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Loyalists: Unjustified Or Justified?

756 Words4 Pages

The British Parliament stockpiled numerous taxes onto the colonies of America, such as the well-known Stamp Act of 1765. Alas two groups were formed that stood out, being the rebels and the loyalists. The rebels vowed for independence, their numbers growing stronger and stronger through the Quartering Act and such. On the other hand, the loyalists wanted to keep their trust in Great Britain. They both had their own opinions of the king and Parliament and were justified in their own eyes, but both groups were also unjustified in the point of view of both beholders. From the loyalist perspective, the rebels were unjustified, and the same for the vice versa. In the cartoon of The British Lion Engaging Four Powers from London in 1782, the lion …show more content…

In Thomas Paine’s Common Sense of 1776, he stated, “We are already greater than the king wishes us to be, and will he not hereafter endeavor to make us less?...Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us?” The rebel-made Declaration of Independence justifies Paine with the accusation that the king has cut “off our Trade with all parts of the world,” (Declaration of Independence, 3). Trade has made the colonies an extremely wealthy place, so the king is therefore cutting-off the colonies’ success. The Declaration of Independence is then supporting Paine’s argument, a rebel-justifying-another rebel situation. According to Martin Howard, a loyalist, “wether born in Great Britain, on the ocean, or in the colonies; and it is in this sense we are said to enjoy all the rights and privileges of Englishmen,” (89). Another loyalist, Joseph Galloway in 1765 wrote to the New York Gazette that America along with the colonists “will pay her proportion of aids when requisite and demanded,” (Colonists Respond to Stamp Act, 7). To enjoy the rights and privileges of Englishmen, every subject including the colonists had to pay their taxes. Galloway agreed with Martin’s point, justifying him with the guarantee that for the happiness of Great Britain, who cared so much for America, the colonists would indeed be required to pay their duties. Rebels justified rebels and loyalists justified loyalists because they all strived to accomplish their goals of either independence or service for the

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