Essay Example on The principle of No Taxation Without Representation

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Throughout history the principle of No taxation without representation has been used especially in the era of the 1750s and 1760s among the colonist The principle was a basic idea that reflected the resentment of American colonists being taxed by the British Parliament of which they had no representatives present in In 1761 the phrase was credited to James Otis because he described the taxing as tyranny The taxing became a major issue between the colonists and Parliament and eventually the colonists started to revolt The idea became a controversy between the colonists and Parliament when the colonists expressed feelings of belief that in order to have actual representation in the government they were going to need to be given the right to have their own elected legislators sit in Parliament No taxation without representation became important to the colonists because they were being taxed without having legislatures in the Parliament and felt this was extremely unfair When the Stamp Act of 1765 was enacted was when the colonists first became angered The act was a tax imposed on all the American colonists of which required them to pay a tax on every printed paper product they used The money collected would then be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier Colonists felt this act was unfair simply because every paper product they would be using would be higher in price due to the tax of which they had no say in creating Parliament though did not see this as a problem because


Britain did not originally have great amounts of representation at home so extending it to the colonists was not a very high priority The British also did not want to give the colonists representation because they felt the colonists were rebellious and did not deserve representation For example the British raised taxes on the tea and the colonists felt very affected by this and so they hijacked the British ships in Boston Harbor After hijacking the colonists obtained all the cargoes of tea and dumped them overboard into the water which resulted in a large financial loss for the British along with a monumental event in history known as the Boston Tea Party December 16th 1773 The Boston Tea Party become a reuniting cause for approaching the revolution The colonists simply wanted a say in political economic and even matters concerning the colonies of which the Parliament would not grant them and neither would the King of England To the British they felt the colonists did not deserve or need a representation Like stated in the previous paragraph the British felt the colonists were too rebellious and become too rebellious in the choices they made if represented in Parliament The British also found it quite absurd that the Americans felt the no representation was tyranny because only one tenth of adult males in England had the right to vote and only if they were baptized as an Anglican otherwise they could not vote Another reason is that women were not allowed to vote along with the fact that British cities did not have representation in Parliament yet they did what they were told and did not rebel and if they did it was not to such an extent as the Americans The British also found it absurd because they felt they Americans were wanting to enjoy the British products but refused to pay the British for them Britain also did not want to grant the colonists a spot in Parliament because Britain was in favor of a virtual representation of government meaning that they felt there was no need to have a different legislature for each colony in Parliament


They felt that the ones already present in Parliament were sufficient enough for representation Both the colonists of the American states and the British leaders felt different feelings about the idea of No taxation without representation On one hand there were the colonists of whom did not want to be taxed because they felt it was a violation of British liberties and that they were not responsible for paying revenue for the British government Therefore they were opposed to the idea of paying taxes to a party of which they did not give their consent to be ruled by The British on the other hand felt this was absurd because the people of England who had no power in the government were not angered and as rebellious as the colonists were about not being presented in Parliament Britain felt that since they were in favor of a virtual representation of government there was no need to change what was already in place In conclusion the principle of No taxation without representation was a very important principle used throughout the 1750 s and 1760 s that became a controversy idea between the colonists and Parliament


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