On this day Americans celebrate the adoption of the U.S. Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress in 1776. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration, blamed George III, the king of Great Britain, for forcing the American colonies into declaring their independence. He accused the king of "repeated injuries and usurpations" against the Americans and called him "a Tyrant" who was "unfit to be the ruler of a free people." Consequently, most Americans have tended to view George III as a villain. But was he really?
According to Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy, author of The Men Who Lost America, George III actually had a number of admirable personal qualities. O'Shaughnessy describes the king as a "devoutly religious man" (p. 22). Moreover, "George III's private virtues had always gained him respect. In a period known for its aristocratic decadence, he was faithful to his wife, Queen Charlotte, by whom he had fifteen children. After nineteen years of marriage together, he thanked 'heaven for having directed my choice...I could not bear up did I not find in her a feeling friend to whom I can unbosom my grief.' Her 'excellent qualities appear stronger to me every hour'" (p. 44). Furthermore, "George III seemed to embody the culture, breadth, and inquisitiveness that we associate with the age of Enlightenment" (p. 20). The king "also became the most significant royal patron and collector of art since Charles I" (p. 20), and he was "conversant with the works of contemporary literary writers, philosophers, and historians like Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon, Samuel Johnson, and James Boswell" (p. 20).
With regard to British policies toward its North American colonies, O'Shanghnessy informs us that "George III not only did not initiate the policies that led to the breakdown in imperial relations [between Britain and America], but he was even a restraining influence on some of the more extreme measures proposed by his ministers" (p. 21). However, after the "Boston Tea Party" of 1773, the king "became more vehement from the conviction that the crisis had been caused by too much lenience toward the colonies" (p. 22). As a consequence, he become a leading proponent of using force against the wayward colonists--even when his own prime minister, Lord North, seemed less than determined to prosecute the war. Even after the British defeat at Yorktown (1781), George III wanted to continue fighting, but "in the aftermath of Yorktown, George III's desire to pursue the war was longer shared by the majority of the [British] Cabinet" (p. 41). Forced to accept American independence, the king actually drafted a letter of abdication, but never submitted it to Parliament.
Interestingly, in his later years, John Adams--one of the leading advocates for independence in the Continental Congress, who had served on the committee tasked with drafting the Declaration of Independence--admitted that he "never believed George to be a tyrant" (as quoted in O'Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America, p. 17). While serving as the first U.S. ambassador to Great Britain after the war for independence, "Adams and his wife Abigail...became quite fond of George III" (p. 18). According to O'Shaughnessy, in his autobiography, Adams even criticized Benjamin Franklin for his animosity toward the king.
So, was George III a "tyrant" "unfit to be the ruler of a free people," or a man with many admirable qualities who was simply trying to do what he sincerely believed to be the right thing? History itself cannot answer this question; each of us must decide for ourselves--something to ponder on this Independence Day.
Painting of George III by Johann Zoffany. Image from Wikimedia Commons.