Part 1: What if the American Revolutionary War was caused by land speculation? Charles Metzger cracks open Pandora’s Box with his 1936 book, The Quebec Act: A Primary Cause of the American Revolution. The finger prints of America’s Founding Fathers are all over the Scandal.
Part 2: Major decisions were made in London. This raised two problems. One was the time needed to send a request to London and then get a reply. The second was that the person that you thought had the authority to make a decision no longer held that position of authority.
In 1770 Benjamin Franklin asked Thomas Walpole, a British banker and member of parliament, to intercede for him on the Ohio River Question. It took two years for Franklin to get an answer. The twenty-page answer was negative. Franklin was reminded of the treaty with the Six Nations and the Cherokee. Yes, Franklin, Washington and others had been granted thousands of acres for farming in that region of the Ohio River. But no, the Colonist could not set up a “government” there. The Colonist would have to negotiate with the Indians.
This answer from the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations was not acceptable to the Colonist. Next month we will see how the Colonist got around the Lord Commissioners’ obstruction.
Road to Failure 