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Topic: America didn't have a revolution because of taxation. (Read 1786 times)

legendary
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A little simple research discovered that this phrase, like so many others, is misattributed to Franklin:

Quote
The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction. The inability of colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George the III and the international bankers was the PRIME reason for the Revolutionary War.

    Widely quoted statement on the reasons for the American War of Independence sometimes cited as being from Franklin's autobiography, but this statement was never in any edition.
    Variant: The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England and the Rothschild's Bank took away from the colonies their money which created unemployment, dissatisfaction and debt.
    Variants from various small publications from the 1940s:
        The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution.
        The refusal of King George to allow the Colonies to operate on an honest Colonial system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the revolution.
        The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate on an honest, colonial money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the revolution.
    Some of the statement might be derived from those made during his examination by the British Parliament in February 1766, published in "The Examination of Benjamin Franklin" in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803‎ (1813); when questioned why Parliament had lost respect among the people of the Colonies, he answered: "To a concurrence of causes: the restraints lately laid on their trade, by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the Colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves, and then demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps; taking away, at the same time, trials by juries, and refusing to receive and hear their humble petitions".

So, while he included that in the reasons, he never made mention that it was primary.

I guess we're back to slavery being the root cause of the war then.
hero member
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FIAT LIBERTAS RVAT CAELVM
A little simple research discovered that this phrase, like so many others, is misattributed to Franklin:

Quote
The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction. The inability of colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George the III and the international bankers was the PRIME reason for the Revolutionary War.

    Widely quoted statement on the reasons for the American War of Independence sometimes cited as being from Franklin's autobiography, but this statement was never in any edition.
    Variant: The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England and the Rothschild's Bank took away from the colonies their money which created unemployment, dissatisfaction and debt.
    Variants from various small publications from the 1940s:
        The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution.
        The refusal of King George to allow the Colonies to operate on an honest Colonial system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the revolution.
        The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate on an honest, colonial money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the revolution.
    Some of the statement might be derived from those made during his examination by the British Parliament in February 1766, published in "The Examination of Benjamin Franklin" in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803‎ (1813); when questioned why Parliament had lost respect among the people of the Colonies, he answered: "To a concurrence of causes: the restraints lately laid on their trade, by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the Colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves, and then demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps; taking away, at the same time, trials by juries, and refusing to receive and hear their humble petitions".

So, while he included that in the reasons, he never made mention that it was primary.
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
Bump, because I didn't really know this and would love to read further discussion, albeit a lot of the same has already been said on this forum, sometimes a different take helps lock it in the psyche.

~Bruno~
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When Benjamin Franklin was ambassador to England, the representatives of the Bank of England asked him, "How come America is getting so rich?" Franklin replies, "Well that's easy, we create our own money and we owe no interest to pay to no one." Hearing of this, the representatives were able to get the parliament to pass the Currency Act of 1764. The Currency Act outlawed America's own creation of money, it put America on the gold standard and made Americans pay their taxes in gold or silver coin. Unfortunately, gold and silver was a very scarce commodity in America in those days. The result of this immediately plunged America into a very deep depression.
According to Franklin, everyone in America was well aware of who caused this depression. England outlawed America's printing of it's own money and it was the Currency Act of 1764 that was the root cause of the American revolution, because it created such an economic upheaval. Franklin states, "We could've endured a little tax on tea and in other matters, but it was Englands taking away our ability to create our own currency that was the root cause of the revolution."

The Federal Reserve is proof we did not protect America's right to print it's own money.
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