Edmund Burke

"On Conciliation"

First published on March 22, 1775;
excerpted from The Spirit of Seventy-Six, 1995

"An Englishman is the unfittest person on earth to argue another Englishman into slavery…. "

Edmund Burke, from "On Conciliation"

Although King George III (1738–1820) seemed to have surrounded himself with advisers who went along with his vengeful feelings toward the colonies, one member of Parliament stood apart as a champion of colonial rights. He was Edmund Burke (1729–1797), born in Dublin, Ireland. From 1765 to 1782, Burke was private secretary to Charles Watson-Wentworth, the marquis of Rockingham (1730–1782), author of the Declaratory Act of 1766. The Declaratory Act affirmed the right of Parliament to make laws (including tax laws) that would bind the colonists "in all cases whatsoever."

Burke was elected to Parliament in 1766, so he observed firsthand all the talk about the troubles with the American colonies. In early 1775, he gave a famous speech on the topic in Parliament. Afterwards called "On Conciliation," the speech described Burke's views on what ought to be the relationship between England and America. At the time, the Revolutionary War had not yet broken out, but tensions were high. British troops were stationed in Boston, Massachusetts, trying to enforce what Bostonians angrily called the Intolerable Acts. The Intolerable Acts were passed in 1774 to punish Boston for its resistance to paying British-imposed taxes.

Burke believed that Parliament did have a legal right to tax the colonies. But Burke also believed that sometimes it was necessary to consider other issues in addition to what was legal. His argument is sometimes described as an argument in favor of obeying the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law. Past efforts by the British to tax the colonies—from the Stamp Act of 1765 (which taxed various types of printed material, legal documents, and dice and playing cards) through the tea taxes of 1767 and 1773—had all led to violence and discontent. Concerning the quarrel with the colonies, Burke said that what was legal (the right to tax) did not matter as much as human nature. He thought Parliament should exercise its authority while respecting the people who were subject to that authority.

In the following excerpt, Burke described to Parliament the nature of the colonists: free people with the rights of Englishmen. He also pointed out the practical difficulties of waging a war in a country so far away, with an entire ocean separating the warring nations: "You cannot pump this [ocean] dry," he said. The excerpt includes some of Burke's thoughts on how the British Empire (England and all its colonies) became great, by recognizing the rights of its subjects and gaining peace and loyalty through respect, not by trying to enslave people or take their wealth by force.

Things to remember while reading an excerpt from "On Conciliation":

• Edmund Burke was not a typical politician of his time, or he would have tried to get ahead in politics by pleasing King George instead of arguing against the king's colonial policies. In fact, Burke was more of a philosopher than a politician; he was interested in the pursuit of wisdom rather than achieving wealth or high office.
• Burke had a deep sympathy for oppressed (unjustly treated) people, and he believed England was oppressing the colonies. He lamented that he lived in a time when powerful people in government were not governing wisely. Burke was a man who thought deeply about issues, and he was probably the most knowledgeable man in England about colonial matters. Of the few voices that spoke in Parliament in favor of reconciling with the colonies, his was the most eloquent.
• At the time Burke gave his "On Conciliation" speech in March 1775, the First Continental Congress had already met and sent several documents to King George asking for peace but also making various demands (described in the next chapter). King George was angry; he had not responded to the colonists but wrote to Prime Minister Sir Frederick North (1732–1792) in November 1774: "[T]he New England governments are in a state of rebellion, blows [fighting] must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent."

Excerpt from "On Conciliation"

America, gentlemen say, is a noble object. It is an object well worth fighting for. Certainly it is, if fighting a people be the best way of gaining them….

In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole: and as an ardent [affection] is always a jealous affection, your colonies become suspicious, restive and unretractable whenever they see the least attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the only advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English colonies probably than in any other people of the earth….

The temper and character which prevail in our colonies are, I am afraid, unalterable by any human art. We cannot, I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce people, and persuade them that they are not sprung from a nation in whose veins the blood of freedom circulates. The language in which they would hear you tell them this tale would detect the imposition; your speech would betray you. An Englishman is the unfittest person on earth to argue another Englishman into slavery….

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together. If we are conscious of our situation and glow with zeal to fill our place as becomes our station and ourselves, we ought to auspicate all our public proceedings on America with the old warning of the church,Sursum corda! We ought to elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire; and have made the most extensive, and the only honourable conquests, not by destroying but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness of the human race. Let us get anAmerican revenue as we have got an American empire. English privileges have made it all that it is; English privileges will make it all it can be. (Commager and Morris, pp. 233–34, 236, 238)

What happened next …

Edmund Burke's opponents were too powerful, and his proposal that England reconcile with America was voted down, 271 to 78. But among ordinary Englishmen and women there were widespread feelings of sympathy for the American cause. There are many reasons for this. Americans were English, too. They were fighting for freedom. America made the British Empire stronger and to lose the colonies would be a devastating loss. War is expensive. And the king and his advisers were simply being stubborn, in the opinion of many. Over the next several months, the king received many petitions from his subjects pleading the cause of America.

Did you know …

• Edmund Burke looked upon the British Empire as a family. The parent (England) was supposed to rule with kindness over its children (the colonies). He believed that in the case of the American colonies, England had been harsh when it should have been lenient. Burke himself was raised in an unhappy family headed by an overly demanding father, and this may have influenced his thinking.
• Burke was not a believer in democracy. He did not think ordinary people should have a say in how they were governed. Rather, he thought that the right to govern belonged to the aristocracy, the privileged class that was born to rule.
• Burke was thoroughly upset over the American Revolution and did not know which side to take. He wrote in August 1776: "I do not know how to wish success to those [the rebellious Americans] whose victory is to separate us from a large and noble part of our empire. Still less do I wish success to injustice, oppression, and absurdity [government policies]…. No good can come of any event in this warto any virtuous interest."

Where to Learn More

Burke, Edmund. The Portable Edmund Burke. Edited by Isaac Kramnick. New York: Scholastic Paperbacks, 1999.

Commager, Henry Steele, and Richard B. Morris, eds. The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants. New York, Da Capo Press, 1995.

"Edmund Burke" in Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Edited by Mark M. Boatner III. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1994.

Edmund Burke, British Supporter of the Colonies

Edmund Burke was a brilliant writer as well as a speaker. He is best remembered for his Annual Register, which he proposed in 1758 and edited from 1759 to 1797. His articles in the Annual Register described relations between England and America. Because there were no copyright laws in Burke's day, countless American writers wrote about the American Revolution by borrowing freely from Burke's works; Burke was not credited, leaving the impression that other writers' works were original. This deception was exposed in the twentieth century by historian Orin G. Libby, who was doing a study of all the histories of the American Revolution.

Edmund Burke tried repeatedly to get Parliament to see that the British Empire was growing more dependent economically on the colonies. He pointed out that "at the beginning of the century some of these Colonies imported corn from the Mother Country," but for "some time past, the Old World has been fed from the New."

Burke's native country, Ireland, was (and still is) part of the British Empire. His mother was a Roman Catholic; members of that church were persecuted by Protestant Irish and British authorities. Burke felt great sympathy for Catholics, saying they had been reduced to "beasts of burden" by their persecutors.