Summary Of The Nature And Extent Of Parliamentary Power

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William Hicks; an early colonist from New York; composed a pamphlet called “ The Nature and Extent of Parliamentary Power” in 1768. Hicks argues that England’s parliament, and untimely the king, is trying to suppress the colonies’ liberties and to force the colonies into submission as the crown's slaves. Hicks wrote there were two opinions that the colonies could have chosen: to be submissive to the crown and become slaves or to rise against the crown, in order to liberate American’s liberty. Bernard Bailyn, author of “ The Ideological Origins of The American Revolution”, states that early colonies’ pamphlet captured the mindset and ideologies at the period of time. In hicks’ pamphlets is the ideology of a revolution because it gives details …show more content…

“ Governor Bernard had some legal means or excuse for summoning military help in his vain efforts to maintain order in the face of the stamp act riots, but once the British intervene within the colonies, its created massive panic within the communities” said Bailyn, this standing army has snuffed out freedom in Denmark and throughout the world; to the colonies this was the process of destroying free constitutions of government had been reach”. Hicks wrote the actions and treatment of the England’s army, “ With the will of the commanding officer, he has the power of oppressing any single colony but can also demand high quality supplies that justify to their needs. The idea that the colonists must quarter soldiers in their property if the commanding officer demands, with a certain ample supply was unbelievable since the officer can the power to choose any home at random and the owner must follow the order or be subject to an offense. With England’s soldiers residing in the colonies, the community is paranoid that army will not only suppress them of their natural rights, but may even strip them of these rights and become enslaved to the …show more content…

Hicks wrote, “ their superior power to reduce their fellow subjects to a state of subornation inconsistent with their natural rights, its conflicts with their own constitution”, which explains the colonist’ point of view about how England actions towards their other colonies around the world. The colonies would have hope that parliament would allow their natural rights to be followed as their cousin in England, but the colonies’ rights were dismantled; to the colonist; to justified the needs of the mother country. Bailyn states “the crown is a tyranny in the colonists’ belief, and a tyranny over the body and souls by their policies in the civil affairs of the colonies.” Bailyn reveals that the paranoia of the colonies falling into the hands of a tyrannical was in its final phase, after having their rights suppressed; it would eventually lead to their enslavement unless the colonist react before

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