In this episode, I highlight how the American struggle for independence was in many ways a constitutional crisis. The continual clashes with Britain had indeed created two incompatible constitutional doctrines – the colonial Whig interpretation on one hand, and the Tory interpretation on the other. I focus on the written positions of several legal minds within Britain and the North American colonist that had forged coherent constitutional arguments about the controversial events taking place and discuss why the rift between the two doctrines continued to grow.

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Recommended Readings

-Joseph Warren, A List of Infringements and Violation of Rights

-Thomas Hutchinson, The Governor’s Speech, January 6, 1773

Answer of the House of Representatives, January 26, 1773

-Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists

Murray Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty

-Dave Benner, Compact of the Republic: The League of States and the Constitution (Chapter 2)

Dave Benner