Irish Philosopher Edmund Burke Predicted the American Colonies Would Rebel Against British Sovereignty

  

Statue of Edmund Burke in Washington, DC

On April 19, 1774, a full year before the Battle of Concord and Lexington erupted, Irish MP Edmund Burke of Dublin (1729–97) made a compelling speech in the British House of Commons in London, supporting a motion to repeal the Townsend Revenue Act, which taxed tea in the American colonies.

Burke warned his colleagues that taxing the American colonies ‘three pence per pound weight upon tea, payable in all his Majesty’s dominions in America,’ was a recipe for rebellion from the colonists. This type of taxation called into question the very concept of liberty the Americans cherished, and made the British appear as tyrants.

“Your scheme yields no revenue; it yields nothing but discontent, disorder, disobedience,” he said, asking his colleagues to “reflect how you are to govern a people, who think they ought to be free, and think they are not.

“When you drive him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters," Burke said. "If that sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will they take? They will cast your sovereignty in your face.”

Here are excerpts from his speech below. Read full speech at Evans Early American Imprint Collection.

“Revert to your old principles—seek peace and ensue it—leave America, if she has taxable matter in her, to tax herself. Be content to bind America by laws of trade; you have always done it. Let this be your reason for binding their trade. Do not burthen them by taxes; you were not used to do so from the beginning.

“But if, intemperately, unwisely, fatally, you sophisticate and poison the very source of government, by urging subtle deductions, and consequences odious to those you govern, from the unlimited and illimitable nature of supreme sovereignty, you will teach them by these means to call that sovereignty itself in question. When you drive him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If that sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will they take? They will cast your sovereignty in your face. Nobody will be argued into slavery.

“Sir, let the gentlemen on the other side call forth all their ability; let the best of them get up, and tell me, what one character of liberty the Americans have, and what one brand of slavery they are free from, if they are bound in their property and industry, by all the restraints you can imagine on commerce, and at the same time are made pack-horses of every tax you choose to impose, without the least share in granting them? When they bear the burthens of unlimited monopoly, will you bring them to bear the burthens of unlimited revenue too?

“Reflect how you are to govern a people, who think they ought to be free, and think they are not. Your scheme yields no revenue; it yields nothing but discontent, disorder, disobedience; and such is the state of America, that after wading up to your eyes in blood you could only end just where you begun; that is, to tax where no revenue is to be found.

“Tyranny is a poor provider. It knows neither how to accumulate, nor how to extract.”

Portrait of Edmund Burke, courtesy of Trinity College

Edmund Burke was born August 29, 1729 in Dublin, the son of a solicitor. He studied at Trinity College Dublin and later settled in London, where he served in the House of Commons for three decades.

A statue of Edmund Burke was dedicated on October 12, 1922 in Washington, DC. at the corner of 11th Street NW and Massachusetts Avenue. The statue was presented by the Lord Mayor of London after World War I, when the United States and Britain became allies, according to the National Park Service.

Text + Research, Michael Quinlin