rights of Englishmen

Examples of rights of Englishmen in the following topics:

• The Rights of Englishmen

  • "The rights of Englishmen" refers to unwritten constitutional rights and liberties, originating in Britain peaking in the Enlightenment.
  • "The rights of Englishmen" is a concept used to describe a tradition of unwritten constitutional rights and liberties, originating in Britain, from which many Anglo-American declarations of rights have drawn inspiration.
  • In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, several precedents from Magna Carta appeared in British legal documents and writings as fundamental rights of Englishmen.
  • After the Glorious Revolution, monarchical absolutism was replaced by parliamentary sovereignty in this social contract, with the purpose of safeguarding the "rights of Englishmen. "
  • Essentially, Lockean conceptions of political rights included the right of man to determine the political structure that would oversee the protection of his natural rights.

• The Concept of Civic Duty

  • For instance, in 1690, John Locke (one of the fathers of the English Enlightenment) wrote that all people have fundamental natural rights to "life, liberty, and property" and that governments were created in order to protect these rights.
  • If they did not, according to Locke, the people had a right to alter or abolish their government.
  • The ensuing language of the "rights of Englishmen" that dominated 17th- and 18th-century discourse in Britain and the North American colonies thus gave rise to a sense of national identity that revolved around the belief that (white) men held certain "inalienable" rights of liberty and property that could not be violated by any political power.
  • Freedom of speech: The government cannot restrict the citizen's right to criticize authority or voice opposition to the government.
  • By the mid-18th century, these civic ideals had been enshrined in the American colonial political system as a fundamental foundation of political rights and liberties.

• Liberty and Property

  • On October 19, 1765, Congress drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances to protect British colonists from unconstitutional taxes.
  • The Stamp Act stirred activity among colonial representatives to denounce what they saw as the disregard of colonial rights by the Crown.
  • To protect the rights of colonists, delegates of the Stamp Act Congress drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional.
  • The Declaration of Rights raised fourteen points of colonial protest.
  • Differentiate between the Declaration of Rights and Grievances and the Virginia Resolves

• Swelling Protest

  • After 1765, the major American cities saw the formation of secret groups set up to defend their rights.
  • The Stamp Act stirred activity among colonial representatives to denounce what they saw as the disregard of colonial rights by the Crown.
  • To protect the rights of colonists, delegates of the Stamp Act Congress drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional.
  • The Declaration of Rights raised 14 points of colonial protest.
  • Their initial goal was to ensure their rights as Englishmen.

• An Emerging Colonial System

  • The actual rate of voting ranged from 20 percent to 40 percent of all adult white males.
  • Before independence, the original thirteen were part of a larger set of colonies in British America.
  • Plymouth was absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony with the issuance of the Massachusetts Bay charter of 1691.
  • By 1776 about 85 percent of the white population was of English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh descent, with 9 percent of German origin and 4 percent Dutch.
  • The original thirteen all had well-established systems of self-government and elections based on the Rights of Englishmen which, they determined, would protect them from imperial interference.

• From New Netherland to New York

  • The Dutch, through their trade of manufactured goods with the Iroquois and Algonquians, presumed they had exclusive rights to farming, hunting, and fishing in the region.
  • Charles II of England set his sights on the Dutch colony of New Netherland.
  • The assembly’s 1683 Charter of Liberties and Privileges set out the traditional rights of Englishmen, like the right to trial by jury and the right to representative government.
  • Although enslaved, the Africans had a few basic rights and families were usually kept intact.
  • The governors of New York then ruled New Jersey, which infuriated the settlers of New Jersey, who accused the governor of showing favoritism to New York.

• The Stamp Act

  • The Stamp Act of 1765 was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament on the colonies of British America.
  • Many colonists considered it a violation of their rights as Englishmen to be taxed without their consent—consent that only the colonial legislatures could grant.
  • The Sugar Act was to a large extent a continuation of past legislation related primarily to the regulation of trade.
  • Because of its potential wide application to the colonial economy, the Stamp Act was judged by the colonists to be a more dangerous assault on their rights than the Sugar Act was.
  • American newspapers reacted to the Stamp Act with anger and predictions of the demise of journalism.

• The Sons of Liberty and the Committees of Correspondence

  • After 1765, the major American cities saw the formation of secret groups set up to defend their rights.
  • Groups such as these were absorbed into the greater Sons of Liberty organization, a political group made up of American patriots formed to protect the rights of the colonists from the usurpations of the British government after 1766.
  • Political groups such as the Sons of Liberty evolved into groups such as The Committees of Correspondence: shadow governments organized by the Patriot leaders of the Thirteen Colonies on the eve of the American Revolution.
  • Their initial goal was to ensure their rights as Englishmen.
  • Throughout the Stamp Act Crisis, the Sons of Liberty professed continued loyalty to the King because they maintained a "fundamental confidence" in the expectation that Parliament would do the right thing and repeal the tax.

• Financial Strains

  • Americans in the Thirteen Colonies demanded their rights as Englishmen, as they saw it, to select their own representatives who would govern and tax them – which Britain refused.
  • The Americans attempted resistance through boycotts of British manufactured items, but the British responded with a rejection of American rights and the Intolerable Acts of 1774.
  • The American Revolution (1775–1783) brought a dedication to the unalienable rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," emphasizing individual liberty and economic entrepreneurship, and a commitment to the political values of republicanism, such as civic virtue and promotion of the general welfare.
  • In 1781, Robert Morris was named Superintendent of Finance of the United States, providing the national government a strong leader in financial matters.
  • However, the states had no system of taxation either.

• Tax Protests

  • A series of taxing legislation during the colonial era set off a series of actions between colonists and Great Britain.
  • In the colonial era, Americans insisted on having their own legislature raise all taxes, based on their rights as Englishmen.
  • The first wave of protests attacked the Stamp Act of 1765, and marked the first time Americans from each of the thirteen colonies met together and planned a common front against illegal taxes.
  • This also began the rise of the Sons and Daughters of Liberty, who staged public protests over the taxes.
  • During the Boston Tea Party of 1773, Americans dumped British tea into Boston Harbor in protest of a hidden tax.