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I've now read a couple books about the American Revolution and the founding fathers. I don't think, however, I read anything about colonial assemblies or the continental congresses pushing for representation in the British Parliament. It seems like it might have been a way to have taxation WITH representation without separating from the mother country.

Was this ever considered by either side? We already have answers for why it wasn't ultimately done, but what proposals were made when, and by whom?

I don't think this is a duplicate as I'm asking if there were specific proposals or evidence of them and their context. Also, the answer of the suggested duplicate seems to focus on the causes of the war and not the issue I'm asking about.

DBWeinstein
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    "did they try?" and "why they were not allowed?" are absolutely different questions! They are merely connected to each other. – Gangnus Jan 19 '17 at 09:30
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    As Gangnus pointed out though, none of the answers there address the main question here. So I've edited the "Why not?" questions out and just linked to the question on that subject. – T.E.D. Jan 19 '17 at 16:22
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    I don't think this is a true duplicate. The linked question is asking why it wasn't done, this question is asking what specifically was tried that ended up failing. Consider as an analogy the difference between asking "Why haven't humans colonized Mars yet?" and "What serious proposals for a Mars colony have been developed or submitted to a space agency?" – Robert Columbia Jan 19 '17 at 18:16
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    I agree. This is a different question. And, the suggested duplicate focuses on what seem to be the causes of the revolution, not really what (if anything) was done about new seats in parliament. – DBWeinstein Jan 19 '17 at 18:27
  • I think that there could not be any effort to grant representation to colonials until Parliament solved the Rotten Borough problem, and possibly the Irish problem, and probably a few other problems. There were simply too many important issues that affected the structure of the government to care about a far away minority. Once the colonists decided to defy the Parliament, it became a matter of principle. – MCW May 01 '17 at 23:10

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Yes, once Benjamin Franklin was sent by the colonists just before the Stamp Act. The colonists had disagreed on what he should say, though, so he told Parliament that the colonists were angry because the taxes were "sneaky"- they didn't know how much they were being taxed and it felt like Parliament was taxing them behind their backs. Parliament cooperated and created the Stamp Act, which was very in-your-face to the colonists, supposedly what they had wanted, according to Franklin. As you likely know, though, the colonists didn't like that much either.

Also, other colonists could have been sent, obviously, but without planes and modern travel technology, it'd take months for colonists to be transported. This would also mean they'd be behind on the news and the spirit of the times. Just reading letters from friends or relatives about what's happening is much different from actually being there. The king, according to the Declaration of Independence, "called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures", but that, by nature, wasn't effective either.

米凯乐
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