Abolishing English law in Quebec was a template for ruling the colonies

Evidence

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies; For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments; For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. — Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 29

Categorization

• XREF: The Quebec Act grievance inverts later constitutional traditions — worth contrasting with the course’s treatment of common-law rights.
• SHARE: Precise enough that it’s for one person deep in constitutional history — the Quebec Act as precedent-setting model.