Jefferson’s Outlook of the British Parliament

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During 1774 Thomas Jefferson had composed and assembled a written document on his thoughts and beliefs of the British Empire on the colonies. He set forth on a motive that would express the tyranny that had existed throughout. In A Summary View of the Rights of British America, Jefferson begins to show homage to the British Parliament but then as the text continues he expresses numerous concerns over the oppressing force of the British over the American Colonies. Jefferson’s perspective of the British Parliament under the ruling of King Charles is very much clear. “The British Parliament would arrogate over us” (Jefferson Pg.1). To arrogate, means to take or claim without justification. The term Jefferson had used clearly begins to set forth his viewpoint on the matter. “The emigrants thought proper to adopt that system of laws under which they had hitherto lived in the mother county, and to continue their union with her by submitting themselves to the same common sovereign” (Jefferson Pg.1). The colonist had adhered to the laws that had been set forth for them under the impression that they were equals to their “mother” country. They willingly and consciously “submitted” themselves to this oppression of the largest empire of the world; under the idea that they were going to be granted the same exclusive rights of the British and all else being equal, little did the American Colonist know that it was quite the opposite of their original expectations. The American Colonist began to realize the underlying intent of the British Parliament and how it began to express a hovering dictatorship over the American Colonies. Jefferson’s first subject to be address was the restriction that had imposed by the British of free trade. “The exercise of a free trade with all parts of the world, possessed by the American colonist, as a natural right, and which no law of their

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