Pros And Cons Of Colonists Justified Grievances

Chelsea Engel
Mr. Johnson
HIST170-85086
23 September 2016
A Colonists’ Justified Grievances
Dear English Cousin,
According to your response to my letter, the grievances we have made are preposterous. I cannot change your mind I just hope to open your eyes to what is really happening in the colonies and help you see why our complaints are sensible. The British are not protecting us by leaving their troops on our land during a time of peace. We are already paying the debt from the war with France , we shouldn’t have to pay for an army that is not needed. The Townshend Acts are not reasonable, considering that we don’t get to elect the royal officials that are supposedly representing us by making such acts. The Navigation Acts were based off
The British say that they put an army here to monitor the French population in Canada. Why would we need protection in a time of peace? They tell the colonists they also put the army here to keep tensions with the natives from rising. The government has implemented the Proclamation of 1763 to do just that. We think a partial reason that the government signed the Proclamation of 1763 and continues to maintain an army here is because government is trying to keep us from expanding. We thought Parliament would want to help us seek new territory for growing crops and a growing population, but they are not allowing us West of the Appalachian Mountains. We believe the main reason this professional military has been maintained on our land is to keep us from rebelling. This means we have no say in any matter that the royal officials decide and implement upon us. The army being here is wrong because we cannot elect officials to represent us and we have no way getting the attention of the British government when we don’t agree with their
In 1773 we took yet another blow to our economy and rights of representation when the British government passed the Tea Act. This allowed the East India Company to avoid the stop and taxes in Britain mandated by the Navigation Acts, making it very difficult for American merchants to compete with the low price of the imported tea. The government was attempting to trick Americans into accepting the tax on tea from the Revenue Act of 1767 by passing it off as the import tax from the Navigation Acts that was no longer required to be paid by the East India Company. The only way to make Parliament see how all of these policies were really affecting the colonies was to take a stronger stance than we did with the Gaspee. We threw all of the tea into the Boston Harbor, because being tricked by a government that is supposed to be representing us is a violation of our