A Discussion Of The Documents Of 1776

Documents of 1776 The Revolutionary War began as a result of gradual tensions that involved wealthy and the “common people”. The wealthy elite were in positions of power within the government due to the fact that they owned more land than other colonists did. The reason why this occurs can be summed up from a gentry man himself. According to document number two involving John Adams, he states that “power always follows property”. One of the reasons why the ideas for legislation in 1776 were considered “revolutionary” was due to the fact that the gentry would no longer hold significant amounts of power. The power would be given to the people to elect, and or run for offices within the government. As with the usual cases of good ideas, there

According to dictionary.com, the word “revolutionary” means, “radically new or innovative; outside or beyond established procedures”. In regards to the idea of colonists wanting to govern themselves, this was an extremely radical idea that went beyond established procedures. For over 100 years the British Empire had governed the colonists. Some could argue that Great Britain allowed the colonists to govern themselves, however I argue this point. While while the colonists did govern themselves so to speak, they still had to answer to members of the government whom Britain had appointed in the governments of the colonies. Often times, these were men of incredible wealth and privilege who did what they wanted for their own benefit. These people often came from Britain and therefore didn’t “grow up” in North America. They didn’t understand the problems that the people of North America were facing. As a result, any proposed legislation that involved the “common wealth” dictating the law was a drastic change from the

For example, the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 mentions that, “the commonwealth or state of Pennsylvania shall be governed hereafter by an assembly of the representatives of the freeman of the same, and a president and council”. As previously stated, the idea of the “common people” in positions of power within the government flabbergasted the gentry and other members of the wealthy elite. Most argued that the common people were not educated in the affairs of politics. Therefore giving them the right to elect their own people in Congress would be catastrophic to the state. Similarly, many gentry felt that the common people “are more easily led by specious appearances” (Governor Morris, to Thomas Penn). In this instance, the gentry argue that they are the only ones who should be in office because their education allows them to see past the false pretenses of people looking to take advantage of the