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Sir Thomas Jefferson by Zach Timmons
 Author
says: what if Thomas Jefferson had drafted a letter to King George III
that sought to reconcile the colonies with Great Britain? Please note that
the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of
the author(s).
On April 13th, 1743:
on this day Sir Thomas Jefferson was born in Charlottesville,
Virginia. Jefferson was serving in the Virginia House of Burgesses when, in
1775, he was called upon by the Second Continental Congress to draft a
letter to King George III that sought to reconcile the colonies with their
mother country.
The petition stated that the colonies did not wish to
revolt, but simply sought the right to fair taxation and trading rights. The
petition reached London in mid-August, and, combined with the news of the
battles of Lexington and Concord, convinced the King that the Americans were
determined to achieve equal rights, by any means necessary. The King quickly
appointed a joint British-American commission to solve the problem of
American sovereignty, and in September of 1776 the commission signed an
agreement which was soon ratified by the King and Parliament. The main
points of the agreement were that:
1. Americans would be taxed at the same rate as British citizens, but that
the collected taxes would only be used in America.
2. The Thirteen Colonies were allowed to seat representatives in Parliament,
three from each colony, and that the representatives would have full voting
rights on all issues pertaining to the Colonies. Also, the Continental
Congress would be recognized and expanded as the official representative
body of the Colonies.
3. The Thirteen Colonies would be formed into a new dominion, the
Confederation of New Britain, and that a Viceroy (always an American) would
be appointed to serve much as a Prime Minister.
The agreement took effect on January 1st, 1778, and although denounced by a
number of hard-liners (notably Samuel Adams in Boston), the vast majority of
Americans supported the agreement, officially known as the Colonial
Representation Act. Sir Benjamin Franklin served as the first Viceroy,
unfortunately for only three years until his death in December 1790. Sir
Thomas Jefferson served as the third Viceroy, from 1807 until 1819. Upon his
retirement, he focused on furthering higher education in Virginia,
establishing the University of Virginia in 1825. He died on July 4, 1826, a
few hours ahead of John Adams, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts.
Author
says this story was originally posted on
Zach's Blog. To
view guest historian's comments on this post please visit the Today in
Alternate History web site for
Lafayette, we are here!.
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Other Stories by
Zach Timmons |
Zach Timmons, Guest Historian of
Today in Alternate History, a Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In
History That Never Occurred Today. Follow us on
Facebook, Myspace and
Twitter.
Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit
differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items
explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist
superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy
Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting
fictional blog.
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