Commerce, Expansion, and Republican Virtue

William O. Walker III

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511811784.003

1 - Commerce, Expansion, and Republican Virtue

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

William O. Walker III

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William O. Walker III: Affiliation:
University of Toronto

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Summary

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Benjamin Franklin, 1755

I am persuaded that no constitution was ever before so well calculated as ours for extensive empire and self government.…Nothing should ever be accepted which would require a navy to defend it.

Thomas Jefferson, 1809

Armed shipping must follow the peaceful vessels of commerce.

Alfred Thayer Mahan, 1890

For more than a century following the Glorious Revolution, England and France vied for mastery of European affairs and until 1763 engaged in a struggle for imperial dominance across the Atlantic. The latter contest, fought mainly in Canada and the Great Lakes region of British America, produced a level of indebtedness that London could ill afford. Believing the American colonies to be the prime beneficiaries of France's defeat in the French and Indian War in 1763, Parliament enacted several laws intended to ease Britain's financial burden. Raising revenue through either direct or indirect taxation was a crucial way of paying for the security that would be required when France was ready to do battle again, as it doubtless would be.

Unfortunately for Great Britain, the wages of empire became burdensome at a time when the idea of a common past was taking hold in its colonies south of Canada. Broad cultural similarities existed across the colonies, despite their lack of political cohesion.

Type: Chapter
Information: National Security and Core Values in American History , pp. 13 - 44

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511811784.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2009

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