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The colonial era in early American history is known for the two groups of individuals in terms of their political views, patriots, and loyalists. The latter were people who supported the idea of remaining as a part of the British Empire (Leaverton 2021). On the other hand, the former was a small cohort of political elite members who believed that the colony should be liberated from the influence of the Crown (Locke and Wright 2019). In fact, this group enabled the proclamation of the independence of the United States in 1776, creating a self-made society that required various issues to be solved to become a proper state (Clemens 2020). Patriots created an orderly nation with fundamental disagreements about various topics primarily through benevolence, which allowed civic engagement and the advancement of elite members goals of attaining autonomy and justice for the country.
Patriots were the key players in the formation of the American nation. They were the elite members of colonial society who shaped the new countrys political identity (Locke and Wright 2019). This group started to appear as a separate entity during the unsuccessful reforms that the British Empire strived to implement in the 1770s in terms of taxation and trade (Locke and Wright 2019). Its actions resulted in widespread riots against the hegemony of the Crown. Indeed, the famous 1774 Boston tea party initiated the North American upheaval against the unfair legislation of the king (Locke and Wright 2019). Unlike the loyalists, who mostly were elite merchants, largely dependent on the trade with the Empire, patriots had a strong stand against these taxes and were prepared for an armed conflict (Locke and Wright 2019). In fact, they were mainly the people who led the War for Independence and later established the new government.
Despite the initial hostile nature of patriots resistance to the influence of the British Empire, the methods they utilized to shape the American nation were based on benevolence. Indeed, a compassionate attitude, which remains an essential component of U.S. culture, allowed the political elite to maintain peace in the country with multiple ethnicities and worldviews (Clemens 2020). It allowed patriots to generate social order in America in the absence of social solidarity (Clemens 2020, 28). Furthermore, benevolence has long been used as a tool to persuade citizens to act in accordance with the countrys needs. It would be impossible for elite members to win the War for Independence, become united after the Civil War, and continue growing and strengthening as a nation without the knowledge and understanding of this fact. The war with the British Empire and even the Civil War can be considered as forms of civic engagement the elites used to make people focus on a common goal. However, it is crucial to note that they always projected their negative attitude on a potential enemy while expressing benevolence to their citizens.
The two ethical considerations that patriots used to justify their grievances against the British Empire are the desire for autonomy and justice for the colonial nation. They firmly believed that the United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, which meant complete liberation from the control of the Crown (Locke and Wright 2019, 126). It was the patriots justification of the need for autonomy to the people, who were the leading force in fighting the British Empire, which could not accept the patriots position. Furthermore, the political elite viewed the British reforms as unjust. Hence, the reasonable explanation for their desire to seek redress in their outrage that the colonial nation deserves fair treatment, which is impossible under the hegemony of the king. These considerations were the driving forces of the American Revolution, since the elite members realized how to present them correctly to the public to elicit the same resentment toward the Crown as the patriots had. Overall, these two ethical principles later became the cornerstones of the modern democratic society in the U.S., where citizens have the right to autonomy and justice.
In summary, patriots in American history were the groups of political elites who had a negative view of the British Empires influence on the United Colonies and wanted a complete independence from the Crowns control. They started to express their dissatisfaction with heavy taxes and excessive supervision in the second half of the eighteenth century, when a series of riots began across the entire colony. However, this uproar would not be successful if the patriots did not use the right strategies and ethical considerations to influence the public. The primary approach that allowed to unite a diverse cohort of people, which later became the American nation, is benevolence. Indeed, a kind and compassionate attitude from elite members was a strong facilitator for success in reaching independence because people with fundamental differences in their belief systems collaborate only if properly convinced to do so. Moreover, the ethical considerations of autonomy and justice played an essential role in validating patriots objectives in that British-American discord.
References
Clemens, Elisabeth S. 2020. Civic Gifts: Voluntarism and the Making of the American Nation-State. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Leaverton, Christena Renea. 2021. Loyalist Preachers During the American Revolution (1765-1783). Master diss., Liberty University.
Locke, Joseph L., and Ben Wright, eds. 2019. The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
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