Road Trip: From the Declaration to the Constitution

0:00 If you ask the average person to

0:01 identify the motto of the American

0:03 Revolution, they might be able to recite

0:05 that old classic, no taxation without

0:08 representation. We spend a lot of time

0:09 on that second word, taxation, and sure,

0:12 who likes taxes? But the fourth word of

0:14 the motto helps us understand why they

0:16 were so upset.

0:17 When they endorsed grievance 17, the

0:19 Continental Congress was expressing how

0:21 they were really upset over the issue of

0:23 representation. In the British Empire,

0:25 most people understood that Parliament

0:27 did not actually represent every one of

0:29 its subjects. In 1765, the English

0:32 politician Thomas Whately had explained

0:33 that all British subjects, in fact, were

0:35 virtually represented in Parliament

0:37 because every member of Parliament acted

0:39 in the best interest of the entire

0:41 empire, not on behalf of any individual

0:43 group of constituents. But this

0:45 explanation of virtual representation

0:47 just wasn’t good enough for Americans.

0:48 They were fine with taxes related to

0:50 trade because that was the accepted

0:52 responsibility of the Imperial

0:53 government, and they were fine with

0:55 paying taxes to their colonial

0:56 legislatures that had offered some form

0:58 of representation since the 17th

1:00 century. But when Parliament started

1:01 taxing them directly, they believed it

1:03 had gone too far.

1:05 Patriots like John Adams put it in stark

1:07 terms. Let it be known that British

1:09 liberties, like the right to

1:10 representation, were not the grants of

1:13 princes or parliaments, but original

1:15 rights to which all British subjects

1:17 were entitled. When Parliament imposed

1:19 taxes on colonists without their

1:20 approval, they went against a basic

1:22 enlightenment principle

1:24 that governed the English constitution.

1:27 As John Locke had put it, no one could

1:29 be subjected to the political power of

1:31 another without his own consent. No

1:33 taxation had been enough of a rallying

1:35 cry to get some people protesting in the

1:37 streets, but no representation in a

1:40 government supposedly built on English

1:41 liberty, that was enough of a

1:43 declaration to launch a revolution.