David Ramsay's 'The History of the American Revolution' (published 1787) and the connection with the 1688 Glorious Revolution

I have mentioned David Ramsay (1749–1817) here a few times before. He was the Pennsylvania-born son of Presbyterians James Ramsay and Jane Montgomery, who became one of the first historians of the United States of America, and has been called 'The Father of American History'.

Ramsay wasn't merely a history buff, he was at the very 'top table' of American revolutionary thinking and even stood in for John Hancock as the President of the Congress of Confederation for a while.

Ramsay published the following words in 1787, in his landmark 'The History of the American Revolution' –

"... The first emigrants from England for colonising America, left the Mother Country at a time when the dread of arbitrary power was the predominant passion of the nation. Except the very modern charter of Georgia, in the year 1732, all the English Colonies obtained their charters and their greatest number of European settlers, between the years 1603 and 1688. 

In this period a remarkable struggle between prerogative and privilege commenced, and was carried on till it terminated in a revolution highly favourable to the liberties of the people…

…the nation, tenacious of its rights, invited the Prince of Orange to the sovereignty of the island, and expelled the reigning family from the throne. While these spirited exertions were made, in support of the liberties of the parent isle, the English Colonies were settled, and chiefly with inhabitants of that class of people, which was most hostile to the claims of prerogative. 

Every transaction in that period of English history, supported the position that the people have a right to resist their sovereign, when he invades their liberties, and to transfer the crown from one to another, when the good of the community requires it ..."

So, there it is. Community first, nationality and monarchy second. The Revolution of 1688 provided the American colonists with the legal and philosophical template for their Revolution of 1776. 1688 was not an expression of loyalty, which is how it is retrospectively regarded today. It was an expression of liberty.

As Robert Burns wrote in 1795 "But while we sing 'God save the King,' We'll ne'er forget The People!".