1775

The Americans roused

The rights of men that would eventually be outlined in such works as the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Paine's Common Sense gained increasing support through 1775. Fiery rhetoric would drive the colonists not only to seek equal right with other British Citizens, but to desire natural rights, not bestowed by a benevolent ruler or reluctantly by a tyrant, but as rights intrinsic to and deserved by all.

There were British politicians that agreed with the American’s and their desire for rights of shared governance. They pleaded in parliament for reconsideration and reconciliation.

Many on both sides of the Atlantic raised tensions and began spreading justifications for war. Others pleaded with both colonists and parliament to cool their tempers and rhetoric, to think of the implications of war and the lives to be lost. They spoke of peace and compromise.

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