Reaction
Although many in Parliament felt that taxes were implied in this clause, other members of Parliament and many of the colonists—who were busy celebrating what they saw as their political victory—did not. Other colonists, however, were outraged because the Declaratory Act hinted that more acts would be coming. This Declaratory Act was copied almost word for word from the Irish Declaratory Act, an Act which had placed Ireland in a position of bondage to the crown, implying that the same fate would come to The Thirteen Colonies. However, the colonists never explicitly called for its repeal, and would seek reconciliation with the crown up until the last minute.
The political theorist Edward Mims described the American reaction to the Declaratory Act:
When in 1767 this modernised British Parliament, committed by now to the principle of parliamentary sovereignty unlimited and unlimitable, issued a declaration that a parliamentary majority could pass any law it saw fit, it was greeted with an out-cry of horror in the colonies. James Otis and Sam Adams in Massachusetts, Patrick Henry in Virginia and other colonial leaders along the seaboard screamed "Treason" and "Magna Carta"! Such a doctrine, they insisted, demolished the essence of all their British ancestors had fought for, took the very savour out of that fine Anglo-Saxon liberty for which the sages and patriots of England had died.
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Famous quotes containing the word reaction:
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“Sole and self-commanded works,
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In reaction and recoil,
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)