FREE ESSAY ON CHANGE OR PRESERVE

CHANGE OR PRESERVE

The American Revolution was fought to change oppressive taxation and Legislation by the
English government in order to reinstate the social political, and economic structure of
the colonies before the English oppression. The colonists were very content with their
lives until the implementation of heavy taxation and oppressive measures by the English
government as well as many English companies, such as the East India Company. After the
wars, America gained its independence, but based it's government around the welfare of
the people, using John Locke's theory of government serving the people, instead of the
people serving government.
Before the heavy taxation and the despotic English laws, the Americans had a responsible
representative government of their own. The most prominent men in a county or borough
would run for election to represent that area. However, the system was not perfect in
that newly established counties and boroughs were not allowed representatives, when so
called ghost-towns with only a few residents were. This problem was solved by the theory
of virtual representation, in which every representative would be a virtual
representative for all of the English subjects. Its Economic system was doing well, based
primarily on agriculture and overseas trade. It supported the growth of large cities such
as Boston and New York, but also increased the rate of poverty in these areas by making
the jobs of many city-dwellers dependent on good overseas markets. Its Social structure
was unlike England's in that it was not based heavily on social ranks. Having fancy
titles did not mean much in American society because it didn't afford you any special
rights, unlike England's nobles, which were allowed hereditary governmental power in the
House of Lords. 
As England began trying to extract reparation funds from America after the French and
Indian war, it made many mistakes that would eventually lead to the American Revolution.
The first thing they did was to instate taxes on man common things such as Sugar, with
the Sugar Tax Act, and lead, paint, paper, glass, and tea with the Townshend Act. This
would be within reason, but the English put forth the Currency Act, which demanded that
the taxes be paid in specie, which was basically gold or silver. This was a problem
because the colonists now used fiat, or paper money to trade within their own colonies.
England also took away some of the colonists rights with the Quartering Act in 1765,
which forced colonial families to take in and board English soldiers in their own homes.
England also established the Writs of Assistance, which allowed English troops to search
anywhere for anything with a blanket warrant. Anyone found with illegal goods was to be
tried in an English admiralty court by a royal judge, with no jury. In 1774, the English
government passed The Quebec Act, also known as the Intolerable Acts, which closed the
port of Boston, imposed a British Governor elected by the Crown in Massachusetts, and
gave the French land concessions in the west. As the English became harsher towards the
colonies, the colonies felt the need to protect themselves. They set up the First
Continental Congress in Pennsylvania with the goal of getting Parliament to return to its
old, relaxed form of government using any method necessary short of war. England did not
yield to their requests. 
After the first battles at Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill, the Second Continental
Congress issued a Declaration of their cause to take up arms. In it, they informed the
government of their unjust practices, and told of how they planned to throw down their
weapons if England acknowledged their rights. In response to the declaration, Parliament
sent 25,000 more English troops to America, and turned the Revolutionary war into a war
of independence.
After the war, America was finally an independent nation, and it was time to organize its
government. It had an experimental period, in which it developed many of its current
national principles. The new governments followed the form of the old ones,
representative governments, but many new things were added. Bodies were needed to govern
the whole nation. The Continental Congress served such a purpose. In it, each state was
represented. The states also kept church and state separate, and emphasized school,
although there was a movement to make the material taught more practical. Tom the average
American, the government stayed almost as it was prior to the revolution.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary defines revolution as The
overthrow or renunciation of one government, and the substitution of another, by the
governed England corrupted the American government by over taxing it, and placing Royal
officials into elected positions, among other things. The Americans renounced this
corrupt government, and they revolted and substituted a government based around the one
they had before the English corrupted it. They changed a corrupt government in order to
preserve a good one.