History of conservatism in the United States remaining loyal to the King, they chose King and Empire. About one in five Loyalists (70,000 or so) Loyalists left the new United States by 1783. Most went to Canada where they are still known as United Empire Loyalists. The patriots who fought in the Revolution did so in the name of preserving traditional rights of Englishmen—especially the right of "no taxation without representation"; they increasingly opposed attempts by Parliament to tax and control the fast-growing colonies. In 1773, when the British imposed heavy sanctions on the Massachusetts colony in the wake of the Boston Tea Party, self described patriots
No taxation without representation aware of any obstructions that lie in the way of it. While Knox, Grenville and Burke were not necessarily opposed in principle to direct colonial representation in Parliament, Grenville nonetheless conjectured that Parliament retained a constitutional right to virtually represent the colonial subjects. Burke supported the doctrine of virtual representation in Britain. Yet in his Parliamentary speech of 1774, entitled "On American Taxation", Burke responded to the suggestion that America was virtually represented in Parliament by remarking, What! does the electric force of virtual representation more easily pass over the Atlantic than pervade Wales, which lies in your neighborhood? or