Chapter 2- Law
§6. American Colonists
Nearly every one of the grievances against British rule that built up was the product of legislative or administrative action based upon a British theory that the colonies were subject in every respect to the sovereignty of the “King, Lords and Commons” of Great Britain “in Parliament assembled” without proper representation.150 This ancient method of law was, of course, a government in which the colonists had no voice or vote.
The American perspective was based upon colonial charters, upon the British constitution and common law which they insisted had emigrated with them from England, and finally, as Jefferson put it in the Declaration, upon “the law of Nature and of Nature’s God.”151
Colonists- Persons who have emigrated from their mother country to settle in another place but who remain loyal to mother country.
Colony- A dependent political community, consisting of a number of citizens of the same country who have emigrated therefrom to people another, and remain subject to the mother country. Territory attached to another nation, known as the mother country, with political and economic ties; e.g. possessions or dependencies of the British Crown (e.g. thirteen original colonies of United States)
Colonial charter- A document issued by a colonial government which permits operation of a business or school or college, e.g. charters granted by England to institutions or business in this country before War of Independence.
Colonial laws- The body of law in force in the thirteen original colonies before the Declaration of Independence. 152
“[The colonists claim] nothing but the liberties and privileges of Englishmen, in the same degree, as if we had still continued among our brethren in Great Britain; these rights have not been forfeited by any act of ours; we cannot be deprived of them, without our consent, but by violence and injustice; we have received them from our ancestors, and with God’s leave, we will transmit them, unimpaired, to our posterity.” 153
'It was under the consciousness of the full possession of the rights, liberties, and immunities of British subjects, that the colonists in almost all the early legislation of their respective assemblies insisted upon a declaratory act, acknowledging and confirming them.’ 154
The colonists saw that the usurpation of the assembled Parliament of Great Britain’s ascribed jurisdiction was in direct disregard of their charters and prior agreed upon terms, as well as a direct attack on their secured liberties that were handed down, unimpaired, from their ancestors, and was a breach of their contractual obligations through the issuing instrument.
“The Colonies, wearied with presenting fruitless Supplications and Petitions separately; or prevented, by arbitrary and abrupt Dissolutions of their Assemblies, from using even those fruitless Expedients for Redress, determined to join their Counsels and their Efforts. Many of the Injuries flowing from the unconstitutional and ill-advised Acts of the British Legislature, affected all the Provinces equally; and even in those Cases, in which the Injuries were confined, by the Acts, to one or to a few, the Principles, on which they were made, extended to all. If common Rights, common Interests, common Dangers and common Sufferings are Principles of Union, what could be more natural than the Union of the Colonies?”155
[150 Marquette Law Review – The Colonial Bar and the American Revolution by Robert F. Boden (1976) Vol. 60, No.1, pg.7
151 Marquette Law Review – The Colonial Bar and the American Revolution by Robert F. Boden (1976) Vol. 60, No.1, pg.7
152 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 240 (1979)
153 George Mason in a letter to the merchants of London, (June 6, 1766), quoted in Howard, supra note 6, at
205
154 Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U.S., 581, 610, (1900); Joseph Story, LL. D., Dane Professor of Law in Harvard University, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States; with a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, before the Adoption of the Constitution. Abridged by the Author, for the Use of Colleges and High Schools (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Company/Cambridge: Brown, Shattuck, and Co., 1833), pp. iii-viii, 62-75, 105-109, 581, 606, 608.
155 JOURNALS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (1774-1789) Volume IV., January 1 - June 4, 1776, pgs. 136-137 ]