NOTE: Transcripts are reproduced by means of electronic transcription. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bill Mick
Nice to have you, along with us on WMB on a Tuesday morning and in that 8:00 hour of Tuesdays. Dave Bowman, who’s been with us throughout the show from Silverdale WA, is always bringing us, Dave does history. We’re in the early stages of a series called Liberty 250 as we March toward next year’s July 4th celebration, the 250th anniversary of this country. And we’re talking the things that lead up to that day’s going to do that with acts that were intolerable. Before we let you get. Today, apparently we had an act that was intolerable last week on the part of the Canadian government with a digital services tax for American companies. And Trump says, OK, we’re done. We’ll tell you next week what your tariffs are going to be. And before the weekend was over, Canada says we give up. It’s kind of like the Stanley Cup Finals. We’re not gonna win this. So. We’re gonna negotiate and they’re back to the negotiating table. Yet that tax. Was as as I recall, in the same range are smaller than the taxes that were upsetting the colonials before they started the revolution.
Dave Bowman
It’s not the tax, it’s the principle. And that’s really what it comes down to. You know we we we talked. A few weeks ago about the the. Cobra effect, remember that. And the fact that British the British didn’t learn nothing from the covera effect, and if they had, they.
Bill Mick
They’re going to pay you a bounty. We’re going To breed cobras right?
Dave Bowman
You’d think history would repeat itself. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but it does rhyme. In 1497. Cornwall, which is a. If you’re looking at a map of England. Cornwall is that little? Tale of England over there on the left hand side below Wales. It’s part of England, but in 1497 it really wasn’t part of England. It was for all practical purposes. A colony. It was a place that had been essentially conquered by England, but even in that conquering England was smart enough back then to say, OK, we’ve conquered you. But we need your 10. We need your your, your skills. So we’re going to let you run yourself and you just, you know, be a part of US, Hooray. And this was a great deal for the Cornwallis, ANS I guess they call them Cornish. But everything. Yes, game hens. This was going great until Henry the 7th. Got it in his head that he needed to fight a war against Scotland. And so in 1497, he told all of his domains, including Cornwall. Guess what? You’re going to pay a tax. Not a big tax, but a tax for me. So that I can go fight Scotland. Now, Cornwall had no beef with Scotland. In fact, Cornwall is literally as far away as from Scotland as you can get and still be in Great Britain. They had no beef with the Scottish they had no reason to to support this war and they didn’t. And they told Henry the 7th. Well, no. In so many words, only they said it in basically Welsh. We’re not paying your tax because we don’t want that. You don’t speak our language. The the tax was levied by royal ministers who didn’t speak the Cornish language. They didn’t understand the Cornish life and they completely ignored. The rules that Cornwall had been operating under and the independence with which they had been functioning. So the Court has decided, you know what, this shall not stand. And about 15,000 of them said, let’s March to London and explain this to Henry that he’s wrong. Well, it didn’t work out quite that way. There was a battle just outside of London. The Cornwallis ANS were the Cornish were defeated, their leaders were executed, and the rebellion was crushed. But the story didn’t end there. In the aftermath of all this, Henry the seventh he. He was smarter than George the third. In some way. Instead of tightening his grip on the Cornwall, he decided to, well, maybe I was wrong and he eased off. He ended his his tax. He ended the royal decrees because he realized that if he didn’t, all that stuff, it wouldn’t bring Cornwall closer to the crown. It would push them further away, and they might rebel again. So he stepped back, allowed them to keep their traditions, their local governments. He he did all of those kinds of things, and it turned rebellion. It it, it kept rebellion from turning into revolution. Now if we Fast forward 300 years. Boston is not Cornwall. Parliament is not Henry the 7th. But the parallels are hard to miss. Here is another distant government imposing taxes and policies without consent. Here we have people protesting, not necessarily with violence at first, but with petitions, with speeches and eventually, yes, with destruction of property. And here too, the Crown responds with force. Unlike Henry the 7th. Parliament doesn’t see the danger in overreach. It refuses to recognize that coercion breaks down resistance. Instead of taking a breath, they will double down. So in 1774. Came to America, the intolerable acts.
Bill Mick
Of course you can also get our podcast and those of Dave on the iHeartRadio app. Just make them your favorites at the top of the page. We’d appreciate it. England deciding we’re going to crack down on these colonies and we’re not going to let up and they.
Speaker
OK.
Dave Bowman
Start bringing it, Dave. Yeah, just kind of a quick recap. We’ve gone through the Boston massacre, we’ve gone through. The Boston Tea Party. And England has had. Enough of this, this this deal with. With Boston the the, the Massachusetts. People are are are a problem. And there is a belief in Parliament and a. General belief in England. That it’s Massachusetts. It’s not America, it’s Massachusetts. That’s the problem. And so if we just crack down on Massachusetts, maybe this will, maybe this will help. So in 1774, Parliament presents us with four acts. Now they will refer to these as by their name 4 acts. They are somewhat. Occasionally called the Coercive Acts, they’re designed to coerce Massachusetts into behaving properly. And of course, here in the United States, what what will become the United States? We refer to them as the Intolerable Acts, because these are intolerable. Bill, these are these are no good. The four acts are the Boston Port Act. The idea here is we’re going to close the port of Boston. No trade, no food, no business. And the theory here is that if we do this, Boston will be starved into submission. And will surrender. Just by some foreshadowing here, you’ll notice that Boston did not surrender. OK. So, so we we already know that one. ‘S not gonna work. The Massachusetts Government act. This is to basically dissolve the governments in Massachusetts. The the colonial government has dissolved the institution. The town governments all across Massachusetts now remember that’s Massachusetts and Maine. What will become Maine at this point? Is all Massachusetts. All the town councils are dissolved. All the local institutions are dissolved. Town meetings are outlawed. You can have one town meeting a year. And the idea here is that if they can’t organize well. They won’t be discussing these things, right? At meetings, some days you get up and you wonder, are the British really that stupid? But. Is a different error. Thirdly, they they pass what is called the administration of justice Act.
Dave Bowman
And what this means is British officials who commit acts that result in a trial cannot be trialed locally. In Boston, they have to be taken to either Canada or back to England to be trot. George Washington himself will refer to this as, quote the Murder Act, meaning that British officials could essentially walk out in the street, murder an American and get away with it because they won’t be tried here, they’ll be sent. Back to England. Or to Canada where? They’re less likely to be. Convicted of anything. So. There’s that. Then you’ve got this quartering act. Now, this is the second time that the British have implemented A Quartering act, and this one does not go as well as the last one did. The last one was at least. Tolerable. This one is intolerable. Soldiers are housed amongst the civilians and although they are not necessarily hosed in your house, they are taking over these public buildings, particularly town halls and the likes of which that have been shut down. So we’re telling you, you can’t have your town meeting. Ohh, and we’re putting our soldiers. In your town hall to make sure. That you don’t have no meanings. Seemed provocative. Well, it certainly did to the colonial.
Bill Mick
Yeah, absolutely. There’s no doubt.
Dave Bowman
Oddly enough, it’s this final act. It’s called the Quebec act. Is the one that really fuels fire. This is not a punishment. But it is seen as a provocative Catholic authoritarian threat. To the colonial. Remember that most of the colonials, particularly New England, do not like Roman Catholics. Quebec is full of French Roman Catholics. And the British allow them remember that proclamation line of 1763. The British say to them, yeah, don’t pay any attention to that. You go. Where you want. And this is seen as an attempt. To overthrow the faith of North America. And this is a huge problem to the colonials. And it’s probably one of the bigger things that we never talk about is the Quebec act, the four acts, the Intolerable Acts. Come to America. Britain thought that they were putting out the fire.
Speaker
Push.
Dave Bowman
It’s more of a fuse.
Bill Mick
Our weekly dive into history, Dave Bowman joins us on Bill Mick Live. We are talking about intolerable acts. They were just listening those in. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of the Quebec act, Dave. So you are imparting knowledge, my friend.
Dave Bowman
Most Americans have never heard of that, because it doesn’t seem to play. Again, we like our history. Red, white and blue, we don’t like.
Bill Mick
It Gray.
Dave Bowman
And the Quebec act is one of those things. That. On the surface, from the British standpoint, it actually makes sense. It essentially gives the French Canadians who they’ve conquered in the war in the Seven Years War. More freedoms and more acceptance in the empire, and it actually benefits Britain quite well. You notice Canada never revolts. At least not till the 1970s anyway. But there is a distinct feeling in the colonies. The 13 American colonies that this is a Catholic attempt. There are actually accusations that George the third is a secret Roman Catholic. And this has played up big in America. This is in in the colonies, is that there’s a huge anti Catholic bias here that we never talk about and we don’t have a lot of time to get into today. But you need to understand that that’s an undercurrent of this whole thing. Thing and it’s used as part of the propaganda that that motivates people. If we don’t throw off the king, he’s gonna force us to become Catholics again. I mean, Charles tried it, right?
Speaker
So.
Dave Bowman
Maybe we need to cut this guy’s head off.
Bill Mick
He said.
Dave Bowman
Queering. So Massachusetts gets hit with these four acts, and the idea here is that Massachusetts is either going to starve or submit. And the idea from Britain’s viewpoint is this makes sense because this is what you do with rebellious colonies, right? And it’s almost like nobody in Parliament has ever. Heard of Cornwall? It’s it’s it’s, it’s. I they know they know because there’s statues of it and there’s there’s all kinds of monuments to the event and there’s all kinds of reminders about it. But for some reason. It’s like the COBRA problem. They just haven’t learned nothing. And at the end of the day. They seem to have forgotten. Common sense they’ve seemed to forgotten. You know, it’s the line from Star Wars. The more you tighten your fists, the more systems will slip through your fingers. Same kind of thing here. Boston. Is surprised, as are the British. That they begin to receive aid, food, arms, anything you can name. From Nova Scotia in Canada, all the way South to Georgia, everybody is sending stuff to to Boston. Here you need this. You need blankets, you need food, you need firewood, you need wax, you need whatever. And in the process of all this. Begin to form not just in Boston, not just in Massachusetts, but all around the country. A thing called a committee of correspondence. Now this is a name that sounds. Fanciful to us, what is the Committee of correspondence? Is this just a bunch of people sitting around writing letters? Not really. In the in the 18th century, the 1700s, the word correspondence. Has a deeper inflection, a deeper. Meaning to it it’s more of a. I want you to think of a committee of correspondence as the Internet today. It’s that kind of communication.
Bill Mick
Or, like minds are gathering.
Dave Bowman
Like minds are gathering to plan, to fund, to get anything and everything you could possibly need an app. To to do all the things that you will need to accomplish your civil disobedience is what these committees of correspondence are formed for. And again. The British are going to be. Shocked by this because. It’s going to work.
Bill Mick
So what they were trying to suppress? The British end up sparking this fire of. Coming together to resist all this.
Dave Bowman
It it it really does. I mean it’s it’s a lesson not learned, not remembered from Cornwall, but. It sees all kinds of things happening in Massachusetts. You have the solemn league form now this is. This borrows right out of English history again, and this is a a league that is going to make this a very religious argument. Again, it goes to the Quebec act and the the the Catholic thing, but they also. It’s a grassroots driven movement. And its its intent is to boycott British goods, not just in Boston, because they can’t import anything in Boston but New York, Philadelphia, Savannah, Charleston, all across the continent. The American continent. We’re going to boycott British goods. So these things are there in Virginia. George Washington. Remember him? George Washington. The hero, really. Of the the Seven Years War, the French and Indian War. He finally finds his rebellious voice, as it were. And he actually gets involved with something called the Fairfax results. Now the Fairfax resolves are essentially the state of Virginia saying, you know what? We are going to enter the political storm as well and we are going to make it very. Clear. And we are going to really express our position. That we need to be independent. It’s not just a New England thing. It’s not just, you know, up there. This is who we are as a united continent. And this is actually going to these Fairfax resolves that Washington puts together, they condemn the intolerable acts. They assert their colonial rights as Englishmen. They call for the British boycott of goods they and they do something else. They propose the formation. Of Congress, the Continental Congress. And it’s these Fairfax resolves then. That you know are going to lead to that, but it’s the Suffolk resolves up in Massachusetts that really, you know, it’s Massachusetts cause they’re they’re pretty ticked off as it is. And if it’s up in Suffolk that they actually produce their Suffolk resolves. Which are going to say we refuse to abide by these four acts. We’re not going to follow them. And more importantly. We are going to raise an arm. We’re done. We’re done talking. We’re through negotiating. We are through with all that nonsense. We are going to raise a militia. An army and we are going to be. Prepared to fight. For our freedoms. Now remember, Boston is, of course, where all the British troops are the ones that are not on the frontier anyway. And here is Boston. Here’s Massachusetts saying. Hey, guess what, General Gage? We’re done with these, and we’re going to raise an arm. Me. And that army, much like, happened in 1497, when the Cornwallis the Cornish marched on London. I like Cornwallis better. March on London, we’re going to you if we have to March on Boston. Well, that’s going to lead to this problems, as you can imagine. At the end of the day. The Suffolk the into the Intolerable Acts are completely and utterly rejected by all of the colonies. England’s attempt to isolate Boston to isolate Massachusetts has completely and utterly backfired. They didn’t learn the lesson of. Henry the 7th. And boy. Is it going to cost them?
Bill Mick
This weekend on the Florida roundtable, Dave brings us American scripture, our founding documents for the 4th of July holiday weekend. So we’re looking forward to that as we work our way up to that fateful day a year from this 4th of July. With this Liberty 250 series and Dave. England has stirred up the colonists and they are banding together and saying enough is enough.
Dave Bowman
Yeah, it’s almost like they just didn’t learn anything. From the past, I mean I I don’t a lot of the American Revolution is driven by. What I would call ego and missteps. There were many people at the time who said, you know, you just let them do their own thing every just like Cornwall. If you just let them do their own thing, they’ll be fine. But you had too many egos and too many.
Bill Mick
Washington’s a loyalist here and and he’s a member of of the British forces.
Dave Bowman
Right, well, not. Anymore as of right now, he’s he’s. Yeah, he’s he’s on our side. So Franklin, of course, we talked about him last week. He’s going through his thing. It’s a real mess. And in September of 1774, September 5th. Those Fairfax results come to pass and delegates begin to arrive in Philadelphia for the first Continental Congress. Now among them are George Washington, John Adams, John Jay, Patrick Henry. And and John Dickinson Dickinson being one of those guys that should be more. Prominent to us? But for whatever reason. There is Georgia doesn’t send delegates, although they kind of do. They’re still Georgia is 1. Of those weird. Places and and we could talk about Georgia for hours. This this issue with Georgia and the Indian tribes in in Florida. Will continue even into the constitutional era. There are many people who believe that the only reason Georgia ratifies the Constitution is because they want help from the other 13 states. The other 12 states fighting the Indians down in Georgia down in Florida. But even now in 1774, Georgia is still kind of hoping that maybe Britain will help them fight. The Indians down in Florida, so they’re a little hesitant, but the rest of the states are already really on board. With this. And as the Congress begins to meet the first Continental Congress. They are. United. In this idea that we have to stand together. Is it it this unite or die mentality has finally come to pass? Now there are people there that still hope for reconciliation with Britain. John Dickinson is a great example of this. He’s one of the last people to the revolution. But he’s one of the people that’s going to lead it when it finally comes and he’s going to have. A huge impact later on. Constitutionally speaking. The. Congress issues a declaration of rights and grievances. And this is where we’re we’re we’re almost to the point where we’re going to start, we we’ve almost reached the point where we can start talking about those grievances that we’re going to list in the Declaration of Independence. These declarations of rights and grievances are going to complain to the king. But not necessarily about the king. In fact, the grievances at this point are still more with Parliament because it’s Parliament that’s, you know, usurping our rights.
Bill Mick
Pleaded the king for relief or something here.
Dave Bowman
Redress of grievances. But amongst these declaration of rights, the Congress, the United States, the First Continental Congress makes sure that included in these declaration of life rights are these. Life. Liberty. And property. These things are unalienable and we believe in them. To the point where we are willing to form militias and armies. And if we can’t get what we want, well, we’re going to fight for. The Continental Association comes out of this this is an idea that the colonies will unite in economic resistance to Britain hit Britain where it hurts. By this point. The economic issues have kind. Of shifted a little bit. While Britain doesn’t necessarily. Rely on the colonies. There are some things that are important here, one of which is shipbuilding. By 1774, a third of English shipbuilding is coming from the colonies. Because we have forests and that’s getting bigger by the by the moment. Think about what that means. It’s 1774. In 25 years. England is going to be involved in the Napoleonic. Wars. Battle of Trafalgar. These kind. Of things. Those are ships, many of which are going to be built in America. What if they don’t have that anymore? English goods. Are being imported to America. English merchants rely on America because they’re selling us stuff. Fashions, all kinds of spices, and this sort of thing. And if we boycott all that stuff, it’s going to hurt. The average merchant in London. And you start messing with the middle class in Britain. What that’s not going to go well. They’re going to argue with me. Wait a minute. Why? Why are you doing that? Why are you making these people mad at us? We didn’t do it. You did. This continental association. Unites the college. It’s not just Massachusetts anymore. Now it is the 13 United colonies. And they are united in these. Economic resistance to bro. There is a an idea that maybe we should, you know. Form a form a a type of union that is. Part of the Commonwealth. You know, it’s kind of. Like Canada, but. But that plan falls apart pretty quick. There is no longer any middle ground. In the Congress and the First Continental Congress, you are either pro independents or you are Pro Britain. And the Pro Britain side is rapidly.
Speaker
Fading.
Dave Bowman
And by May 10th, 1775. The first Continental Congress, the United States of America. Will issue not a quite a proclamation, not quite a threat. But in essence, they say if Britain’s not going to listen to us if Parliament’s not going to listen to us. We’re done. May 10th, 1775 should be one of those days where you start looking at going OK what happens in? June of 1775. Anybody remember? Bunker hill. The colonies have been shouting over each other for months. But now they’ve begun to unite and speak with a single voice. And it’s that voice that says enough is enough. We’re done with this. We’re done with your disrespect, we’re done with your mistreatment. We’re done with your intolerable acts. Which are violating our rights as Englishmen. And Parliament continues to say no, we’re supreme, we decide what’s good for you. We decide what you get and we decide because we’re supreme, what gets taxed, what doesn’t get taxed, and who’s going to answer. And just like 300 years earlier in Cornwall. There’s this mindset that says. It’s time to March. It’s time. To make sure. That if they’re not going to listen. To us well. We’re going to explain it to them in terms that they can understand. And unlike Cornwall. The Americans have already shown the British that we are a force to be reckoned. With. We’re not just some rabble rousing mob marching to London. We’re not even gonna March on London. We just want you out of here. And the time has come. And as all of this stuff begins to percolate and all this stuff begins to cycle, and all this stuff begins to rub its wrong ways. There comes the question. Is it still time to back off? Or not. The colonies begin to gather that militia that I talked about and part of that militia. Stores arms. They store cannons, powder rounds. And a little place called Concord, MA. Between Boston and Concord is another little town called Lexington. First, Continental Congress has said. We’ve had enough.
Bill Mick
Start getting ready. You want more at Dave? Does history head to the show page at billmick.com today? It’s titled is media money and migrants. There’s a link to Dave. Does history right there along with Dave’s other work. So Dave, the colonies have had enough then it sounds like. Enough is enough.
Dave Bowman
The colonies have always had this. Obnoxious loud. Independent streak in them. Very American, as it were. I mean, if you go around the world today and people ask you to describe Americans, they’re gonna say we’re loud and obnoxious. We’re proud. We’re we, they argued. Over land, they over argued over taxes, they argued over trade. They even argued over religion. I mean, we just kind of scratched the surface of the Quebec act and the the underlying issues there. But keep in mind we’ve got a one of the colleagues, Maryland is a Catholic colony. I mean it’s what it’s there for. For most of their existence, for most of the time that they’ve been here, these 13 colonies have been. Like I said, 13 voices shouting over each other. But in Philadelphia carpenters Hall, not Independence Hall, by the way. They find harmony. Not agreements. On every issue. Not unity in every detail. But they find. Harmony, which is one of my favorite words in the English language. And it and because of the way it implies emotion of things. That voice, that harmonic voice in 1774 in May of 1774, says. We’re done. We’re we’ve tried, we’ve. We’ve tried to work with you. But you’ve done nothing to work with us. And like the Cornish wood, we’ve had enough. Now. Is Parliament going to try to crush us or are they going to say like Henry the 7th? Maybe it’s better to let them do their own thing. Maybe they’d be if Parliament had come back in 1774 and said 1775 and said. You know what? You’re right. You guys run yourself just like Cornwall did and everything will be fine. Inform your own governments, do your own thing. Just, you know, still be loyal to the crowd. It’d be a different world.
Bill Mick
Well, and they would have. Been willing, right? They would have been willing.
Speaker
I mean.
Bill Mick
To do it, wouldn’t all of that.
Dave Bowman
The real question is what would you have done if? You were been there, would you have? Stayed with Boston with Boston or played it safe. The colonies overact. Did they wake up? I know this next week. The British are going to March to Concord to try to take away those. Guns and powder. The shots going to be heard around the world.
Bill Mick
And that’s it for Dave. Does history on Bill make live on this Tuesday morning? Thank you for being part of it, Dave. Thank you. We’ll talk to. You next week, Sir. See you then.
DAVE DOES HISTORY 