“No Taxation Without Representation”
Editor’s Note: In preparation for the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution, the Four Rivers Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) President William Sanders is sharing messages of the impact of the war on today’s society.
'No taxation without representation' sounds like some slogan from the most recent political campaign, but it is actually what caused our forefathers to seek their independence from England. Just think how you would feel if you lived in Toombs or Montgomery County and had no representative in the Georgia State Legislature. Our ancestors felt that way 250 years ago. England got our money, but we had no say in the way things were run there or here. Kind of makes you mad…. like when Alabama scores a touchdown. I digress.
What whopping tax was my and your Great Great Great… Grandaddy paying? Was it 8% like we pay now? Was it more? It was just 1-1.5%. You may say bring back the good old days. If that's all we were paying the people in England, most have been paying nothing. Wrong, they were paying from 5-7%.
As you think about this, you need to ask yourself if a lower cost of living is worth having in exchange for not being able to make your own laws locally. What would we do if the Toombs, Montgomery, etc., representatives lived 3,391 miles from us. In 1764, we had no representation period — not even 3,391 miles away.
The King (not Elvis) through Parliament could tax us or make laws to tell us what to do, and there was nothing we could do about it, not even write a letter to the editor. What exactly were our folks paying taxes on? Toyota carriages? Two taxes hit in 1764, one was the Sugar Act and the other one was the Currency Act. The Sugar Act as you would imagine taxed sugar, no more sweet tea. It also taxed molasses, textiles, newspapers, legal documents, playing cards, dice (even loaded ones), glass, paint, tea, lead (bad news for those who load their own rounds). Taxes on tea and sugar, it's a wonder the South ever developed, that's enough grounds to fight right there. Before I move on, let's look at the Boston Tea Party. Everyone remembers that, it is where a group of men tried to make some tea. They used too much water and tried to blame it on Native Americans. Enough said about that, the tea they ruined would be worth 1.7 million dollars today. Tea has not gone up a lot. It was worth 1 million dollars at the time.
The next thing that made our Great-Great-Great….Granddaddy 's hotter than an August day in South Georgia was the CurrencyAct. People even way back then were using paper money. British currency was scarce. This ACT prevented the colonies from printing or using their own paper money. The only way you could pay for things was with silver, gold or British currency, all of which was scarcer than a funeral home fan at a church social before air conditioning. Kind of like what we have with the Fed printing money that has nothing to back it up. If we tried it they would call it counterfeiting. I'm a Southerner. What do I know?
So, they taxed everything shipped into the colonies, before we had enough. If you were thinking about getting the wife one of those new Toyota Carriages to go shopping in, it had a 10% tariff on it. Tariffs have been around for a while, and we didn't start them. To make things even worse after England finished putting their hand out, the colonial legislatures taxed our ancestors. The King (not Elvis) was not completely dumb. He came up with an idea of how to get even more money from us. While the legislatures had their hands out, he figured out a way to get part of that money, in the Quartering Act of 1765.
The Quartering Act was a way the King could send his troops over here almost for free. As many bases as America has in the world, we need to start using this. Under the Quartering Act, colonial legislatures had to provide barracks, food, fuel (fire wood) (chainsaws were separate), and transportation for British troops.
You can see from all these that our Great Great Great…Granddaddy's just reached a melting point. Like someone singing Sweet Home Alabama at a Georgia game. Have you ever thought lately, has America ever been debt free? Yes, for one year under Andrew Jackson between 1835-1836. The next time you spend a twenty, thank Andrew.
