Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved
RIGHTS OF THE BRITISH COLONIES ASSERTED AND PROVED
RIGHTS OF THE BRITISH COLONIES ASSERTED AND PROVED, a tract by James Otis (1764), denied Parliament's authority to tax the colonies. At the same time, Otis favored parliamentary representation for the colonies. He based his claims on contemporary understandings of English liberties, which held that English constitutional law protected all subjects (at home and abroad) from tyranny, and that the king and Parliament had to act within these laws. Notable among English liberties were the protection from internal taxation without representation in Parliament and safeguards against illegal threats to life, liberty, and property. Otis declared void any acts of Parliament that violated natural equity or the British constitution.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992.
Martin, Thomas S. Minds and Hearts: The American Revolution as a Philosophical Crisis. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1984.
Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Richard B.Morris/s. b.
See alsoColonial Policy, British ; Natural Rights ; Pamphleteering ; Revolution, American: Political History ; Rights of Englishmen ; "Taxation Without Representation."