"The Spirit of a Free Constitution"
The Constitutional Debate
The colonists were proud of a political and constitutional
tradition they believed reached back to Magna Carta. They
interpreted English history as a recurring struggle to secure
liberty against abusive authority and foreign threats. The Glorious
Revolution of 1688 had enshrined this Whig historical perspective,
and British victories in the wars against France by 1763 seemed
a further vindication of the constitutional system of "Freeborn Englishman."
With the British victory over the French, London turned to
several issues of imperial governance. Various measures taken
to deal with the war debt and other imperial expenses provoked
protests in the colonies. Resistance to the Stamp Act created the
first of three crises between 1765 and 1775. In that decade of
resistance profound constitional questions moved Americans
towards revolution.
Opponents of the new imperial policies during the decade
of resistance used a variety of tactics such as mass demonstrations,
correspondence committees, polemical publications, local politics,
and intercolonial meetings.
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