26 shillings per head per year. There were taxes on land, on houses- based on the number of windows- on offices, carriages, newspapers, spirits, tobacco, and beer, to name a few. By comparison, in colonial America taxation per capita has been estimated at one shilling per year, hardly “crushingly oppressive,” in the rhetoric of the day. So when the 1764 Sugar Act and the Stamp Act of 1765 were introduced, were the colonists making excuses to dodge the check? Some historians have suggested it was not so much “No taxation without representation” as it was a case of “No Taxation. . . period.”
Document #3
Common Sense Excerpts
By Thomas Paine, Published January 10, 1776
Introduction: Born in England, Thomas Paine had been in the British American colonies for less than two years when he wrote Common Sense. Paine's work was short, and to the point, written in language meant for the common person to read and understand. Paine ignored discussions of taxation and representation, and attacked the foundation of the British monarchy and their right to rule the colonies. Thomas Paine argued that the American Colonies declaring independence was just “common sense.” John Adams claimed that "Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain."
To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession [meaning that the son of the king becomes the next king] . . . For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever. . . One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly [foolishness] of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion [i.e. nature proves that having the son of the previous king become the next king is ridiculous because often a good king has a fool for a son].
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Small islands. . . are the proper objects for kingdoms [ruled by kings] to take under their care; but there is something very absurd, in supposing a continent [America] to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet, and as England and America, with respect to each Other, reverses the common order of nature, it is evident they belong to different systems: England to Europe- America to itself. [i.e. America is too big to be forever ruled by tiny England]
Questions
Document 1
1) According to Benjamin Franklin, why did Americans think it was unfair for the British to tax them?
Document 2
[Note that Document 2 was written by a modern historian, and not someone who lived through the American Revolution]
2) Why did the British want to tax the American colonies?
3) Most Americans agreed with Benjamin Franklin during this period for why they thought it was unfair for the British to tax them.
What does Andrew Gardner, the author of Document #2, say is the real reason many historians think that Americans did not want to pay taxes to the British?
Document #3
4) Why did Thomas Paine think that Americans should declare independence from Britain?
All Documents
5) In these three documents, we see three possible explanations for why Americans wanted to be independent from Great Britain. Circle the explanation below that you think is the most convincing reason for why Americans wanted to be independent from Great Britain. Explain your answer in at least 4 sentences using information from the documents.
Americans did not want to be taxed by a parliament where they were not allowed to elect members
Americans did not want to be taxed at all
Americans simply wanted to rule themselves and make their own decisions