30 March 1775 A.D. King George (Charmingly) Endorses “New England Restraining Act
30 March 1775 A.D. King George (Charmingly) Endorses “New England
Restraining Act
Editors. “King George endorses New England
Restraining Act.” History. 2009. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/king-george-endorses-new-england-restraining-act. Accessed 27 Mar 2015.King
George endorses New England Restraining Act
Hoping to keep the New England colonies
dependent on the British, King George III formally endorses the New England
Restraining Act on this day in 1775. The New England Restraining Act required
New England colonies to trade exclusively with Great Britain as of July 1. An
additional rule would come into effect on July 20, banning colonists from
fishing in the North Atlantic.
The British prime minister, Frederick,
Lord North, introduced the Restraining Act and the Conciliatory Proposition to
Parliament on the same day. The Conciliatory Proposition promised that no
colony that met its share of imperial defenses and paid royal officials’
salaries of their own accord would be taxed. The act conceded to the colonists’
demand that they be allowed to provide the crown with needed funds on a
voluntary basis. In other words, Parliament would ask for money through
requisitions, not demand it through taxes. The Restraining Act was meant to
appease Parliamentary hardliners, who would otherwise have impeded passage of
the pacifying proposition.
Unfortunately for North and prospects
for peace, he had already sent General Thomas Gage orders to march on Concord,
Massachusetts, to destroy the armaments stockpiled in the town, and take
Patriot leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams into custody. The orders were
given in January 1775 and arrived in Boston before the Conciliatory
Proposition. Thus, on April 18, 700 Redcoats marched towards Concord Bridge.
The military action led to the Revolutionary War, the birth of the United
States as a new nation, the temporary downfall of Lord North and the near
abdication of King George III. The Treaty of Paris marking the conflict’s end
guaranteed New Englanders the right to fish off Newfoundland–the right denied
them by the New England Restraining Act.
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