ABSTRACT
The American heritage was molded not only by the physical conditions of the frontier, but also by the mental stimulus of England's Civil War. The First Civil War is the decisive event in English history. By the name of Tory, on the side of the Atlantic, was applied to all who advocated submission to British authority; the Whigs were those who denied the British Parliament a right to tax the colonies. In 1680, the year when Tories and Whigs were first so classified, Louis XIV had annexed the entire Mississippi Valley. While encircled by French territory, to the north and west, seaboard colonists were understandably loath to break the English connection. But in 1763 France was forced to cede Canada to England. Thereupon France ceased to be a potential conqueror of the colonies, becoming instead a potential ally. This new strategic situation brought almost immediate flowering of the political thought that for generations preparing the birth of the American Republic.
