The American Revolution

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Prof. McLaughlin Spoke of It Last Thursday Evening

LARGE AUDIENCE PRESENT

Told Graphically of the Causes which Led Up to Our Separation from John Bull

The lecture given by Prof. McLaughlin in Sarah Caswell Angell hall Thursday of last week was largely attended, in spite of the threatening weather. Prof. McLaughlin is a fine history student and told most interestingly of the causes of the American revolution.

He spoke of the corrupt conditions of politics in England at the time of the trouble with her colonies in this country. George III was a perfectly reckless monarch and his sole ambition was to raise himself to a most exalted position, but his designs were rendered futile by a colony who defied him.

The parliament at this time was composed of dissolute men, entirely void of any sense of honor and were open to bribes of any sort. It is reported that a department was actually opened where these bribes were paid. Seats in parliament were offered for sale shamelessly and bargained for openly.

The government was based on hypocrisy and was in no position to confront the problems which faced the English people. The mother country made laws which the colonists considered to be against their rights and resented them accordingly and finally disregarded them entirely.

England forbade her colonists to trade with the French West Indies. This law was entirely disregarded by the colonists who depended greatly on the sugar from these islands, also on the rum which was a great commodity of monetary value in trade with the Indians.

England tried in every way to keep down manufacturing interests in the colonies for this spirit of progress was a menace to the manufactories of England in that they were unable longer to place their goods in America.

The obnoxious sugar act was re-enacted in 1774 and roused the ire of the entire colony. The levying of the stamp act was the last straw.

The act which was passed thoughtlessly by a sleepy parliament in England was met in the colonies by wide awake Americans. It met its first opposition from the Virginia colony and then Massachusetts took decisive steps by calling a congress of the colonists, who declared their rights as Englishmen most strenuously. They declared that since they had no representation in parliament, no taxes could be levied except by their own legislature. England, with true British obstinacy, refused to take back any of its unjust acts and thus the war was precipitated.

The lecture was teeming with interesting anecdotes and facts which were new to many of those in the audience.