Does Burke's "Speech on Conciliation with America” reflect a truly democratic spirit?

Question: Does Burke's "Speech on Conciliation with America” reflect a truly democratic spirit? Give reasons for your answer.

Answer:

"The question with me is, not whether you have a right to render your people miserable, but whether it is not your interest to make them happy. It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do. Is a political act the worse for being a generous one? Is no concession proper but that which is made from your want of right to keep what you grant?"

[Speech on Conciliation with America: Edmund Burke]

The speeches that Edmund Burke delivered to the parliament appeared more like a humanitarian than a politician. In fact, it is the humanitarian Burke who survives and defies the tooth of time rather than Burke the politician. Throughout his political career, Burke fought almost a solo battle for the distressed, devastated and exploited. His concern for the deprived is evident in his speeches and writings. Burke was against the violation of human rights by any means and he devoted his time and energy to establishing what he called the “chartered rights of man”.

Burke lived in an age characterized by colonies and colonial expansion. His political ideology was formulated at a time when the British colonial empire was fast expanding. Because Burke nurtured the basis of his ideology was justice and equity. He believed, unlike a humanitarian heart that he possessed a pragmatic outlook, the typical colonizer, not in subjugation and exploitation but in protection- protection of the "chartered rights of man".

In the "Speech on Conciliation with America" Burke is advocating for the rights of the colonists. He is in favour of a peaceful solution to the crisis. He offers conciliation and concession. He argues that England should give up 'metaphysical speculations' and prudently considers the complaints of the colonists. England must concede to them rights and privileges which are their due. Burke sounds democratic when he says:

"You will now, Sir, perhaps imagine that I am on the point of proposing to you a scheme for a representation of the Colonies in Parliament.”

He is for proportionate representation of the colonists, which is in tune with the democratic spirit. Burke does not believe in autocratic rule; he detests coercion. He says:

"My Resolutions, therefore, mean to establish the equity and justice of a taxation of America by GRANT, and not by IMPOSITION; to mark the LEGAL COMPETENCY of the Colony Assemblies for the support of their government in peace, and for public aids in time of war; to acknowledge that this legal competency has had a DUTIFUL AND BENEFICIAL EXERCISE; and that experience has shown the BENEFIT OF THEIR GRANTS and the FUTILITY OF PARLIAMENTARY TAXATION as a method of supply."

Burke's idea of government is also democratic in nature. He believes in a government of the people, for the people and by the people. As a worldly-wise man, he knows that the real power of a government comes from the willing submission of the people. He remarks:

"Obedience is what makes government, and not the names by which it is called; not the name of the governor, as formerly, or committee, as at present. This new government has originated directly from the people; and was not transmitted through any of the ordinary artificial media of a positive constitution"

All eighteenth-century politicians preached that government should be for the people, but none except a few professed democrats believed it could be by the people. But, Burke believed that government could be by the people. This is why he is in praises the popular governments established by the colonists:

"Their governments are popular in an high degree; some are merely popular; in all, the popular representative is the most weighty; and this share of the people in their ordinary government never fails to inspire them with lofty sentiments, and with a strong aversion from whatever tends to deprive them of their chief importance.”

Burke believed in the power of public opinion. He knows that power originates from the people. To him, the interests of the people should be the prime aim of government. He also knows that real authority comes from people's support. Thus, we find democratic sentiments in Burke's writings. Occasionally, he talks of the 'will of the majority' or the 'voice of the people just as though he were a democrat himself.

Though Burke's speech reflects democratic sentiments, he cannot be called a democrat. In fact, in the "Speech on Conciliation with America" Burke appears as a rationally selfish politician. His purpose is very clear. He wants peace and conciliation with America. He also does not want to see America in an impoverished condition. He argues for granting certain civil rights to the American people. In the speech, it appears that he is assiduously fighting for American causes. But, if we go a little deep we sense that is the national interest which is the prime consideration for Burke. Though apparently, he is speaking in favour of the colonies, he is actually maintaining England's good. The rationally selfish politician Burke comes to the forefront when he speaks-

"The thing you fought for is not the thing which you recover; desire but depreciated, sunk, wasted, and consumed in the contest. Nothing less will content me than WHOLE AMERICA. I do not choose to consume its strength along with our own, because in all parts it is the British strength that I consume."

In his "Speech on Conciliation with America" Burke is apparently fighting for the interests of the colonies. But, it is the national interest which is the prime consideration for Burke. His sole motive is that the colonies should remain within the empire. He thinks of conciliation only because the colonies cannot be kept united with the mother country by force or by changing their temper and character. It is the solidarity of the British empire that Burke is eying on.

Burke seeks conciliation with the Americans. He does so in the interest of his motherland. Burke does not speak in favour of the rights of the Americans for the sake of the colonist; he does so only to retain the empire, retain the wealthy and opulent colonies. Ross Hoffman makes this point clear:

"Conciliation of the colonies was to Burke a means rather than an end a means of preserving the British Empire in North America. The tranquillity and prosperity of the empire formed the object of his politics, not the vindication of natural justice. America was not India: never did Burke imagine that British officials in America were guilty of monstrous tyranny and crimes against the moral law: America was not afflicted by a Warren Hastings. As Burke envisaged the Anglo-American crisis, it was a quarrel brought on by ministerial and parliamentary ignorance and imprudence, inconsistency and imbecile feebleness, which had alienated the natural loyalty of the king's subjects on the other side of the Atlantic."