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Information from a 1912 publication
The law, being a virtual declaration of war, furnished the colonists with an excuse for throwing off all allegiance to the king. John Adams regarded this act as the straw that broke the camel's back. "It throws thirteen colonies," he said, "out of the royal protection and makes us independent in spite of our supplications and entreaties."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lRkpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA71 Our Republic: A Brief History of the American People]</ref>
The law, being a virtual declaration of war, furnished the colonists with an excuse for throwing off all allegiance to the king. John Adams regarded this act as the straw that broke the camel's back. "It throws thirteen colonies," he said, "out of the royal protection and makes us independent in spite of our supplications and entreaties."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lRkpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA71 Our Republic: A Brief History of the American People]</ref>
==Effect==
The action of Parliament now indicated that the crisis had been reached and that the American people must choose between submitting to the tyrannical course of the mother country, or persisting in their resistance to aggression and wrong. They must now either retrace their steps with shame and dishonor or prepare to push forward and sustain their position at the risk of their lives. Though there was great uncertainty of ultimate success, the colonists faltered not. They chose the latter course and resolutely prepared to make the best possible resistance. Furthermore, bitterness was added by the employment of foreign mercenaries to fight the battles for the English, and this measure precluded the possibility of reconciliation with the mother country. It convinced the rebellious colonists that nothing less than a long and costly war would gain for them the freedom they so much desired.
===Common Sense===
{{main|Common Sense}}
[[image:commonsense.jpg|100px|thumb|First page of ''Common Sense'']]
While these disheartening measures were being passed by Parliament, something to offset them had occurred in America. This was the publication by [[Thomas Paine]] of a pamphlet entitled [[Common Sense]]. Though an Englishman, Paine had early imbibed the spirit of [Republicanism]], and having an intense hatred of oppression, the style and manner of his pamphlet were such that they instantly aroused the energies of the colonists and fired their passions to maintain the struggle for liberty. In this pamphlet, Paine used every available argument on the subject of independence and employed every means of reaching all classes of people.
To impress the religious element, he employed the Scriptures and the name of the king was rendered odious in the eyes of those colonists who had read the history of the Jews as recorded in the Old Testament. He used the history of the children of Israel to show the foolishness of revolting against a government instituted by Heaven itself, and clearly portrayed the consequences of the absurd lust after kings to rule over them. This afforded Paine an excellent chance for prepossessing the colonists in favor of republican institutions and instilling into their minds a prejudice against the king as being the "anointed of the Lord."
He also ridiculed the idea of a vast continent like America being in a state of vassalage to a small island like England. This stung the pride of the Americans and more thoroughly convinced them as to the propriety of renouncing the assumed right of the British to rule them. Probably nothing could have happened at a more opportune time. The pamphlet was addressed to a body of men who for several years past had received convincing proof that Great Britain cared for them only because of the benefits derived; that she desired to compel submission to any measures, despite all opposition on the part of the colonists; and that she would not spill the blood of her own sons to compel obedience, but had taken the dishonorable course of hiring foreign bullies. Consequently, many of the colonists who had previously been lukewarm in their adherence to the American cause, now became ardent patriots, while a large number who had really been attached to the royal cause became very lukewarm in their allegiance to the king.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NowMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA410 The United States: its beginnings, progress and modern development, Volume 2]</ref>
==References==
==References==