“Parliament is every day and everywhere losing that reverential affection, which so endearing a name of authority ought ever to carry with it; that you are obeyed solely from respect to the bayonet,”

The Brilliant Agony of Edmund Burke,

Spring 1774

by Bradley J. Birzer

Two-hundred and forty years ago this spring, Edmund Burke delivered

 one of his most important as well as one of his most meaningful 

speeches to Parliament. It is, rhetorically considered, perfect.

Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq., On American Taxation April 19, 1774

He delivered it on April 19, 1774, in an attempt to calm down the anger and passions of a Parliament still grappling with the recent news of the Boston Tea Party. Full of ego and lacking even the semblance of self-restraint, Parliament wanted American blood. Almost alone, Burke understood what this lack of prudence might and probably would do. He recognized that most members would rather implode the British commonwealth than allow its own sovereignty to be challenged. This moment, he knew, could very well determine the entire course of British as well as American history.

Every where in England, he lamented, the mood prevailed against America. Burke had especially taken alarm that Parliament had decided to decry the very person of Benjamin Franklin, so long regarded with affection by his colleagues. A member of Parliament presented “a furious Philippic against poor Dr. Franklin. It required all his Philosophy natural acquired to support him against it,” he wrote in a private letter (February 1, 1774).

Burke, however, assured the New York extra-legal Committee of Correspondence that he would continue to advance the American cause, but he feared with no effect. “My advice has little weight anywhere,” he claimed on May 4, 1774. He would counter every measure presented against the interest and rights of the Americans. In his several very detailed letters, he offered the Committee details upon the mood as well as the possible legislation that might emerge. In each case, Burke predicted the various measures and intent of the legislation correctly. Unlike almost every other member of Parliament, Burke even predicted the Americans would view the Quebec Act with unrelenting hostility.

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