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To: Reily
British policy at the time of the revolution likely was the same for Ontario as Massachusetts as Virginia. However for Massachusetts, Virginia and 11 others it was a radical & intrusive change.

That Massachusetts and Virginia saw it as abusive while Ontario did not is EXACTLY my point.

"Usurpations" and "Abuse" are subjective, meaning it is up to the people who are suffering them to characterize them that way.

They are in the "eye of the beholder", just as I have been saying.

465 posted on 12/05/2016 1:29:05 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp; Reily; x
DiogenesLamp: "That Massachusetts and Virginia saw it as abusive while Ontario did not is EXACTLY my point.
"Usurpations" and "Abuse" are subjective, meaning it is up to the people who are suffering them to characterize them that way.
They are in the "eye of the beholder", just as I have been saying."

There was nothing "subjective" or "eye of the beholder" about the "abuses and usurpations" listed in the Declaration of Independence.
Those were facts, not feeeeeeelings.

Canadians had very different situations, for one thing by 1776 there were well under 100,000 European Canadians, the majority French, as opposed to over three million Americans.
And French Canadians had no democratic traditions, while British Canadians were dependent on the King's army to keep the peace with their defeated French countrymen.
So Canada's view of the world was much different from Americans.

Most importantly, there was no Canadian equivalent to the Massachusetts Charter of 1691`which made Massachusetts largely self governing, and which was revoked by Britain in 1774, one of British many "intolerable acts".

Finally, most or all of the long list of "abuses and usurpations" in the Declaration of Independence has no equivalents in Canadian history.
So, where Americans declared independence of "necessity", Canadians at that time had no such "necessity" and refused to secede "at pleasure".

Many years later Canadians did effectively secede, by Mutual Consent.

483 posted on 12/05/2016 5:18:32 PM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective...)
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