'... The [American Revolution] movement in the beginning was based entirely on the traditional conceptions of the liberties of Englishmen*. Edmund Burke and other English sympathizers were not the only ones who spoke of the colonists as “not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas, and on English principles”; the colonists themselves had long held this view.
They felt that they were upholding the principles of the Whig revolution of 1688; and as “Whig statesmen toast[ed] General Washington, rejoiced that America had resisted, and insist[ed] on the acknowledgment of independence,” so the colonists toasted William Pitt and the Whig statesmen who supported them...'
- The Constitution of Liberty is online here
* 'Englishmen' was of course a term denoting the legal status of all people living in crown territories, not just those who were from England. Again, in our era, we tend to confuse nationality with liberty.
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