5 The Problem of Empire

1763–1776

In late 1774, General Thomas Gage, the royally appointed governor of Massachusetts, wrote desperate messages home describing the crumbling state of colonial affairs. “Conciliating, Moderation, Reasoning is over, Nothing can be done but by forceable Means.” The impasse Gage found upon taking up his duties had developed over the course of a decade. With the successful conclusion of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), Parliament tightened its administration of the colonies and sought to raise revenue to pay off wartime debts. Colonists who had been lightly governed before, now felt the sting of Parliament’s attention, and many resented the stricter colonial administration.

Richard Bland’s 1766 essay, which opens this chapter, defended colonial rights and questioned Parliament’s authority to legislate for the colonies. Some colonists recognized Parliament’s claim of authority as legitimate, blamed excessive “liberty” for the unrest, and decried what they described as mob violence. However, by 1776, many colonists had rejected Parliament’s claims of authority to legislate for them and were convinced that Britain had overstepped its rights. All that remained was some kindred loyalty to the king, but Thomas Paine’s commonsense attack on monarchy destroyed even that. The ties connecting colony to empire through the person of the king had snapped. The result was revolution.