{"id":804,"date":"2007-07-04T02:30:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-04T02:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voxnova2.wordpress.com\/2007\/07\/04\/4th-of-july-post\/"},"modified":"2007-07-04T02:30:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-04T02:30:00","slug":"4th-of-july-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2007\/07\/04\/4th-of-july-post\/","title":{"rendered":"4th of July Post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

To further the reputation of this blog of having unique commentary around national holidays, I will offer the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies<\/em><\/p>\n

This was cited as one of the offenses against the colonists. What this refers to is the Quebec Act<\/a>. This act did several things. It expanded to the Quebec territory to Ohio and settlements in present day Indiana and Illinois. It recognized the Roman Catholic Church and the rights of the people in Quebec to worship in the Catholic Church. For civil, as opposed to criminal cases, it allowed for the French Civil Code to be used. The Act also allowed papists to hold office.<\/p>\n

Catholics weren\u2019t all that popular. \u201c\u2018The Catholics, always directed by the Jesuits in the country, have been ill-disposed to the Revolution, they are not better disposed toward us.'(Bancroft, History of the Constitution, I.)\u201d As the American Congress put it in 1774, \u201cNor can we suppress our astonishment, that a British Parliament can ever consent to establish in that country a religion that has deluged your island in blood and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder and rebellion through every part of the world. This being a true state of facts, let us beseech you to consider what end they lead.\u201d This statement was signed by George Washington among others. (Reference<\/a>)<\/p>\n

In fact, anti-Catholicism was one thing that brought unity<\/a> to the colonies in opposition to the British.<\/p>\n

The Quebec Act led to a short revival in the colonies of the English celebration of Guy Fawkes Day, renamed Pope Day in the colonies, on 5 November each year. Involving the lower-class practice of burning an effigy of the pope, the celebration quickly spread from its home in New England to all the colonies in 1774. As far south as South Carolina, the pope was burned in a bonfire of English tea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Act specifically abrogated the following:<\/p>\n