Portfolio: Patriots vs. Loyalists

Economic and Political Advantages of a British Massachusetts

-----In December of 1773, the Patriots of Boston, Massachusetts threw 45 tons of tea into the Boston Harbor. In retaliation, British Parliament saw fit to punish the people of Boston by blocking up their harbor with warships. As a mother punishes her son or daughter, so Britain punished America. All the British government wanted was for the Bostonians to replace the tea and apologize, but the arrogance of the Bostonians would not allow this. Did the residents of Boston not take into account the consequences of their actions? It was not the offences of the British that caused this war, but the offences of the Americans. British rule has afforded economic stability and has maintained a fair leadership in the colonies, but especially in Massachusetts.
-----Over the past 100 years, Massachusetts' colonists' material goods have not lowered or rose in value. "We cannot as yet measure farm income in early New England, but we can measure the value of farmers' material goods, and from the evidence so far collected, that value did not decline" (Main 101-102). Though the Patriots have used this against the British, saying that Parliament is holding us back economically, this also proves that Parliament has kept us steady in our times of need. If in order to keep all thirteen colonies functioning Britain must regulate the economics of Boston or Massachusetts Bay then so be it. The good of the many is more important than the good of the few. Unfortunately the Patriots took this saying too literally, using force and tyrannical means to get their way.

-----Using the excuse of stopping the tyranny of the British, the Patriots took it upon themselves to assume their own form of democratic tyranny. In this tyranny, it is not the will of one or a few that is being fulfilled, but the will of the majority, for that is what the Patriots are, the majority. "the wayfaring American [,]though a fool[,] could not err in reading, in very crimson letters painted on the air in front of him, the tidings of the arrival of a race-crisis altogether transcending those ordinary political altercations which had from time to time disturbed, and likewise quickened and clarified, the minds of his British ancestors" (Coit Tyler 25). This majority preys on us, the weaker and lesser people of our respective communities, but it is not outsiders that prey upon us, but our very neighbors. Assuming the law upon themselves, every man has called upon his neighbor to either unite with him under the flag of anarchy, or to torture him under the flag of justice.

-----Justice has been twisted in the sight of these monsters, covering the sins of violence they commit. Tarring and feathering, and dragging their very neighbor across town, displaying him to the world is the new pastime of our corrupt generation. I ask, would the British have allowed such mistreatment under their guiding hand? No, such oppressions would be punished just as Boston was punished, with Acts of taxation and withdrawal. Where is the order that Britain would have assumed but in Britain itself. This anarchy is the result of the desires of the colonists and the colonists alone.

-----In this anarchy caused by the desires of the Patriots there are piles and piles of Patriotic documents, reveling in the total destruction of everything that has been built by and for the British. The idea of Patrick Henry inciting rage ad hysteria within the community with one such Patriotic document that included his declaration of “give me liberty or give me death.” Appalls any true British Patriot. It is an embarrassment to everything we call British or American. I implore, where are the letters contradicting such action? Where are the letters saying that what the Patriots are doing is wrong and unjust? They are not seen, and if they are somewhere it is in a cupboard of a building burnt down by these anarchists that call themselves Patriots. The loyalist writers were afraid to express their views, not expecting open minds from their fellow colonists, and why should they? They had already seen government officials and nobles of the like strung up just for being for the British. "[S]o many of the ablest conservative writers refrained, in that stage of affairs, from engaging very actively in the discussion"(Coit Tyler 25). Where could they write without being met by only hatred, injustice, and violence but within Britain itself. The discussion of the rationale for war had no controversy -- not because the Patriots had the perfect argument, but because the Loyalists were silenced.

-----Silence such as this cannot give way to rationalization or even clear thinking, only propaganda and forced thoughts. Who is to say that the rationale of Britain is unjust? I see no understanding of reason by the Patriots, or asking of questions by those who believe this does not affect them. I see only anger, violence, hatred, and closed minds. If this is the soil that America will grow from then I wish to be far from here. If we start our world with blood and violence then we will live in a world of blood and violence, only requited when there is a monarch to rule over us and for us to unite under. This is what Britain stands for, a monarch to unite the people and the people to rule themselves. This is what Britain stands for, and this is what I stand for.

Citations

Coit Tyler, Moses. "The Party of the Loyalists in the American Revolution." The

American Historical Review 1(1895): 24.

L. Main, Gloria. "The Standard of Living in Colonial Massachusetts." The Journal of Economic History 43(1983): 101-108.

Henry, Patrick. "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death."1775.