History Book: The Proclamation of Rebellion

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Monday, August 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next, the WORLD History Book. 250 years ago this week, King George III issues a Proclamation from the Court claiming that the British colonies in America are in a state of open rebellion.

REICHARD: That doesn’t go over too well with the colonists. The Proclamation dramatically changes the relationship between the colonies and the Crown and ultimately leads to the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

WORLD’s Emma Eicher has the story.

RICH ROSZEL: WHEREAS many of Our Subjects in diverse Parts of Our Colonies and Plantations in North America, misled by dangerous and ill-designing Men …

EMMA EICHER: On August 23rd, 1775, the King of England issues a declaration condemning traitors in America and it becomes the last straw for the colonies. Voice actor Rich Roszel reads from the Proclamation of Rebellion.

ROSZEL: … have at length proceeded to an open and avowed Rebellion, by arraying themselves in hostile Manner to withstand the Execution of the Law, and traitorously preparing, ordering, and levying War against Us.

King George III wants to send a strong message to the colonies across the pond. It’s been 11 years of what he labels “insubordination.”

But it isn’t “insubordination” to the colonists. It’s a fight for the rights they’d been guaranteed in various charters. And the British Parliament has overstepped its authority.

MARK DAVID HALL: In 1764 for the first time … the parliament decided to tax the Americans to raise revenue.

Mark David Hall is a professor of politics at Regent University in Virginia.

The colonists boycott British products. And they even set up smuggling rings for goods to avoid paying taxes. It's a peaceful protest against unlawful taxation.

But Parliament believes it can legitimately tax all British citizens including American colonists under the 1766 Declaratory Act.

HALL: … which basically says we can do whatever we want. There are no limits on our power. And to the Patriots, it sounded like tyranny. No limits on governmental power? That's the very definition of tyranny.

The protesters remind Parliament that they still aren’t allowed to tax the colonists without equal representation. It’s unconstitutional, and a denial of their rights as Englishmen.

These rebelling colonists are called “Patriots.” They fiercely defend liberty and individual rights. Think of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson these founding fathers draw on even older laws, going all the way back to 1215.

HALL: Now, according to the Patriots, if you go back to the Magna Carta, you cannot be taxed without being represented.

But Parliament doesn’t back down. And neither do the colonists. The tension results in a standoff in April, 1775 culminating in the “shot heard round the world” at the battle of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts as the colonists defend their munitions against British soldiers.

HALL: There hadn't really been armed conflict prior to 1775 but beginning at 1775 there is armed conflict, and so the Americans saw this as a defensive war.

In July, the Continental Congress sends an Olive Branch Petition to the King, pleading for his intervention but he refuses to even look at it.

HALL: The King responds by saying, I'm not going to receive your petition, and moreover, I'm going to declare you out of my protection.

There will be no compromise with the Patriots. In the Proclamation of Rebellion, the King writes that revolutionary colonists are now considered traitors to the Crown.

ROSZEL: We do accordingly strictly charge and command … all Our obedient and loyal Subjects, to use their utmost Endeavours to withstand and suppress such Rebellion, and to disclose and make known all Treasons and traitorous Conspiracies which they shall know to be against Us.

The King’s Proclamation does more than just disavow revolutionaries. To all the colonists, it seems the King has just forfeited his authority over them. And now the Continental Congress has a choice to make: continue to peacefully resist and seek compromise, or take up arms to defend their rights.

HALL: Even in 1775 I think a lot of Americans would have been perfectly happy to reconcile with Great Britain. They just wanted their rights respected.

What would have happened if the King had tried to make amends with the Patriots? Hall says America may still have remained under British rule for much longer.

HALL: We might have had a very different universe in which we live had the King been more responsible and not issued that proclamation.

So the Continental Congress finally declares independence from Britain on July 4th, 1776:

ROSZEL: We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness …

HALL: It has been said that America is the only nation founded on a proposition, on a set of principles. What the founders did is extraordinary. Not only did they stand up to the greatest military power of the age, they crafted a regime based on these principles, principles that they didn't live up to fully, but they attempted to work out and we’re still attempting to work out today.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Emma Eicher.

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