ABSTRACT
From his earliest days in Parliament, Edmund Burke was actively involved with the formulation of Britain's policy toward America. Speech on American Taxation represented Burke's first major response to the controversy sparked by the Boston Tea Party. Speech on American Taxation incorporated Burke's procedural and substantive conservatism as he advised Britain to follow historical experience and to recognize the American attachment to fundamental British principles of freedom. Burke argued that conciliation and compromise by Britain was the only rational option open to restore peace with the American colonists. He wrote Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol to justify his policy of abstention from Parliament during early 1777. In his letter Burke critiqued two Parliamentary acts directed against the Americans, in which he found evidence that the policies that produced the war and the war itself were corrupting the British constitution and the character of the British people.
