Going to War?
by Alex Butler
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal... that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Abstract: This paper will focus on why a war with Britain would be a good thing for America. It will focus on British Acts and taxes on our country and why they need to be dealt with now. For this paper I used the following sources: http://www.history.org/history/teaching/tchcrsta.cfm, http://www.americanrevolution.com/, and discussions from History Class.
I am writing this letter to state my opinions about our current state and conditions with the British. From the point that we now stand at, we have an enormous decision to make affecting the future of our United States. The decision is; do we try to make amends with the British or to go to war with these same peoples? The problems which we currently have in this country of ours are because of the British. They have taken what belongs to our nation and claimed it as their own. They have taken our essential rights as a people and we have to defend ourselves and gain those rights and respects yet again. I believe that the future of our people exceedingly depends upon the decisions that we make right now, today, as a united nation. Some delegates are now coming to Congress committed to declaring our colonies separate and independent of Great Britain. We need to fight the British for what belongs to us to show our independence, freedoms, integrity, and our honor.
Our Nation needs to stand up and declare that we are not going to succumb and we are going to fight until we gain everything back for our country. These British do not have the right to tax us and take control of what is rightfully ours. We have worked and bled to accomplish what we have and they do not and never will, belong here in our Nation. As the citizens of these great United States we need to fight them until we have everything we have worked so hard for. If we all want to forever call ourselves citizens of these Nations, we will fight and not back down until we have the freedom we rightfully own. We cannot let the work of so many great and influential men be seized and sit back and do nothing about it. This country is far better than that and we are going to prove this when we defend out honor by fighting till the death.
About the time of 1765, Britain made the decision to erect a new colonial policy wanting to tighten control over our thirteen colonies. They also wanted to "make [the colonies] pay for their defense and return revenue to their mother country". These new taxes were put on molasses and sugar in 1764 and caused corruption with New England merchants and those who were makers of Rum. This in turn affected what our citizens had to pay for sugar, which is a necessity at this time in many places.
The Britain's want to control absolutely everything in our Nation that they can. This is why they have also put the Quartering Act upon our households. Telling us that we are to provide food and shelter in our own homes for British soldiers whenever the need may arise. This has created many problems with some British soldiers who do not need to abide by any of the house rules and are extremely disrespectful in most circumstances. They are having no respect for the family and creating some problems with taking advantage of them and their children. With the British also controlling taxes on food that we buy, we also have less to give to our own families. With their new act, they have the rights and permission to control everything that we have. If we do not stop them, we will crumble under all they put onto us.
What has happened with the Stamp Act they put upon us? We did not give up and succumb to their laws. As a Nation with rights, we have stood up and defended ourselves. The Virginia House of Burgess adopted Patrick Henry's Stamp Act Resolves. They then declared that Americans obtained the same rights as those of the English, especially those rights to be taxed only by their own representatives. This is the kind or strong will and determination we need to have as a country. And if these taxes and Acts are not enough to get our country to fight, we need to also remember the Boston Massacre. The British soldiers have made many attacks on Massachusetts, but this is one in which some of our men were killed. These Britain soldiers were then sent to trial only getting off with a few slaps to the wrist and brandishes on the thumbs. If we think this is justice for what these men have done to our colonies, we are completely and utterly indispicable. We as American citizens of these United States have to ban together to do the right thing. We need to defend the honor of our colonies which have suffered, our country and Nation, as well as the independence that our ancestors worked so hard to obtain for our sake and for the sake of the future of our glorious and free country.
