From the late 1600s until the American Revolution, the Board of Trade and Plantations, created from the Lords of Trade in Britain represented the major agency monitoring the colonials in America. Colonial assemblies enacted laws and drew up petitions which were reviewed by the Board. However, real authority over the colonies was divided among a collection of agencies, from the Treasury, the Admiralty Board, the War Office and the secretary of state for the Southern Department. However, these agencies and the British officials in American took an indifferent stand toward the colonies and colonials. The parliament in Britain remained content to “leave colonial affairs in the hands of the king’s ministers and the executive bureaucracy” (Davidson et al. 150).
Because of English indifference, Americans were left with a lot of freedom. As far as basic ideas, rights, and constitutional government of Colonial Americans, Benjamin Franklin dreamed of a united America. Though the colonials suffered defeat of their Albany Plan, a plan for the formulation of a colonial political union, the desire for a united America continued to grow. Further, religious tolerance was a key idea cherished by many colonials. Religious diversity has a significant influence on the social, political and intellectual life of the American colonies. The patriots, or Whigs, tried to propel the American colonies to independence. The loyalists, or Tories, found the move for independence unwarranted “Many colonists preferred the loyalist view that considered British policy benign and dismissed the angry and unruly attacks against Britain after 1763 as undeserved” (Unger 81).
Most colonials during the 1760s were preoccupied with rights, but it was a matter of interests that created the greatest conflict. The Stamp Act created enormous controversy, an act declared by England which taxed legal and commercial documents, diplom
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