Chapter X…

Chapter X

STAMP ACT--ITS EFFECTS IN AMERICA--VIRGINIA LEADS THE OPPOSITION TO IT--RIOTS AND DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY IN BOSTON--PETITIONS AGAINST THE STAMP ACT IN ENGLAND--REJOICINGS AT ITS REPEAL IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA--THE DECLARATORY ACT.

The intensity of the flame of colonial dissatisfaction, and which caused it to burst forth into a conflagration of complaint and resistance in all the colonies, was the announcement of a measure to raise a revenue in the colonies, by Act of Parliament, on the very day, March 10th, 1764, that the Bills which bore so hard on the trade currency of the colonies were passed. Mr. Grenville, Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced sundry resolutions relative to the imposition of stamp duty in America. These resolutions affirmed the right, the equity, the policy, and even the necessity of taxing the colonies.[265]

"The resolutions were not followed this year by any Bill, being only to be held out as an intention for next year. They were proposed and agreed to, in a thin House, late at night, and just at the rising, without any debate."[266] A year from that date, March 10th, 1765, Mr. Grenville introduced his long-expected measure for raising a revenue in the colonies by a duty on stamps--a measure prepared by fifty-five resolutions (in Committee of Ways and Means), on which were based the provisions of the Stamp Act, which provided among other things that a tax should be paid on all newspapers, all law papers, all ships' papers, property transfers, college diplomas, and marriage licenses. A fine of £10 was imposed for each non-compliance with the Act, the enforcement of which was not left to the ordinary courts and juries, but to Courts of Admiralty without juries, the officers of which were appointed by the Crown, and paid fees out of the fines which they imposed--the informer receiving one-half. The year's notice[267] of this Bill had given the opportunity of discussing the merits of it on both sides of the Atlantic. The King, at the opening of the session, had presented the colonial question as one of "obedience to the laws and respect for the legislative authority of the kingdom;" and the Lords and Commons, in reply, declared their intention to pursue every plan calculated for the public advantage, and to proceed therein "with that temper and firmness which will best conciliate and ensure due submission to the laws and reverence for the legislative authority of Great Britain." As it was a money Bill, no petitions were allowed to be presented to the Commons against it. Several members spoke against it, of whom General Conway and Colonel Barré were the principal, both of whom had served in America;[268] but the Bill was passed by a majority of five to one. In America, the old, loyal Church of England colony of Virginia led the way in opposition to the Bill, the General Assembly of Burgesses being in session when the news of its having been passed by the British Parliament reached America; and the resolutions which that Assembly passed covered the whole ground of colonial opposition to the Stamp Act.[269] The Assembly of Virginia sent copies of its resolutions to the other colonies, and several of their Legislatures adopted the same or similar resolutions. Two days after adopting the resolutions, the Governor dismissed the Legislature and ordered new elections; but at the new elections all who voted for the resolutions were re-elected, and all who opposed them were rejected; so that the newly-elected Assembly was even more unanimous against the Stamp Act than the Assembly which had been dismissed. It was said "the fire began in Virginia;" "Virginia rang the alarm bell;" "Virginia gave the signal for the continent." The petition from the Assembly of New York was stronger than that from Virginia--"so bold that when it reached London no one would present it to Parliament." The remonstrance of Massachusetts was feebler, it having been modified by the Lieutenant-Governor, Hutchinson, and the Governor, Barnard. Rhode Island followed New York and Virginia. The Legislature of Connecticut protested at once against the stamp tax, and sent decided instructions to their agent in London to insist firmly upon their rights of taxation and trial by jury. When the news of these things reached England, and the colonial agents made their remonstrances, it was asked, "Will the colonies resist?" That was not believed to be possible even by Franklin; but though no physical resistance was thought of in any part of America, yet the opposition to the Stamp Act became increasingly intense among all classes, from the first announcement of it in May to the prescribed time of its going into operation, the 1st of November; and armed resistance seems to have been viewed as a possible alternative in the future. It was as yet looked upon as a contest between the colonists and the Parliament and advisers of the King, and not with the King himself, to whom ardent loyalty was professed and no doubt felt. It was at length proposed that a general Congress of representatives of all the colonies should be held to confer on the measures necessary to be taken.

The Massachusetts Legislature met the latter part of May, and recommended, on the 6th of June, the calling of a Congress, to be composed of "Committees from the Houses of Representatives or Burgesses in the several colonies," to meet at New York on the first Tuesday of October following, there to consult "on the difficulties in which the colonies were and must be placed by the late Acts of Parliament levying duties and taxes upon them, and to consider of a general and humble address to his Majesty and the Parliament to implore relief." A circular letter was prepared and sent to the Speakers of the Legislative Assemblies of other colonies; and a Committee was chosen for Massachusetts. On the 7th of October a Congress met at New York, consisting of 28 delegates from the Assemblies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Delaware counties, Maryland, and South Carolina. The session of this convention or congress lasted three weeks; the members were found to be of one opinion on the principal subjects discussed. A declaration of the rights and grievances of the colonies was agreed to, in which all the privileges of Englishmen were claimed as the birthright of the colonists, including the right of being taxed only by their own consent. A petition to the King and memorials to each House of Parliament were prepared and adopted. The Assemblies of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia were prevented by their Governors from sending representatives to the Congress; but they forwarded petitions to England similar to those adopted by the Congress.[270] It is worthy of remark, that, with the exception of Boston, the proceedings of the populace, as well as of the Conventions and Legislative Assemblies, against the Stamp Act, were conducted in a legal and orderly manner, such as to command respect in England as well as in America. But in Boston there had always been a mob, which, under the direction and auspices of men behind the scenes, and opposed to British rule in any form, was ready to come forth as opportunity offered in lawless violence against the authority of the Crown and its officers. In England, eighty years before, mobs were employed to intimidate the Court, Lords, and Commons in passing the Bill of Attainder against Strafford, and against Bishops and Episcopacy. The Rev. Dr. Burgess, the most popular Puritan minister in London at that time, called them his "band-dogs," to be let loose or restrained as occasion required.[271] Such men as the "band-dogs" of Boston, who found a good opportunity for the exercise of their vocation during the discussions of the local Legislature and public meetings against the Stamp Act, not content with the harmless acts of patriotism of hanging Lord Bute and Mr. Andrew Oliver (the proposed distributors of the stamps) in effigy and then making bonfires of them, they levelled Mr. Oliver's office buildings to the ground, and broke the windows and destroyed most of the furniture of his house. Some days afterwards they proceeded to the house of William Story, Deputy Registrar of the Court of Admiralty, and destroyed his private papers, as well as the records and files of the Court. They next entered and purloined the house of Benjamin Hallowell, jr., Comptroller of the Customs, and regaled themselves to intoxication with the liquors which they found in his cellar. They then, as Mr. Hildreth says, "proceeded to the mansion of Governor Hutchinson, in North Square. The Lieutenant-Governor and his family fled for their lives.[272] The house was completely gutted, and the contents burned in bonfires kindled in the square. Along with Hutchinson's public and private papers perished many invaluable manuscripts relating to the history of the province, which Hutchinson had been thirty years in collecting, and which it was impossible to replace."[273] The universal and intense opposition of all ranks in all the colonies (except a few of the office-holders) was re-echoed and strengthened by opposition and remonstrances from the merchants and manufacturers in England and Scotland connected with the American trade.[274] Parliament met the 17th December, 1765, when one reason assigned in the Royal speech for calling Parliament together earlier than usual was the importance of matters which had occurred in America, all papers connected with which would be laid before them. After the Christmas recess, the Parliament met the 17th of January, 1766, when American affairs were again commended in a speech from the Throne as a principal object of parliamentary deliberations. Both Houses, in their replies to the King, showed that they regarded American affairs in the same important light as his Majesty; and for more than two months those affairs constituted the principal subject of parliamentary debate, and the leading topics of conversation among all classes. The application of the Commons was unwearied; their sittings continued until after midnight, and sometimes even until morning; the number of petitions they received, the multitude of papers and the witnesses they had to examine, occupied much time, accompanied by continual debates. The authors of the Stamp Act were now in opposition, and made most strenuous efforts in its justification. The debates turned chiefly on two questions: 1. Whether the Legislature of Great Britain had, or had not, a right of taxation over the colonies; 2. Whether the late laws, especially the Stamp Act, were just and expedient. In the ultimate decision of the first question both parties agreed, and the House affirmed, without a division, "That the Parliament of Great Britain had a right to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever," without any distinction in regard to taxation. As to the second question, Parliament decided, after very warm and protracted debates, in favour of the total repeal of the Stamp Act. Accordingly two Bills were brought in, pursuant to these resolutions: the one, a declaratory Bill, entitled "An Act for securing the defence of the American colonies of Great Britain," and asserting the right of Parliament to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever; the other, for the total repeal of the Stamp Act.

[Colonel Barré's celebrated reply to Charles Townsend, and review of it, on the passing of the Stamp Act, will be found in Appendix A. to this chapter; and Lord Chancellor Camden's opinion, and the great commoner Pitt's memorable sayings in the discussion on the repeal of the Stamp Act, will be found in Appendix B.]

The Declaratory Act, though avowing the absolute power of Parliament to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever, and rescinding, as far as an Act of Parliament could, all the declarations and resolutions which had been adopted by the Colonial Assemblies and public meetings against the authority of Parliament, attracted very little attention amid the absorbing interest centred in the Stamp Act, and the universal rejoicings on both sides of the Atlantic at its repeal. The Declaratory Act, as it was called, passed the Commons the beginning of February; and on the 18th of the month, after a vehement discussion, closed by the speeches of Messrs. Grenville and Pitt, the House of Commons, at three o'clock in the morning, repealed the Stamp Act by a majority of 275 to 167. The House of Lords, after warm and protracted discussions, voted for its repeal by a majority of 100 to 71; and three days afterwards, the 18th of March, the royal assent was given to the Act--"An event," says the Annual Register for 1766, "that caused more universal joy throughout the British dominions than perhaps any other that can be remembered."

"Ships in the River Thames displayed their colours, and houses were illuminated all over the city. It was no sooner known in America, than the colonists rescinded their resolutions, and recommenced their mercantile intercourse with the mother country. They presented their homespun clothes to the poor, and imported more largely than ever. The churches resounded with thanksgivings; and their public and private rejoicings knew no bounds. By letters, addresses, and other means, almost all the colonies showed unequivocal marks of acknowledgment and gratitude. So sudden a calm after so violent a storm is without a parallel in history. By the judicious sacrifice of one law, Great Britain procured an acquiescence in all that remained."[275]

APPENDIX A. TO CHAPTER X.

DISCUSSION BETWEEN CHARLES TOWNSEND AND COLONEL BARRÉ IN THE DEBATE ON PASSING THE STAMP ACT, REFERRED TO ON PAGE 293.

It was during the discussion on this Bill that Colonel Barré made the famous retort to Mr. Charles Townsend, head of the Board of Trade. Mr. Townsend made an able speech in support of the Bill and the equity of the taxation, and insisted that the colonies had borne but a small proportion of the expenses of the last war, and had yet obtained by it immense advantages at a vast expense to the mother country. He concluded in the following words:

"And now will these American children, planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms, grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy burden under which we lie?"

As he sat down, Colonel Barré rose and replied with great energy, and, under the influence of intense excitement, uttered the following impassioned retort to the concluding words of Charles Townsend's speech:

"They planted by your care! No; your oppressions planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated, inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable, and among others to the cruelties of a savage foe--the most subtle, and I will take upon me to say the most formidable of any people upon the face of God's earth; and yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country from the hands of those who should have been their friends.

"They nourished by your indulgence! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them, in one department and another, who were perhaps the deputies of deputies to some members of this House, sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them; men whose behaviour, on many occasions, has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them; men promoted to the highest seats of justice--some who, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of a Court of justice in their own.

"They protected by your arms! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence; have exerted a valour amidst their constant and laborious industry, for the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your emolument. And, believe me--remember, I this day told you so--the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still. But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows, I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me in general knowledge and experience the respectable body of this House may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the King has; but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them if ever they should be violated. But the subject is too delicate; I will say no more."

Remarks on the Speeches of Mr. Charles Townsend and Colonel Barré.

Perhaps the English language does not present a more eloquent and touching appeal than these words of Colonel Barré, the utterances of a sincere and patriotic heart. They were taken down by a friend at the time of delivery, sent across the Atlantic, published and circulated in every form throughout America, and probably produced more effect upon the minds of the colonists than anything ever uttered or written. Very likely not one out of a thousand of those who have read them, carried away by their eloquence and fervour, has ever thought of analysing them to ascertain how far they are just or true; yet I am bound to say that their misstatements are such as to render their argument fallacious from beginning to end, with the exception of their just tribute to the character of the American colonists.

The words of Charles Townsend were insulting to the colonists to the last degree, and were open to the severest rebuke. He assumed that because the settlements in America were infant settlements, in comparison with those of the mother country, the settlers themselves were but children, and should be treated as such; whereas the fathers of new settlements and their commerce, the guiding spirits in their advancement, are the most advanced men of their nation and age, the pioneers of enterprise and civilization; and as such they are entitled to peculiar respect and consideration, instead of their being referred to as children, and taxed without their consent by men who, whatever their rank in the society and public affairs of England, could not compare with them in what constituted real manhood greatness. But though Charles Townsend's insulting haughtiness to the American colonists, and his proposal to treat them as minors, destitute of the feelings and rights of grown-up Englishmen, merited the severest rebuke, yet that did not justify the statements and counter-pretensions on which Colonel Barré founded that rebuke. Let us briefly examine some of his statements.

1. He says that the oppressions of England planted the settlers in America, who fled from English tyranny to a then uncultivated, inhospitable country.

In reply it may be affirmed, as a notorious fact, that the southern and middle colonies, even to Pennsylvania, were nationalized by the kings of England from their commencement, and were frequently assisted by both King and Parliament. The Dutch and the Swedes were the fathers of the settlements of New York and New Jersey. The "Pilgrim Fathers," the founders of the Plymouth colony, did, however, flee from persecution in England in the first years of King James, but found their eleven years' residence in Holland less agreeable than settlement under English rule, or rather English indulgence, in America. The founders of the Massachusetts Bay settlement were a Puritan section of the Church of England, of which they professed to be devoted members after they embarked for America. A wealthy company of them determined to found a settlement in America, where they could enjoy the pure worship of the Church of England without the ceremonies enjoined by Archbishop Laud--where they could convert the savage Indians, and pursue the fur and fish trade, and agriculture; but they were no more driven to America by the "tyranny" of England, than the hundreds of thousands of Puritans who remained in England, overthrew the monarchy, beheaded the king, abolished the Church of England, first established Presbyterianism and then abolished it, and determined upon the establishment of Congregationalism at the moment of Cromwell's death. But those "Puritan Fathers" who came to Massachusetts Bay, actually came under the auspices of a "Royal Charter," which they cherished as the greatest boon conferred upon any people. But among their first acts after their arrival at Massachusetts Bay was that to abolish the Church of England worship itself, and set up the Congregational worship in its place; to proscribe the Common Prayer Book, and forbid its use even in private families, and to banish those who persisted in its use. And instead of converting and christianizing the savage heathen--the chief professed object of their emigration, and so expressed in their Royal Charter of incorporation--they never sent a missionary or established a school among them for more than twelve years; and then the first and long the only missionary among the Indians was John Elliott, self-appointed, and supported by contributions from England. But during those twelve years, and afterwards, they slew the Indians by thousands, as the Canaanites and Amalekites, to be rooted out of the land which God had given to "the saints" (that is, to themselves), to be possessed and enjoyed by them. The savage foe, whose arms were bows and arrows,[276] were made "formidable" in defence of their homes, which they had inherited from their forefathers; and if, in defence and attempted recovery of their homes when driven from them, they inflicted, after their own mode of warfare, "cruelties" upon their invaders, yet they themselves were the greatest sufferers, almost to annihilation.[277]

2. "The colonies being nourished by the indulgence" of England, assumed by Charles Townsend, is the second ground of Colonel Barré's retort, who affirmed that the colonies grew by England's neglect of them, and that as soon as she began to care for them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them in one department or another, etc.

In reply, let it be remembered that three out of the four New England colonies--Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Connecticut--elected their own governors and officers from the beginning to the end of their colonial existence, as did Massachusetts during the first half century of her first Charter, which she forfeited by her usurpations, persecutions, and encroachments upon the rights of others, as I have shown in Chapter VI. of this history; and it has been shown in Chapter VII., on the authority of Puritan ministers, jurists, and historians, that during the seventy years that Massachusetts was ruled under the second Royal Charter, her governors being appointed by the Crown, she advanced in social unity, in breadth and dignity of legislation, and in equity of government, commerce, and prosperity, beyond anything she had enjoyed and manifested under the first Charter--so much so, that the neighbouring colonies would have gladly been favoured with her system of government. It is possible there may have been individual instances of inefficiency, and even failure of character, in some officers of the Government during a period of seventy years, as is the case in all Governments, but such instances were few, if they occurred at all, and such as to afford no just pretext for the rhapsody and insinuations of Colonel Barré on the subject.

3. In the third place, Colonel Barré denied that the colonies had been defended by the arms of England, and said, on the contrary, "they have nobly taken arms in your defence." It is true the colonists carried on their own local contests with the Indians. The northern colonies conceived the idea of driving the French out of America, and twice attacked Quebec for that purpose, but they failed; and the French and Indians made such encroachments upon them that they implored aid from England "to prevent their being driven into the sea." It was not until England "nobly took up arms" in their behalf, and sent navies and armies for their "defence," that the progress of French arms and Indian depredations were arrested in America, and the colonists were delivered from enemies who had disturbed their peace and endangered their safety for more than a century. At the close of the last French war, the colonies themselves, through their Legislatures, gratefully acknowledged their indebtedness to the mother country for their deliverance and safety, which, without her aid, they said they never could have secured.

APPENDIX B.

OPINIONS OF MR. GRENVILLE, MR. PITT, AND LORD CAMDEN (FORMERLY CHIEF JUSTICE PRATT) ON THE STAMP ACT AND ITS REPEAL.

The great commoner, Pitt, was not present in the Commons when the Declaratory and Stamp Acts were passed in 1765; but he was present at one sitting when an address to the King, in reply to a speech from the Throne, relating to opposition in America to the Stamp Act, was discussed, and in which the propriety of repealing that Act was mooted and partially argued. Mr. Pitt held the right of Parliament to impose external taxes on the colonies by imposing duties on goods imported into them, but not to impose internal taxes, such as the Stamp Act imposed. In the course of his speech Mr. Pitt said:

"It is a long time since I have attended in Parliament. When the resolution was taken in the House to tax America, I was ill in bed. If I could have endured to have been carried in my bed, so great was the agitation of my mind for the consequences, I would have solicited some kind hand to have laid me down on this floor, to have borne my testimony against it. It is now an Act that has been passed. I would speak with decency of every act of this House; but I must beg the indulgence to speak of it with freedom.

"As my health and life are so very infirm and precarious, that I may not be able to attend on the day that may be fixed by this House for the consideration of America, I must now, though somewhat unseasonably, leaving the expediency of the Stamp Act to some other time, speak to a point of infinite moment--I mean the right. On a question that may mortally wound the freedom of three millions of virtuous and brave subjects beyond the Atlantic Ocean, I cannot be silent. America being neither really nor virtually represented in Westminster, cannot be held legally, or constitutionally, or reasonably subject to obedience to any money bill of this kingdom. The colonies are, equally with yourselves, entitled to all the natural rights of mankind, and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen; equally bound by the laws, and equally participating in the constitution of this free country. The Americans are the sons, not the bastards, of England. As subjects, they are entitled to the common right of representation, and cannot be bound to pay taxes without their consent....

"The Commons of America, represented in their several Assemblies, have ever been in possession of the exercise of this their constitutional right, of giving and granting their own money. They would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed it....

"If this House suffers the Stamp Act to continue in force, France will gain more by your colonies than she ever could have done if her arms in the last war had been victorious.

"I never shall own the justice of taxing America internally until she enjoys the right of representation. In every other point of legislation the authority of Parliament is like the north star, fixed for the reciprocal benefit of the parent country and her colonies. The British Parliament, as the supreme gathering and legislative power, has always bound them by her laws, by her regulations of their trade and manufactures, and even in the more absolute interdiction of both. The power of Parliament, like the circulation from the human heart, active, vigorous, and perfect in the smallest fibre of the arterial system, may be known in the colonies by the prohibition of their carrying a hat to market over the line of one province into another; or by breaking down the loom in the most distant corner of the British empire in America; and if this power were denied, I would not permit them to manufacture a lock of wool, or form a horse-shoe or hob-nail. But I repeat the House has no right to lay an internal tax upon America, that country not being represented."

After Pitt ceased, a pause ensued, when General Conway rose and said:

"I not only adopt all that has just been said, but believe it expresses the sentiments of most if not all the King's servants and wish it may be the unanimous opinion of this House."

Mr. Grenville, author of the Stamp Act, now leader of the opposition, recovering by this time his self-possession, replied at length to Mr. Pitt. Among other things he said:

"The disturbances in America began in July, and now we are in the middle of January; lately they were only occurrences; they are now grown to tumults and riots; they border on open rebellion; and if the doctrine I have heard this day be confirmed, nothing can tend more directly to produce revolution. The government over them being dissolved, a revolution will take place in America.

"External and internal taxation are the same in effect, and only differ in name. That the sovereign has the supreme legislative power over America cannot be denied; and taxation is a part of sovereign power. It is one branch of the legislation. It has been and it is exercised over those who are not and were never represented. It is exercised over the India Company, the merchants of London, the proprietors of the stocks, and over many great manufacturing towns." ...

"To hold that the King, by the concession of a Charter, can exempt a family or a colony from taxation by Parliament, degrades the constitution of England. If the colonies, instead of throwing off entirely the authority of Parliament, had presented a petition to send to it deputies elected among themselves, this step would have evoked their attachment to the Crown and their affection for the mother country, and would have merited attention.

"The Stamp Act is but a pretext of which they make use to arrive at independence. (French report.) It was thoroughly considered, and not hurried at the end of the session. It passed through the different stages in full Houses, with only one division. When I proposed to tax America, I asked the House if any gentleman would object to the right; I repeatedly asked it, and no man would attempt to deny it. Protection and obedience are reciprocal. Great Britain protects America; America is bound to yield obedience. If not, tell us when they were emancipated? When they wanted the protection of this kingdom, they were always ready to ask it. That protection has always been afforded them in the most full and ample manner. The nation has run itself into an immense debt to give it to them; and now that they are called upon to contribute a small share towards an expense arising from themselves, they renounce your authority, insult your officers, and break out, I might almost say, into open rebellion.

"The seditious spirit of the colonists owes its birth to the factions in this House. We were told we tread on tender ground; we were told to expect disobedience. What was this but telling the Americans to stand out against the law, to encourage their obstinacy, with the expectation of support from hence? Let us only hold back a little, they would say; our friends will soon be in power.

"Ungrateful people of America! When I had the honour to serve the Crown, while you yourselves were loaded with an enormous debt of one hundred and forty millions sterling, and paid a revenue of ten millions sterling, you have given bounties on their timber, on their iron, their hemp, and many other articles. You have restored in their favour the Act of Navigation, that palladium of British commerce. I offered to do everything in my power to advance the trade of America. I discouraged no trade but what was prohibited by Act of Parliament. I was above giving an answer to anonymous calumnies; but in this place it becomes me to wipe off the aspersion."

When Grenville sat down, several members got up; but the House clamoured for Pitt, who seemed to rise. A point of order was decided in favour of his speaking, and the cry of "Go on, go on!" resounded from all parts of the House. Pitt, addressing the Speaker, said:

"Sir, I have been charged with giving birth to sedition in America. They have spoken their sentiments with freedom against this unhappy Act, and that freedom has become their crime. Sorry I am to hear the liberty of speech in this House imputed as a crime. But the imputation shall not discourage me. It is a liberty I mean to exercise; no gentleman ought to be afraid to exercise it. It is a liberty by which the gentleman who calumniates it might and ought to have profited. He ought to have desisted from his project. The gentleman tells us America is obstinate; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted." (At this word the members of the House were startled as though an electric spark had darted through them all.) "I rejoice that America has resisted. If its millions of inhabitants had submitted, taxes would soon have been laid on Ireland; and if ever this nation should have a tyrant for its king, six millions of freemen, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." ...

"The gentleman tells us of many who are taxed and are not represented--the East India Company, merchants, stockholders, manufacturers. Surely many of these are represented in other capacities. It is a misfortune that more are not actually represented. But they are all inhabitants of Great Britain, and as such are virtually represented. They have connection with those that elect, and they have influence over them.

"Not one of the Ministers who have taken the lead of government since the accession of King William ever recommended a tax like this of the Stamp Act. Lord Halifax, educated in the House of Commons; Lord Oxford, Lord Orford, a great revenue minister (Walpole), never thought of this. None of these ever dreamed of robbing the colonies of their constitutional rights. This was reserved to mark the era of the late Administration.

"The gentleman boasts of his bounties to America. Are not these bounties intended finally for the benefit of this kingdom? If so, where is the peculiar merit to America? If they are not, he has misapplied the national treasures.

"If the gentleman cannot understand the difference between internal and external taxes, I cannot help it. But there is a plain distinction between taxes levied for purposes of raising revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of trade, for the accommodation of the subject, although in the consequences some revenue may incidentally arise for the latter.

"The gentleman asks when were the colonies emancipated? I desire to know when they were made slaves? But I do not dwell upon words. The profits to Great Britain from the trade of the colonies through all its branches is two millions a year. This is the fund that carried you triumphantly through the last war. The estates that were rented at two thousand pounds a year threescore years ago, are at three thousand pounds at present. You owe this to America. This is the price that America pays for your protection;[278] and shall a miserable financier come with a boast that he can fetch a peppercorn into the exchequer to the loss of millions to the nation?[279] I dare not say how much higher these profits may be augmented. Omitting the immense increase of people in the northern colonies by natural population, and the emigration from every part of Europe, I am convinced the whole commercial system may be altered to advantage." ...

"Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the House what is really my opinion. It is that the Stamp Act be repealed absolutely, totally, and immediately; that the reason for the repeal be assigned, because it was founded on an erroneous principle. At the same time, let the sovereign authority of this country over the colonies be asserted in as strong terms as can be devised, and be made to extend to every point of legislation, that we may bind their trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power whatsoever except that of taking their money out of their pockets without their consent.

"Let us be content with the advantage which Providence has bestowed upon us. We have attained the highest glory and greatness. Let us strive long to preserve them for our own happiness and that of our posterity."[280]

The effect of Pitt's speech was prodigious, combining cogency of argument with fervour of feeling, splendour of eloquence, and matchless oratorical power. The very next day the Duke of Grafton advised the King to send for Pitt; but the King declined, though in a state of "extreme agitation." Nevertheless, the Duke of Grafton himself sought an interview with Pitt, who showed every disposition to unite with certain members and friends of the liberal Rockingham Administration to promote the repeal of the Stamp Act and the pacification of America; but it was found that many of the friends and advocates of America did not agree with Pitt in denying the right of Parliament to tax America, though they deemed it inexpedient and unjust. Pitt could not therefore accept office. Mr. Bancroft remarks: "The principle of giving up all taxation over the colonies, on which the union was to have rested, had implacable opponents in the family of Hardwicke, and in the person of Rockingham's own private secretary (Edmund Burke). 'If ever one man lived more zealous than another for the supremacy of Parliament, and the rights of the imperial crown, it was Edmund Burke.' He was the advocate of 'an unlimited legislative power over the colonies.' 'He saw not how the power of taxation could be given up, without giving up the rest.' 'If Pitt was able to see it, Pitt saw further than he could.' His wishes were very earnest 'to keep the whole body of this authority perfect and entire.' He was jealous of it; he was honestly of that opinion; and Rockingham, after proceeding so far, and finding in Pitt all the encouragement that he expected, let the negotiation drop. Conway and Grafton were compelled to disregard their own avowals on the question of the right of taxation; the Ministry conformed to the opinion, which was that of Charles Yorke, the Attorney-General, and still more of Edmund Burke."[281]

While the repeal of the Stamp Act was under discussion in the Commons, Dr. Franklin--then Deputy Postmaster-General for America--was summoned to give evidence at the bar of the House. His examination was long and minute. His thorough knowledge of all the subjects, his independence and candour made a deep impression, but he was dismissed from office the day after giving his evidence. Some of the questions and answers are as follows:

Question.--What is your name and place of abode?

Answer.--Franklin, of Philadelphia.

Q.--Do the Americans pay any considerable taxes among themselves?

A.--Certainly; many and very heavy taxes.

Q.--What are the present taxes in Pennsylvania levied by the laws of the colony?

A.--There are taxes on all estates, real and personal; a poll-tax; a tax on all offices, professions, trades, and businesses, according to their profits; an excise on all wine, rum, and other spirits; and a duty of £10 per head on all negroes imported; with some other duties.

Q.--For what purpose are those taxes levied?

A.--For the support of the civil and military establishment of the country, and to discharge the heavy debt contracted in the last war.

Q.--Are not you concerned in the management of the post-office in America?

A.--Yes. I am Deputy Postmaster-General of North America.

Q.--Don't you think the distribution of stamps, by post, to all the inhabitants, very practicable, if there was no opposition?

A.--The posts only go along the sea coasts; they do not, except in a few instances, go back into the country; and if they did, sending for stamps by post would occasion an expense of postage amounting, in many cases, to much more than that of the stamps themselves.

Q.--Are not the colonies, from their circumstances, very able to pay the stamp duty?

A.--In my opinion, there is not gold and silver enough in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year.

Q.--Don't you know that the money arising from the stamps was all to be laid out in America?

A.--I know it is appropriated by the Act to the American service; but it will be spent in the conquered colonies, where the soldiers are, not in the colonies that pay it.

Q.--Is there not a balance of trade due from the colonies where the troops are posted, that will bring back the money to the old colonies?

A.--I think not. I believe very little would come back. I know of no trade likely to bring it back. I think it would come from the colonies where it was spent, directly to England; for I have always observed that in every colony the more plenty the means of remittance to England, the more goods are sent for, and the more trade with England carried on.

Q.--What may be the amount of one year's imports into Pennsylvania from Britain?

A.--I have been informed that our merchants compute the imports from Britain to be above £500,000.

Q.--What may be the amount of the produce of your province exported to Britain?

A.--It must be small, as we produce little that is wanted in Britain. I suppose it cannot exceed £40,000.

Q.--How then do you pay the balance?

A.--The balance is paid by our produce carried to the West Indies, and sold in our own island, or to the French, Spaniards, Danes and Dutch; by the same carried to other colonies in North America, as to New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Carolina and Georgia; by the same carried to different parts of Europe, as Spain, Portugal and Italy. In all which places we receive either money, bills of exchange, or commodities that suit for remittance to Britain; which together with all the profits on the industry of our merchants and mariners, arising in those circuitous voyages, and the freights made by their ships, centre finally in Britain to discharge the balance, and pay for British manufactures continually used in the province, or sold to foreigners by our traders.

Q.--Do you think it right that America should be protected by this country and pay no part of the expense?

A.--That is not the case. The colonies raised, clothed, and paid, during the last war, nearly 25,000 men, and spent many millions.

Q.--Were not you reimbursed by Parliament?

A.--We were only reimbursed what, in your opinion, we had advanced beyond our proportion, or beyond what might reasonably be expected from us; and it was a very small part of what we spent. Pennsylvania, in particular, disbursed about £500,000, and the reimbursements in the whole did not exceed £60,000.

Q.--You have said that you pay heavy taxes in Pennsylvania; what do they amount to in the pound?

A.--The tax on all estates, real and personal, to eighteen-pence in the pound, fully rated; and the tax on the profits of trades and professions, with other taxes, do, I suppose, make full half-a-crown in the pound.

Q.--Do you not think the people of America would submit to pay the stamp duty if it were moderated?

A.--No, never, unless compelled by the force of arms.

Q.--What was the temper of America towards Great Britain before the year 1763?

A.--The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the Crown, and paid, in all their courts, obedience to Acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or armies, to keep them in subjection. They were governed by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink and paper. They were led by a thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard; to be an Old-Englandman was of itself a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us.

Q.--And what is their temper now?

A.--Oh! very much altered.

Q.--Did you ever hear the authority of Parliament to make laws for America questioned till lately?

A.--The authority of Parliament was allowed to be valid in all laws, except such as should levy internal taxes. It was never disputed in levying duties to regulate commerce.

Q.--In what light did the people of America use to consider the Parliament of Great Britain?

A.--They considered the Parliament as the great bulwark and security of their liberties and privileges, and always spoke of it with the utmost respect and veneration. Arbitrary ministers, they thought, might possibly at times attempt to oppress them; but they relied on it, that the Parliament on application would always give redress. They remembered with gratitude a strong instance of this, when a Bill was brought into Parliament, with a clause to make royal instructions laws in the colonies, which the House of Commons would not pass, and it was thrown out.

Q.--And have they not still the same respect for Parliament?

A.--No; it is greatly lessened.

Q.--To what causes is that owing?

A.--To a concurrence of causes; the restraints lately laid on their trade by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves, and then demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps; taking away at the same time trial by juries, and refusing to see and hear their humble petitions.

Q.--Don't you think they would submit to the Stamp Act if it was modified, the obnoxious parts taken out, and the duty reduced to some particulars of small moment?

A.--No; they will never submit to it.

Q.--What is your opinion of a future tax, imposed on the same principle of that of the Stamp Act; how would the Americans receive it?

A.--Just as they do this. They would not pay it.

Q.--Have not you heard of the resolutions of this House, and of the House of Lords, asserting the right of Parliament relating to America, including a power to tax the people there?

A.--Yes; I have heard of such resolutions.

Q.--What will be the opinion of the Americans on those resolutions?

A.--They will think them unconstitutional and unjust.

Q.--Was it an opinion in America before 1763, that the Parliament had no right to levy taxes and duties there?

A.--I never heard any objection to the right of levying duties to regulate commerce; but a right to levy internal taxes was never supposed to be in Parliament, as we are not represented there.

Q.--You say the colonies have always submitted to external taxes, and object to the right of Parliament only in levying internal taxes; now, can you show that there is any kind of difference between the two taxes to the colony on which they may be laid?

A.--I think the difference is very great. An external tax is a duty levied on commodities imported; that duty is added to the first cost, and other charges on the commodity, and when it is offered for sale, makes a part of the price. If the people do not like it at that price, they refuse it; they are not obliged to pay it. But an internal tax is forced from the people without their consent, if not levied by their own representatives. The Stamp Act says we shall have no commerce, make no exchange of property with each other, neither purchase, nor grant, nor recover debts; we shall neither marry nor make our wills unless we pay such and such sums, and thus it is intended to extort our money from us, or ruin us by the consequences of refusing to pay it.

Q.--But supposing the internal tax or duty to be levied on the necessaries of life imported into your colony, will not that be the same thing in its effects as an internal tax?

A.--I do not know a single article imported into the northern colonies, but what they can either do without or make themselves.

Q.--Don't you think cloth from England absolutely necessary to them?

A.--No, by no means absolutely necessary; with industry and good management, they may very well supply themselves with all they want.

Q.--Considering the resolution of Parliament as to the right, do you think, if the Stamp Act is repealed, that the North Americans will be satisfied?

A.--I believe they will.

Q.--Why do you think so?

A.--I think the resolutions of right will give them very little concern, if they are never attempted to be carried into practice. The colonies will probably consider themselves in the same situation in that respect with Ireland; they know you claim the same right with regard to Ireland, but you never exercise it. And they may believe you never will exercise it in the colonies, any more than in Ireland, unless on some very extraordinary occasion.

Q.--But who are to be the judges of that extraordinary occasion? Is not the Parliament?

A.--Though the Parliament may judge of the occasion, the people will think it can never exercise such right till representatives from the colonies are admitted into Parliament, and that, whenever the occasion arises, representatives will be ordered.

Q.--Did the Americans ever dispute the controlling power of Parliament to regulate the commerce?

A.--No.

Q.--Can anything less than a military force carry the Stamp Act into execution??

A.--I do not see how a military force can be applied to that purpose.

Q.--Why may it not?

A.--Suppose a military force sent into America, they will find nobody in arms; what are they then to do? They cannot force a man to take stamps, who refuses to do without them. They will not find a rebellion; they may indeed make one.

Q.--If the Act is not repealed, what do you think will be the consequences?

A.--A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and affection.

Q.--How can the commerce be affected?

A.--You will find that, if the Act is not repealed, they will take very little of your manufactures in a short time.

Q.--Is it in their power to do without them?

A.--I think they may very well do without them.

Q.--Is it their interest not to take them?

A.--The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, mere conveniences, or superfluities. The first, as cloth, etc., with a little industry they can make at home; the second they can do without, till they are able to provide them among themselves; and the last, which are much the greatest part, they will strike off immediately. They are mere articles of fashion, purchased and consumed because the fashion in a respected country, but will now be detested and rejected. The people have already struck off, by general agreement, the use of all goods fashionable in mournings, and many thousand pounds worth are sent back as unsaleable.

Q.--Suppose an Act of internal regulations connected with a tax, how would they receive it?

A.--I think it would be objected to.

Q.--Then no regulation with a tax would be submitted to?

A.--Their opinion is, that when aids to the Crown are wanted, they are to be asked of the several Assemblies, according to the old-established usage, who will, as they always have done, grant them freely; and that their money ought not to be given away without their consent by persons at a distance, unacquainted with their circumstances and abilities. The granting aids to the Crown is the only means they have of recommending themselves to their Sovereign, and they think it extremely hard and unjust that a body of men, in which they have no representation, should make a merit to itself of giving and granting what is not its own, but theirs, and deprive them of a right they esteem of the utmost value and importance, as it is the security of all their other rights.

Q.--But is not the post-office, which they have long received, a tax as well as a regulation?

A.--No; the money paid for the postage of a letter is not of the nature of a tax; it is merely a quantum meruit for a service done; no person is compellable to pay the money if he does not choose to receive the service. A man may still, as before the Act, send his letter by a servant, a special messenger, or a friend, if he thinks it cheaper and safer.

Q.--But do they not consider the regulations of the post-office, by the Act of last year, as a tax?

A.--By the regulations of last year, the rate of postage was generally abated near thirty per cent. through all America; they certainly cannot consider such abatement as a tax.

Q.--If an excise was laid by Parliament, which they might likewise avoid paying, by not consuming the articles excised, would they then object to it?

A.--They would certainly object to it, as an excise is unconnected with any service done, and is merely an aid which they think ought to be asked of them, and granted by them if they are to pay it, and can be granted for them by no others whatsoever, whom they have not empowered for that purpose.

Q.--You say they do not object to the right of Parliament in levying duties on goods to be paid on their importation; now, is there any kind of difference between a duty on the importation of goods and an excise on their consumption?

A.--Yes, a very material one; an excise, for the reasons I have just mentioned, they think you can have no right to levy within their country. But the sea is yours; you maintain by your fleets the safety of navigation in it, and keep it clear of pirates; you may have therefore a natural and equitable right to some toll or duty on merchandise carried through that part of your dominions, towards defraying the expense you are at in ships to maintain the safety of that carriage.

Q.--Supposing the Stamp Act continued and was enforced, do you imagine that ill-humour will induce the Americans to give as much for worse manufactures of their own, and use them preferably to better ones of yours?

A.--Yes, I think so. People will pay as freely to gratify one passion as another--their resentment as their pride.

Q.--What do you think a sufficient military force to protect the distribution of the stamps in every part of America?

A.--A very great force; I can't say what, if the disposition of America is for a general resistance.

Q.--If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would not the Americans think they could oblige the Parliament to repeal every external tax law now in force?

A.--It is hard to answer questions of what people at such a distance will think.

Q.--But what do you imagine they will think were the motives of repealing the Act?

A.--I suppose they will think that it was repealed from a conviction of its inexpediency; and they will rely upon it that, while the same expediency subsists, you will never attempt to make such another.

Q--What do you mean by its inexpediency?

A.--I mean its inexpediency on several accounts: the poverty and inability of those who were to pay the tax, the general discontent it has occasioned, and the impracticability of enforcing it.

Q.--If the Act should be repealed, and the Legislature should show its resentment to the opposers of the Stamp Act, would the colonies acquiesce in the authority of the Legislature? What is your opinion they would do?

A.--I don't doubt at all that if the Legislature repeal the Stamp Act, the colonies will acquiesce in the authority.

Q.--But if the Legislature should think fit to ascertain its right to levy taxes, by any Act levying a small tax, contrary to their opinion, would they submit to pay the tax?

A.--The proceedings of the people in America have been considered too much together. The proceedings of the Assemblies have been very different from those of the mobs, and should be distinguished, as having no connection with each other. The Assemblies have only peaceably resolved what they take to be their rights; they have taken no measures for opposition by force; they have not built a fort, raised a man, or provided a grain of ammunition in order to such opposition. The ringleaders of riots they think ought to be punished; they would punish them themselves if they could. Every sober, sensible man would wish to see rioters punished, as otherwise peaceable people have no security of person or estate. But as to an internal tax, how small soever, levied by the Legislature here on the people there, while they have no representatives in this Legislature, I think it will never be submitted to. They will oppose it to the last. They do not consider it as at all necessary for you to raise money on them by your taxes, because they are, and always have been, ready to raise money by taxes among themselves, and to grant large sums, equal to their abilities, upon requisition from the Crown. They have not only granted equal to their abilities, but during all the last war they granted far beyond their abilities, and beyond their proportion with this country, you yourselves being judges, to the amount of many hundred thousand pounds; and this they did freely and readily, only on a sort of promise from the Secretary of State that it should be recommended to Parliament to make them compensation. It was accordingly recommended to Parliament, in the most honourable manner, for them. America has been greatly misrepresented and abused here, in papers and pamphlets and speeches, as ungrateful, unreasonable, and unjust in having put this nation to immense expense for their defence, and refusing to bear any part of that expense. The colonies raised, paid, and clothed near 25,000 men during the last war--a number equal to those sent from Britain, and far beyond their proportion; they went deeply into debt in doing this, and all their taxes and estates are mortgaged, for many years to come, for discharging that debt. The Government here was at that time very sensible of this. The colonies were recommended to Parliament. Every year the King sent down to the House a written message to this purport: That his Majesty, being highly sensible of the zeal and vigour with which his faithful subjects in North America had exerted themselves in defence of his Majesty's just rights and possessions, recommended it to the House to take the same into consideration, and enable him to give them a proper compensation. You will find those messages on your journals every year of the war to the very last, and you did accordingly give £200,000 annually to the Crown, to be distributed in such compensation to the colonies. This is the strongest of all proofs that the colonies, far from being unwilling to bear a share of the burden, did exceed their proportion; for if they had done less, or had only equalled their proportion, there would have been no room or reason for compensation. Indeed, the sums reimbursed them were by no means adequate to the expense they incurred beyond their proportion; but they never murmured at that: they esteemed their Sovereign's approbation of their zeal and fidelity, and the approbation of this House, far beyond any other kind of compensation; therefore there was no occasion for this Act to force money from an unwilling people. They had not refused giving money for the purposes of the Act; no requisition had been made; they were always willing and ready to do what could reasonably be expected from them, and in this light they wish to be considered.

Q.--But suppose Great Britain should be engaged in a war in Europe, would North America contribute to the support of it?

A.--I do think they would, as far as their circumstances would permit. They consider themselves as a part of the British empire, and as having one common interest with it; they may be looked on here as foreigners, but they do not consider themselves as such. They are zealous for the honour and prosperity of this nation, and, while they are well used, will always be ready to support it, as far as their little power goes.

Q.--Do you think the Assemblies have a right to levy money on the subject there, to grant to the Crown?

A.--I certainly think so; they have always done it.

Q.--Would they do this for a British concern; as, suppose, a war in some part of Europe that did not affect them?

A.--Yes, for anything that concerned the general interest. They consider themselves as a part of the whole.

Q.--What is the usual constitutional manner of calling on the colonies for aids?

A.--A letter from the Secretary of State.

Q.--Is this all you mean--a letter from the Secretary of State?

A.--I mean the usual way of requisition--in a circular letter from the Secretary of State, by his Majesty's command, reciting the occasion, and recommending it to the colonies to grant such aids as became their royalty and were suitable to their abilities.

Q.--Did the Secretary of State ever write for money for the Crown?

A.--The requisitions have been to raise, clothe, and pay men, which cannot be done without money.

Q.--Would they grant money alone if called on?

A.--In my opinion they would, money as well as men, when they have money or can make it.

Q.--What used to be the pride of the Americans?

A.--To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain.

Q.--What is now their pride?

A.--To wear their old clothes over again, till they can make new ones.[282]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 265: "An American revenue was, in England, a very popular measure. The cry in favour of it was so strong as to silence the voice of petitions to the contrary. The equity of compelling the Americans to contribute to the common expenses of the empire satisfied many, who, without inquiring into the policy or justice of taxing their unrepresented fellow-subjects, readily assented to the measures adopted by Parliament for that purpose. The prospect of easing their own burdens at the expense of the colonists, dazzled the eyes of gentlemen of landed interest, so as to keep out of their view the probable consequences of the innovation."

"The disposition to tax the colonies was also strengthened by exaggerated accounts of their wealth. It was said that the American planters lived in affluence and with inconsiderable taxes; while the inhabitants of Great Britain were borne down by such aggressive burdens as to make a bare existence a matter of extreme difficulty. The officers who had served in America during the late war contributed to this delusion. Their observations were founded on what they had seen in the cities, and at a time when large sums were spent by Government in support of fleets and armies, and when American commodities were in great demand. To treat with attention those who came to fight for them, and also to gratify their own pride, the colonists had made a parade of their riches, by frequently and sumptuously entertaining the gentlemen of the British army. These, judging from what they saw, without considering the general state of the country, concurred in representing the colonists as very able to contribute largely towards defraying the common expenses of the empire." (Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iii., pp. 332-335.)]

[Footnote 266: Prior Documents, etc., p. 5.

"The taxes of Great Britain exceeded by £3,000,000 what they were in 1754, before the war; yet the present object was only to make the colonies maintain their own army. Besides the taxes on trade, which were immediately to be imposed, Mr. Grenville gave notice in the House that it was his intention, in the next session, to bring in a Bill imposing stamp duties in America; and the reasons for giving such notice were, because he understood some people entertained doubts of the power of Parliament to impose internal taxes on the colonies, and because that, of all the schemes which had fallen under his consideration, he thought a Stamp Act was the best. But he was not so wedded to it as to be unwilling to give it up for any one that might appear more eligible; or if the colonies themselves thought any other mode would be more expedient, he should have no objection to come to it by Act of Parliament. At that time the merits of the question were opened at large. The opponents of the Government were publicly called upon to deny, if they thought it fitting, the right of the Legislature to impose any tax, internal or external, on the colonies; and not a single member ventured to controvert the right. Upon a solemn question asked in a full House, there was not one negative." (Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. V., Chap. ix., pp. 186, 187.)]

[Footnote 267: Mr. Grenville gave the year's notice apparently from motives of kindness and courtesy to the colonies, "in order that the colonies might have time to offer a compensation for the revenues which such a tax might produce. Accordingly, when the agents of these colonies waited upon him to thank him for this mark of his consideration, he told them that he was ready to receive proposals from the colonies for any other tax that might be equivalent in its produce to the stamp tax, hinting withal that their principals would now have it in their power, by agreeing to this tax, to establish a precedent for their being consulted (by the Ministry, we suppose) before any tax was imposed upon them by Parliament.

"Many persons at this side of the water, and perhaps the agents themselves, looked upon this as a humane and generous proceeding. But the colonies seemed to consider it as an affront rather than a compliment. At least not one of them authorized its agent to consent to the stamp duty, or to offer any compensation for it; and some of them went so far as to send over petitions, to be presented to the King, Lords, and Commons, positively and directly questioning the authority and jurisdiction of Parliament over their properties." (Annual Register, Vol. VIII., Chap. ix., p. 33.)]

[Footnote 268: See Appendix to this chapter for a summary and review of the speeches of Mr. Charles Townsend and Colonel Barré.]

[Footnote 269: "The province of Virginia took the lead. On the 29th May, 1765, the House of Burgesses of Virginia adopted the following resolutions:

"Whereas the honourable House of Commons in England have of late drawn into question how far the General Assembly of this province hath power to enact laws for levying taxes and imposing duties payable by the people of this his Majesty's most ancient colony; for settling and ascertaining the same to all future times, the House of Burgesses of this present General Assembly have come to the following resolutions:

1. "Resolved,--That the first adventurers and settlers of this his Majesty's colony and dominion of Virginia brought with them, and transmitted to their posterity, and all other his Majesty's subjects since inhabiting his Majesty's colony, all the privileges and immunities that have at any time been held, enjoyed, and possessed by the people of Great Britain.

2. "Resolved,--That by the two Royal Charters granted by King James the First, the colonies aforesaid are declared entitled to all privileges of faithful liege and natural-born subjects, to all intents and purposes as if they had been abiding and born within the realm of England.

3. "Resolved,--That his Majesty's liege people of this most ancient colony have enjoyed the right of having been thus far governed by their own Assembly in the article of taxes and internal police; and that the same have never been forfeited, or in any other way yielded up, but have been constantly recognized by the King and people of Great Britain.

4. "Resolved, therefore,--That the General Assembly of this colony, together with his Majesty or his substitute, have, in their representative capacity, the only exclusive right and power to levy taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of this colony; and that every attempt to vest such power in any person or persons whatsoever other than the General Assembly aforesaid, is illegal, unconstitutional, and unjust, and has a manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American freedom." (Prior Documents, etc., pp. 6, 7.)

These resolutions were introduced by Patrick Henry, in an eloquent and animated speech, in the course of which the following extraordinary scene occurred: In an exciting tone he exclaimed, "Cæsar had his Brutus! Charles the First had his Cromwell! and George the Third----" The Speaker, greatly excited, cried out "Treason! treason!" which was re-echoed from all sides. Then Henry, fixing his eye on the Speaker, and pointing his finger towards him, raised his voice above the confusion and concluded, "And George the Third may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it." (Elliott's History, etc., Vol. II., p. 252.)

Mr Bancroft says: "The resolutions were published in the newspapers throughout America, and by men of all parties--by Royalists in office not less than by the public bodies in the colonies--were received without dispute as the avowed sentiments of the 'Old Dominion.'" (History of the United States, Vol. V., Chap, xiii., p. 278.)]

[Footnote 270: Holmes' Annals, Vol. II., page 135. Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. II., pp. 530, 531.]

[Footnote 271: Cornelius Burgess, a Puritan minister, used to say of the rabble:

"These are my band-dogs. I can set them on; I can fetch them off again." (Rapin's History of England, Vol. IX., p. 410, in a note.)]

[Footnote 272: "On Sunday, 25th August (the day before these riots were renewed), Dr. Mayhew preached in the west meeting house, from the text, Galatians, chap. v. verse 12: 'I would they were even cut off which trouble you.' Although the sermon was regular enough, the text then seemed significant, and Hutchinson (History) states that some were excited by it. (Doubtless the 'Band-dogs' of Dr. Mayhew.) At any rate, in the night the bonfires brought together their crowds, who, grown bold by success, proceeded to express their hatred against the Admiralty Courts and the Custom-houses by attacking and damaging the houses of two officers, Story and Hallowell. In these they found good wines, which served to inflame their blood; and then their shout was, 'Hutchinson! Hutchinson!' A friend hastened to his house to warn him of his danger. He barred his windows, determined to resist their fury; but his family dragged him away with them in their flight. The mob rushed on, and beating down his windows, sacked the house (one of the finest in Boston) and destroyed everything, even a valuable collection of books and manuscripts.

"This excess shocked the wise friends of liberty, and in a public meeting the citizens discovered the destruction, and set their faces against any further demonstrations of the sort. Rewards were offered for the rioters, and Mackintosh and some others were apprehended, but were rescued by their friends; and it was found impossible to proceed against them." (Elliott's New England History, Vol. II., pp. 254, 255.)

"Mayhew sent the next day a special apology and disclaimer to Hutchinson. The inhabitants of Boston, at a town meeting, unanimously expressed their abhorrence of these proceedings, and a civil guard was organized to prevent their repetition. Yet the rioters, though well known, went unpunished--a sure sign of the secret concurrence of the mass of the community. Those now committed were revolutionary acts, designed to intimidate--melancholy forerunners of civil war." (Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. II., Chap, xxviii., p. 528.)]

[Footnote 273: Ib., p. 527.

1. Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, whose house was thus sacked and his valuable papers destroyed, was the historian of his native province of Massachusetts Bay, whom I have quoted so frequently in the present volume of this history. Of his history, Mr. Bancroft, a bitter enemy of Hutchinson's, says:

"At the opening of the year 1765, the people of New England were reading the history of the first sixty years of the Colony of Massachusetts, by Hutchinson. This work is so ably executed that as yet it remains without a rival; and his knowledge was so extensive that, with the exception of a few concealments, it exhausts the subject. Nothing so much revived the ancestral spirit which a weaving of the gloomy superstitions, mixed with Puritanism, had for a long time overshadowed." (History of the United States, Vol. V., Chap, xi., p. 228.)

2. But though mob violence distinguished Boston on this as well as on other occasions, the opposition was such throughout the colonies, from New Hampshire to Georgia, that all those who had been appointed to receive and distribute the stamps were compelled, by the remonstrances and often threats of their fellow-colonists, to resign the office; and the stamped paper sent from England to the ports of the various provinces was either returned back by the vessel that brought it, or put into a place of sate keeping. "Though the Stamp Act was to have operated from the 1st of November, yet the legal proceedings in Courts were carried on as before. Vessels entered and departed without stamped papers. The printers boldly printed and circulated their newspapers, and found a sufficient number of readers, though they used common paper, in defiance of the Act of Parliament. In most departments, by common consent, business was carried on as though no stamp law existed. This was accompanied by spirited resolutions to risk all consequences rather than submit to use the paper required by the Stamp Act. While these matters were in agitation, the colonists entered into associations against importing British manufactures till the Stamp Act should be repealed. Agreeably to the free constitution of Great Britain, the subject was at liberty to buy, or not to buy, as he pleased. By suspending their future purchases until the repeal of the Stamp Act, the colonists made it the interest of merchants and manufacturers in England to solicit its repeal. They had usually taken so great a proportion of British manufactures, amounting annually to two or three millions sterling, that they threw some thousands in the mother country out of employment, and induced them, from a regard to their own interest, to advocate the measures wished for by America." (Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., pp. 345, 346).]

[Footnote 274: "Petitions were received by Parliament from the merchants of London, Bristol, Lancaster, Liverpool, Hull, Glasgow, etc., and indeed from most of the trading and manufacturing towns and boroughs in the kingdom. In these petitions they set forth the great decay of their trade, owing to the laws and regulations made for America; the vast quantities of our manufactures (besides those articles imported from abroad, which were enclosed either with our own manufactures or with the produce of our colonies) which the American trade formerly took off our hands; by all which many thousand manufacturers, seamen, and labourers had been employed, to the very great and increasing benefit of the nation. That in return for these exports the petitioners had received from the colonies rice, indigo, tobacco, naval stores, oil, whale-fins, furs, and lately potash, with other staple commodities, besides a large balance of remittances by bills of exchange and bullion obtained by the colonists for articles of their produce, not required for the British market, and therefore exported to other places.

"That from the nature of this trade, consisting of British manufactures exported, and of the import of raw material from America, many of them used in our manufactures, and all of them tending to lessen our dependence on neighbouring states, it must be deemed of the highest importance in the commercial system of this nation. That this commerce, so beneficial to the state, and so necessary to the support of multitudes, then lay under such difficulties and discouragements, that nothing less than its utter ruin was apprehended without the immediate interposition of Parliament.

"That the colonies were then indebted to the merchants of Great Britain to the sum of several millions sterling; and that when pressed for payment, they appeal to past experience in proof of their willingness; but declare it is not in their power at present to make good their engagements, alleging that the taxes and restrictions laid upon them, and the extension of the jurisdiction of the Vice-Admiralty Courts, established by some late Acts of Parliament, particularly by an Act passed in the 4th year of his present Majesty, for granting certain duties in the British Colonies and Plantations in America, and by an Act passed in the 5th year of his Majesty, for granting and applying certain stamp duties, etc., in said colonies, etc., with several regulations and restraints, which, if founded in Acts of Parliament for defined purposes, they represent to have been extended in such a manner as to disturb legal commerce and harass the fair trader, and to have so far interrupted the usual, former and most useful branches of their commerce, restrained the sale of their produce, thrown the state of the several provinces into confusion, and brought on so great a number of actual bankruptcies that the former opportunities and means of remittances and payments were utterly lost and taken from them.

"That the petitioners were, by these unhappy events, reduced to the necessity of applying to the House, in order to secure themselves and their families from impending ruin; to prevent a multitude of manufacturers from becoming a burden to the community, or else seeking their bread in other countries, to the irretrievable loss of the kingdom; and to preserve the strength of this nation entire, its commerce flourishing, the revenues increasing, our navigation the bulwark of the kingdom, in a state of growth and extension, and the colonies, from inclination, duty, and interest, attached to the mother country."

"Such a number of petitions from every part of the kingdom, pregnant with so many interesting facts, stated and attested by such numbers of people, whose lives had been entirely devoted to trade, and who must be naturally supposed to be competent judges of a subject which they had so long and so closely attended to (besides that it showed the general sense of the nation), could not fail of having great weight with the House." (Annual Register for 1766, Vol. IX., Chap, vii., pp. 35, 36.)]

[Footnote 275: Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., p. 348.

"At the same time that the Stamp Act was repealed, the absolute and unlimited supremacy of Parliament was, in words, asserted. The opposers of repeal contended for this as essential. The friends of that measure acquiesced in it, to strengthen their party and make sure of their object. Many of both sides thought that the dignity of Great Britain required something of the kind to counterbalance the loss of authority that might result from her yielding to the clamours of the colonists. The Act for this purpose was called the Declaratory Act, and was, in principle, more hostile to America's rights than the Stamp Act; for it annulled those resolutions and acts of the Provincial Assemblies in which they had asserted their right to exemption from all taxes not imposed by their own representatives; and also enacted that the King and Parliament had, and of right ought to have, power to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever."--Ib., p. 349.]

[Footnote 276: "The aborigines were never formidable in battle until they became supplied with the weapons of European invention." (Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. I., p. 401.)]

[Footnote 277: The treatment of the Indians by the early New England Puritans is one of the darkest pages in English colonial history. I have slightly alluded to it in the preceding pages of this volume. Many passages might be selected from the early divines of New England, referring to the Indians as the heathen whom they were to drive out of the land which God had given to this Israel. I will confine myself to the quotation of a few words from the late Rev. J.B. Marsden, A.M., noted for his Puritan partialities, in the two volumes of his History of the Early and Later Puritans. But his sense of Christian justice, tolerance, and humanity revolted at the New England Puritans' intolerance to each other, and their cruel treatment of the Indians. Mr. Marsden says:

"The New England Puritans were revered beyond the Atlantic as the Pilgrim Fathers, the founders of great cities, and of States renowned through the wide world for wealth, intelligence, and liberty. Their memory is cherished in England with feelings of silent respect rather than of unmixed admiration; for their inconsistencies were almost equal to their virtues; and here, while we respect their integrity, we are not blinded to their faults. A persecuted band themselves, they soon learned to persecute each other. The disciples of liberty, they confined its blessings to themselves. The loud champions of the freedom of conscience, they allowed no freedom which interfered with their narrow views. Professing a mission of Gospel holiness, they fulfilled it but in part. When opposed, they were revengeful; when irritated, fanatical and cruel. In them a great experiment was to be tried, under conditions the most favourable to its success; and it failed in its most important point. The question to be solved was this: How would the Puritans, the hunted, persecuted Puritans behave, were they but once free, once at liberty to carry their principles into full effect? The answer was returned from the shores of another world. It was distinct and unequivocal. And it was this: they were prepared to copy the worst vices of their English persecutors, and, untaught by experience, to imitate their worst mistakes. The severities of Whitgift seemed to be justified when it was made apparent on the plains of North America, that they had been inflicted upon men who wanted only the opportunity to inflict them again, and inflict them on one another." (Marsden's History of the Early Puritans, Chap, xi., pp. 305, 306.)

After referring to early conflicts between the Puritans and Indians, Mr. Marsden remarks as follows in regard to the manner in which the Puritans destroyed the Pequod nation:

"If there be a justifiable cause of war, it surely must be this, when our territory is invaded and our means of existence threatened. That the Indians fell upon their enemies by the most nefarious stratagems, or exposed them, when taken in war, to cruel torments (though such ferocity is not alleged in this instance), does not much affect the question. They were savages, and fought white men as they and their fathers had always fought each other. How then should a community of Christian men have dealt with them? Were they to contend as savages or civilized men? As civilized men, or rather as men who had forsaken a land of civilization for purer abodes of piety and peace? The Pequod war shows how little their piety could be trusted when their passions were aroused."

"After a week's marching, they came at day-break on the Indian wigwams and immediately assaulted them. The 'massacre' (so their own chronicler, Mr. Bancroft, has termed it) spread from one hut to another; for the Indians were asleep and unarmed. But the work of slaughter was too slow. 'We must burn them,' exclaimed the fanatic chieftain of the Puritans; and he cast the first firebrand to windward among their wigwams. In an instant the encampment was in a blaze. Not a soul escaped. Six hundred Indians, men, women, and children, perished by the steady hand of the marksman, by the unresisted broadsword, and by the hideous conflagration.

"The work of revenge was not yet accomplished. In a few days a fresh body of troops arrived from Massachusetts, accompanied by their minister, Wilson. The remnants of the proscribed race were now hunted down in their hiding places; every wigwam was burned; every settlement broken up; every cornfield laid waste. There remained, says their exulting historian, not a man or a woman, not a warrior or child of the Pequod name. A nation had disappeared from the family of men." "History records many deeds of blood equal in ferocity to this; but we shall seek in vain for a parallel to the massacre of the Pequod Indians. It brought out the worst points in the Puritan character, and displayed it in the strongest light. When their passions were once inflamed, their religion itself was cruelty. A dark, fanatical spirit of revenge took possession, not, as in other men, by first expelling every religious and every human consideration, but, what was infinitely more terrible, by calling to its aid every stimulant, every motive that religion, jaundiced and perverted, could supply. It is terrible to read, when cities are stormed, of children thrown into the flames, and shrieking women butchered by infuriated men who have burst the restraints of discipline. It is a dreadful licence; and true and gallant soldiers, occur when it may, feel that their profession is disgraced. But this was worse. Here all was deliberately calm; all was sanctioned by religion. It was no outbreak of mere brutality. The fast was kept; the Sabbath was observed; the staff of office, as a sacred ensign, was consecrated by one Christian minister, while another attended upon the marching of soldiery, and cheered them in the murderous design with his presence and his prayers. Piety was supposed not to abhor, but to exult in the exploit. This was true fanaticism. God's word and ordinances were made subservient to the greatest crimes. They were rudely forced and violated, and made the ministers of sin. When the assailants, reeking from the slaughter and blackened with the smoke, returned home, they were everywhere received with a pious ovation. God was devoutly praised, because the first principles of justice, nay, the stinted humanities of war, had been outraged, and unresisting savages, with their wives and children, had been ferociously destroyed." (Marsden's History of the Early Puritans, Chap, xi., pp. 305-311.)

Such was the early Puritan method of fulfilling the Royal Charter to the Massachusetts Company of "Christianizing and civilizing the idolatrous Indians;" and such is a practical comment upon Colonel Barré's statement as to Indian cruelties.

But the intolerance of the Puritans to each other was as conspicuous as their cruel treatment of the Indians. On this point Mr. Marsden adds:

"The intolerance with which the Puritans had been treated at home might at least have taught them a lesson of forbearance to each other. But it had no such effect. It would almost seem as if, true disciples in the school of the High Commission and Star Chamber, their ambition was to excel their former tyrants in the art of persecution. They imitated, with a pertinacious accuracy, the bad examples of their worst oppressors; and with far less to excuse them, repeated in America the self-same crimes from which they and their fathers had suffered so much in England. No political considerations of real importance, no ancient prejudices interwoven with the framework of society, could be pleaded here. Their institutions were new, their course was hampered by no precedents. Imagination cannot suggest a state of things more favourable to the easy, safe, and sure development of their views. Had they cherished a catholic spirit, there was nothing to prevent the exercise of the most enlarged beneficence. Their choice was made freely, and they decided in favour of intolerance; and their fault was aggravated by the consideration that the experiment had been tried, and that they themselves were the living witnesses of its folly." (Marsden's History of the Early Puritans, p. 311.)]

[Footnote 278: It was but just to have added that the trade between England and America was as profitable to America as it was to England, and that the value of property and rents advanced more rapidly in America than in England.]

[Footnote 279: This is a withering rebuke to a conceited though clever young statesman, Lord Nugent, who, in a previous part of the debate, insisted that the honour and dignity of the kingdom obligated them to compel the execution of the Stamp Act, "unless the right was acknowledged and the repeal solicited as a favour," concluding with the remark that "a peppercorn, in acknowledgment of the right, is of more value than millions without."]

[Footnote 280: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. V., Chap. xxi.]

[Footnote 281: History of the United States, Vol. V., Chap. xxi., pp. 397, 398.]

[Footnote 282: Prior Documents, pp. 64-81.]

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XI. AUTHORITY OF PARLIAMENT OVER THE BRITISH COLONIES

Before proceeding with a summary statement of events which followed the repeal of the Stamp Act, I think it proper to state the nature and extent of the authority of Parliament over the colonies, as interpreted by legislative bodies and statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr. Bancroft well remarks:

"It is the glory of England that the rightfulness of the Stamp Act was in England itself a subject of dispute. It could have been so nowhere else. The King of France taxed the French colonies as a matter of course; the King of Spain collected a revenue by his own will in Mexico and Peru, in Cuba and Porto Rico, and wherever he ruled. The States-General of the Netherlands had no constitutional doubt about imposing duties on their outlying colonies. To England exclusively belongs the honour that between her and her colonies the question of right could arise; it is still more to her glory, as well as to her happiness and freedom, that in that contest her success was not possible. Her principles, her traditions, her liberty, her constitution, all forbade that arbitrary rule should become her characteristic. The shaft aimed at her new colonial policy was tipped with a feather from her own wing."[283]

In the dispute which took place in 1757 between the Legislative Assembly of Massachusetts and the Earl of Loudoun as to the extension of the Mutiny Act to the colonies, and the passing of an Act by the local Legislature for the billeting of the troops, as similar in its provisions as possible to those of the Mutiny Act--so that it was accepted by the Earl of Loudoun--the Massachusetts Assembly vindicated their motives for denying the application of the Mutiny Act to the colonies, and for providing quarters for the military by an Act of their own, yet recognizing the legitimate authority of Parliament, in a message to Governor Barnard containing the following words:

"We wish to stand perfectly right with his lordship (the Earl of Loudoun), and it will be a great satisfaction to us if we may be able to remove his misapprehension of the spring and motives of our proceedings. His lordship is pleased to say that we seem willing to enter into a dispute upon the necessity of a provincial law to enforce a British Act of Parliament.

"We are utterly ignorant as to what part of our conduct could give occasion for this expression. The point in which we were obliged to differ from his lordship was the extent of the provision made by Act of Parliament for regulating quarters. We thought it did not reach the colonies. Had we thought it did reach us, and yet made an Act of our own to enforce it, there would have been good grounds for his lordships exception; but being fully persuaded that the provision was never intended for us, what better step could we take than, agreeable to the twentieth section of the Articles of War, to regulate quarters as the circumstances of the province require, but still as similar to the provisions made in England as possible? And how can it be inferred from thence that we suppose a provincial Act necessary to enforce an Act of Parliament?

"We are willing, by a due exercise of the powers of civil government (and we have the pleasure of seeing your Excellency concur with us), to remove, as much as may be, all pretence of necessity of military government. Such measures, we are sure, will never be disapproved by the Parliament of Great Britain, our dependence upon which, we never had a desire or thought of lessening. From the knowledge your Excellency has acquired of us, you will be able to do us justice in this regard.

"In our message to your Excellency, which you transmitted to his lordship, we declared that the Act of Parliament, the extent of which was then in dispute, as far as it related to the Plantations, had always been observed by us.

"The authority of all Acts of Parliament which concern the colonies, and extend to them, is ever acknowledged in all the Courts of law, and made the rule in all judicial proceedings in the province. There is not a member of the General Court, we know no inhabitant within the bounds of the Government, that ever questioned this authority.

"To prevent any ill consequences which may arise from an opinion of our holding such principles, we now utterly disavow them, as we should readily have done at any time past if there had been occasion for it; and we pray that his lordship may be acquainted therewith, that we may appear in a true light, and that no impressions may remain to our disadvantage."[284]

This is a full and indefinite recognition of the supreme authority of Parliament, even to the providing of accommodation for the soldiers; and such was the recognition of the authority of Parliament throughout the colonies. "It was generally allowed," says Dr. Ramsay, "that as the planting of colonies was not designed to erect an independent Government, but to extend an old one, the parent state had a right to restrain their trade in every way which conduced to the common emolument. They for the most part considered the mother country as authorized to name ports and nations to which alone their merchandise should be carried, and with which alone they should trade; but the novel claim of taxing them without their consent was universally reprobated as contrary to their natural, chartered, and constitutional rights. In opposition to it, they not only alleged the general principles of liberty, but ancient usage. During the first hundred and fifty years of their existence they had been left to tax themselves and in their own way." "In the war of 1755, the events of which were fresh in the recollection of every one, the Parliament had in no instance attempted to raise either men or money in the colonies by its own authority. As the claim of taxation on one side and the refusal on the other were the very hinges on which the revolution turned they merit a particular discussion."[285]

The only exception to the authority of Parliament over the colonies was levying internal taxes. A marked distinction was made between external and internal taxes. It was admitted upon all hands that the Parliament had the constitutional right to impose the former, but not the latter. The Tory opposition in the British Parliament denied the distinction between external and internal taxes, and maintained that if Parliament had the right to impose the one they had equally the right to impose the other; but the advocates of American rights maintained the distinction between external and internal taxation; and also Dr. Franklin, in his evidence at the bar of the House of Commons, in February, 1766, which I have quoted at length above, as the best exposition of the colonial side of the questions at issue between England and America. I will here reproduce two questions and answers on the subject now under consideration:

Q.--"You say they do not object to the right of Parliament, in levying duties on goods, to be paid on their importation; now, is there any kind of difference between a duty on the importation of goods and an excise on their consumption?"

A.--"Yes, a very material one; an excise, for the reasons I have just mentioned, they think you can have no right to levy within their country. But the sea is yours; you maintain by your fleets the safety of navigation in it, and keep it clear of pirates; you may have therefore a natural and equitable right to some toll or duty on merchandise carried through that part of your dominions, towards defraying the expense you are at in ships to maintain the safety of that carriage."

Q.--"Does this reasoning hold in the case of a duty laid on the produce of their lands exported? And would they not then object to make a duty?"

A.--"If it tended to make the produce so much dearer abroad as to lessen the demand for it, to be sure they would object to such a duty; not to your right of levying it, but they would complain of it as a burden, and petition you to lighten it."

It will be observed that in these words of Dr. Franklin there is the fullest recognition of the right of Parliament to impose duties on all articles imported into, or exported from, the colonies; the only exception was the levying direct or internal taxes for the purposes of revenue, the right to impose which was held, and we think justly held, to belong to the representative Legislatures elected by the colonists themselves. Such also were the views of the two great statesmen, Pitt and Burke, who with such matchless eloquence advocated the rights of the colonies--whose speeches have become household words in America, and are found in all their school books. Mr. Pitt, in a speech which I have quoted at length in a previous chapter, said expressly:

"Let the sovereign authority of this country over the colonies be asserted in as strong terms as can be devised, and be made to extend to every point of legislation whatsoever, that we may bind their trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power except that of taking their money out of their pockets without their consent."

Mr. Pitt therefore advocated the repeal of the Stamp Act with all his fiery eloquence and energy, saying that he rejoiced that the colonists had resisted that Act--not by riots or force of arms, but by every constitutional mode of resistance, in the expression of public opinion against an unjust and oppressive measure. Mr. Pitt's speech has been quoted by American writers, and inserted in American school books, to justify the resistance of America to England in the revolution which was declared in 1776; but his speech was delivered, and the Act against which it was delivered was repealed, ten years before. The United Empire Loyalists were as much opposed to the Stamp Act as any other colonists, and rejoiced as heartily at its repeal.

Edmund Burke was the appointed agent of the province of New York, and no member of the House of Commons equalled him in the eloquent and elaborate advocacy of the popular rights of the colonies. Extracts from his speeches have been circulated in every form, and in unnumbered repetition in American periodicals and school books; but what he said as to the authority of Parliament over the colonies has not found so wide a circulation in America. In advocating the repeal of the Stamp Act, in his celebrated speech on American taxation, Mr. Burke said:

"What is to become of the Declaratory Act, asserting the entireness of British legislative authority, if we abandon the practice of taxation? For my part, I look upon the rights stated in that Act exactly in the manner in which I viewed them on its very first proposition, and which I have often taken the liberty, with great humility, to lay before you. I look, I say, on the imperial rights of Great Britain, and the privileges which the colonists ought to enjoy under those rights, to be just the most reconcilable things in the world. The Parliament of Great Britain sits at the head of her extensive empire in two capacities: one, as the local Legislature of this island, providing for all things at home, immediately, and by no other instrument than the executive power; the other, and I think her nobler capacity, is what I call her imperial character, in which, as from the throne of heaven, she superintends all the several inferior Legislatures, and guides and controls them all, without annihilating any. As all these Provincial Legislatures are only co-ordinate with each other, they ought all to be subordinate to her, else they can neither preserve mutual peace, nor hope for mutual justice, nor effectually afford mutual assistance. It is necessary to coerce the negligent, to restrain the violent, and to aid the weak and deficient, by the overruling plenitude of its power. She is never to intrude into the place of the others while they are equal to the common ends of their institution. But in order to enable Parliament to answer all these ends of provident and beneficent superintendence, her powers must be boundless. The gentlemen who think the powers of Parliament limited, may please themselves to talk of requisitions. But suppose the requisitions are not obeyed? What! Shall there be no reserved power in the empire to supply a deficiency which may weaken, divide, and dissipate the whole? We are engaged in war; the Secretary of State calls upon the colonies to contribute; some would do it; I think most would cheerfully furnish whatever is demanded. One or two, suppose, hang back, and, easing themselves, let the stress of the draft be on the others--surely it is proper that some authority might legally say, 'Tax yourselves for the common supply, or Parliament will do it for you.' This backwardness was, as I am told, actually the case of Pennsylvania, for some short time towards the beginning of the last war, owing to some internal dissensions in the colony. But whether the act were so, or otherwise, the case is equally to be provided for by a competent sovereign power. But then this ought to be no ordinary power, nor ever used in the first instance. This is what I meant when I have said at various times that I consider the power of taxing in Parliament as an instrument of empire, and not as a means of supply."[286]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 283: History of the United States, Vol. V., Chap, xx., pp. 366, 367.]

[Footnote 284: Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. III., Chap. i, pp. 65, 66.]

[Footnote 285: Colonial History, Vol. I., pp. 327, 328.]

[Footnote 286: Speech on American taxation.]

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Chapter XII

SUMMARY OF EVENTS FROM THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT, MARCH, 1766, TO THE END OF THE YEAR.

The universal joy caused in both Great Britain and America by the repeal of the Stamp Act foreshadowed a new era of unity and co-operation between the mother country and the colonies. But though trade and commerce resumed their activity, and mutual expressions of respect and affection characterized the correspondence, private and official, between England and America, the rejoicings of re-union were soon silenced, and mutual confidence, if restored at all, soon yielded to mutual suspicion. The King regretted the repeal of the Stamp Act as "a fatal compliance" which had "wounded the majesty" of England, and planted "thorns under his own pillow." He soon found a pretext for ridding himself of the Ministers who had influenced the Parliament, and compelled himself to adopt and sanction that measure, and to surround himself with Ministers, some of whom sympathized with the King in his regrets, and all of whom were prepared to compensate for the humiliation to America in the repeal of the Stamp Act, by imposing obligations and taxes on the colonies in other forms, under the absolute authority of Parliament affirmed in the Declaratory Act, and which the Americans had fondly regarded as a mere salve to English pride, and not intended for any practical purpose. Mr. Pitt had rested his opposition to the Stamp Act upon the distinction between external and internal taxes, as did Dr. Franklin in his evidence at the bar of the House of Commons; the opposition and the protesting Lords denied the distinction; and when Dr. Franklin was asked--

"Does the distinction between internal and external taxes exist in the Charter?" he answered: "No, I believe not;" and being asked, "Then may they not, by the same interpretation, object to the Parliament's right of external taxation?" he answered: "They never have hitherto. Many arguments have been lately used here to show them that there is no difference, and that if you have no right to tax them internally, you have no right to tax them externally, or make any other law to bind them. At present they do not reason so, but in time they may possibly be convinced by these arguments."[287]

I now proceed to give a summary statement of the events between Great Britain and the colonies which followed the repeal of the Stamp Act, March 19th, 1766.

Within ten days of its passing, the Act repealing the Stamp Act was officially transmitted to America by General Conway,[288] then Secretary of State for America, who accompanied them with a circular to the several Governors, in which, while he firmly insisted upon a proper reverence for the King's Government, endeavoured affectionately to allay the discontents of the colonists. When the Governor of Virginia communicated this letter to the House of Burgesses, they unanimously voted a statue to the King, and the Assembly of Massachusetts voted a letter of thanks to Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Grafton.

But in addition to the circular letter to the several Governors, counselling forgetfulness and oblivion as to the disorders and contentions of the past, General Conway wrote a separate letter to Governor Barnard, of Massachusetts, in which he said: "Nothing will tend more effectually to every conciliating purpose, and there is nothing, therefore, I have in command more earnestly to require of you, than that you should exert yourself in recommending it strongly to the Assembly, that full and ample compensation be made to those who, from the madness of the people, have suffered for their acts in deference to the British Legislature." This letter was but a recommendation, not a command or requisition, to the Legislature, and seems to have been intended as an instruction to Governor Barnard alone; but he, now indulging his personal resentments as well as haughty spirit, represented the letter of General Conway as a command and requisition founded on "justice and humanity," and that the authority from which it came ought to preclude all doubts about complying with it, adding, "Both the business and the time are most critical--let me entreat you to recollect yourselves, and to consider well what you are about. Shall the private interests, passions, or resentments of a few men deprive the whole people of the great and manifold advantages which the favour and indulgence of their King and his Parliament are now preparing for them? Surely after his Majesty's commands are known, the very persons who have created the prejudices and prepossessions I now endeavour to combat will be the first to remove them."

The opposition to the Stamp Act, which the Governor interpreted as "prejudices and prepossessions which he now endeavoured to combat," had been justified by the King and Parliament themselves in rejecting it; and he thus continued to make enemies of those whom he might have easily conciliated and made friends. The Assembly answered him in an indignant and sarcastic tone, and charged him with having exceeded the authority given in Secretary Conway's letter; concluding in the following words:

"If this recommendation, which your Excellency terms a requisition, be founded on so much justice and humanity that it cannot be controverted--if the authority with which it is introduced should preclude all disputation about complying with it, we should be glad to know what freedom we have in the case?

"In answer to the questions which your Excellency has proposed with seeming emotion, we beg leave to declare, that we will not suffer ourselves to be in the least influenced by party animosities or domestic feuds, let them exist where they may; that if we can possibly prevent it, this fine country shall never be ruined by any person; that it shall be through no default of ours should this people be deprived of the great and manifest advantages which the favour and indulgence of our most gracious Sovereign and his Parliament are even now providing for them. On the contrary, that it shall ever be our highest ambition, as it is our duty, so to demean ourselves in public and in private life as shall most clearly demonstrate our loyalty and gratitude to the best of kings, and thereby recommend his people to further gracious marks of the royal clemency and favour.

"With regard to the rest of your Excellency's speech, we are constrained to observe, that the general air and style of it savours more of an act of grace and pardon than of a parliamentary address to the two Houses of Assembly; and we most sincerely wish your Excellency had been pleased to reserve it, if needful, for a proclamation."

It was thus that fresh seed of animosity and hostility was sown between Governor Barnard and the Massachusetts Assembly, and sown by the Governor himself, and the growth of which he further promoted by refusing to confirm the choice of Mr. Hancock, whom the Assembly had elected as their Speaker, and refused to sanction six of their twenty-eight nominations to the Council, because they had not nominated the four judges of the Supreme Court and the Crown officers. Hence the animosity of their reply to his speech above quoted. But as the Governor had, by the Charter, a veto on the election of Speaker and Councillors, the Legislature submitted without a murmur.

But in the course of the session (six months after the Governor's speech upon the subject), the Assembly passed an Act granting compensation to the sufferers by the late riots, the principal of whom were the Lieutenant-Governor, the Collector of Customs, and the appointed Distributor of Stamps. The Act was accompanied by a declaration that it was a free gift of the Province, and not an acknowledgment of the justice of their claim; it also contained a provision of amnesty to the rioters. The Act was agreed to by the Council and assented to by the Governor; but it was disallowed by the King on the advice of the English Attorney and Solicitor General, because, as alleged, it assumed an act of grace which it belonged to the King to bestow, through an act of oblivion of the evils of those who had acted unlawfully in endeavouring to enforce the Stamp Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament the same year. The Massachusetts Assembly ordered that their debates should henceforth be open to the public.

The Legislature of New York also passed an Act granting compensation to those who had suffered a loss of property for their adherence to the Stamp Act, but stated it to be a free gift.

Before the close of 1766, dissatisfaction and distrust were manifest in several colonies, and apprehensions of other encroachments by the British Parliament upon what they held to be their constitutional rights. Even the General Assembly of Virginia, which had in the spring session voted a statue to the King, and an obelisk to Mr. Pitt and several other members of Parliament, postponed, in the December following, the final consideration of the resolution until the next session. The Virginia press said: "The Americans are hasty in expressing their gratitude, if the repeal of the Stamp Act is not, at least, a tacit compact that Great Britain will never again tax us;" and advised the different Assemblies, without mentioning the proceedings of Parliament, to enter upon their journals as strong declarations of their own rights as words could express.[289]

The Assembly of New York met early in 1766, in the best spirit; voted to raise on Bowling Green an equestrian statue to the King, and a statue of William Pitt--"twice the preserver of his country."

"But the clause of the Mutiny or Billeting Act (passed in 1765, in the same session in which the Stamp Act was passed), directing Colonial Legislatures to make specific contributions towards the support of the army, placed New York, where the head-quarters were established, in the dilemma of submitting immediately and unconditionally to the authority of Parliament, or taking the lead in a new career of resistance. The rescript was in theory worse than the Stamp Act. For how could one legislative body command what another legislative body should enact? And viewed as a tax it was unjust, for it threw all the burden of the colony where the troops chanced to be collected. The requisition of the General, made through the Governor, 'agreeably to the Act of Parliament,' was therefore declared to be unprecedented in its character and unreasonable in its amount; yet in the exercise of the right of free deliberation, everything asked for was voted, except such articles as were not provided in Europe for British troops which were in barracks."[290]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 287: In the House of Lords, Lord Mansfield, replying to Lord Camden, said: "The noble lord who quoted so much law, and denied the right of the Parliament of Great Britain to levy internal taxes upon the colonies, allowed at the same time that restrictions upon trade and duties upon the ports were legal. But I cannot see any real difference in this distinction; for I hold it to be true, that a tax laid in any place is like a pebble falling into and making a circle in a lake, till one circle produces and gives motion to another, and the whole circumference is agitated from the centre. A tax on tobacco, either in the ports of Virginia or London, is a duty laid upon the inland Plantations of Virginia, a hundred miles from the sea, wherever the tobacco grows." (Quoted in Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. V., p. 411.)

Mr. Grenville argued in the same strain in the House of Commons; and the Americans, as apt pupils, soon learned by such arguments to resist external as they had successfully resisted internal taxes.]

[Footnote 288: General Conway, as leader of the House of Commons, moved the resolution for the repeal of the Stamp Act, and also moved the resolution for the Declaratory Bill. Colonel Barré moved an amendment to strike out from the resolution the words "in all cases whatsoever." He was seconded by Pitt, and sustained by Beckford. "Only three men, or rather Pitt alone, 'debated strenuously the rights of America' against more than as many hundred; and yet the House of Commons, half-conscious of the fatality of its decision, was so awed by the overhanging shadow of coming events that it seemed to shrink from pronouncing its opinion. Edmund Burke, eager to add glory as an orator to his just renown as an author, argued for England's right in such a manner that the strongest friends of power declared his speech to have been 'far superior to that of every other speaker;' while Grenville, Yorke, and all the lawyers; the temperate Richard Hussey, who yet was practically for humanity and justice; Blackstone, the commentator on the laws of England, who still disliked internal taxation of America by Parliament, filled many hours with solemn arguments for England's unlimited supremacy. They persuaded one another, and the House, that the Charters which kings had granted were, by the unbroken opinions of lawyers, from 1689, subordinate to the good-will of the Houses of Parliament; that Parliament, for a stronger reason, had power to tax--a power which it had been proposed to exert in 1713, while Harley was at the head of the Treasury, and again at the opening of the Seven Years' War." ...

"So the watches of the long winter's night wore away, and at about four o'clock in the morning, when the question was called, less than ten voices, some say five, or four, some said but three, spoke out in the minority; and the resolution passed for England's right to do what the Treasury pleased with three millions of freemen in America." (Bancroft's History of the United States., Vol. V., pp. 415-417.)]

[Footnote 289: Allen's History of the American Revolution, Vol. I., Chap. v., p. 101. Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap. xxv., p. 6.]

[Footnote 290: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap. xxv., pp. 15, 16.

"The colonies were required, at their own expense, to furnish the troops quartered upon them by Parliament with fuel, bedding, utensils for cooking, and various articles of food and drink. To take off the edge from this bill, bounties were granted on the importation of lumber and timber from the plantations; coffee of domestic growth was exempted from additional duty; and iron was permitted to be carried to Ireland." (Barry's History of Massachusetts, Second Period, Chap. x., p. 295.)]

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Chapter XIII

EVENTS OF 1767--A NEW PARLIAMENT--FIRST ACT AGAINST THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK--BILLETING SOLDIERS ON THE COLONIES.

A new House of Commons was elected in 1766, less favourable to the colonies than the preceding one; and one of the first acts of the new Parliament was founded on the intelligence received from New York, that the Assembly had refused to comply with all the requirements of the Billeting Act in providing for his Majesty's troops which had been quartered upon that province.[291]

A Bill was introduced by Mr. Grenville, the object of which was to restrain the Assembly and Council of New York from passing any Act until they had complied with the requisitions of the Billeting Act. Though the Bill was introduced by the leader of the opposition, it received the countenance and support of Ministers (Pitt being Premier, though absent through illness), "who regarded it as a measure at once dignified and forbearing." The Bill passed with little opposition; the Legislature of New York was at once frightened into immediate compliance, though the feeling with which it was done may be easily conceived. The effect, however, in other colonies, was not only to excite fears and dissatisfaction, but to call forth public expressions of hostile sentiment, regarding the Act as an infringement of their chartered privileges; and they argued that if the legislative powers of so loyal a colony as New York could be thus suspended, they had little security for their own privileges guaranteed to them by Charter.[292]

On the 26th of January, while the House of Commons, in Committee of Supply, was considering the estimate for the garrison and land forces in the colonies, Mr. Grenville took the opportunity of expressing his dissatisfaction with the repeal of the Stamp Act, and insisted upon the necessity of relieving England from the burden, which should be borne by the colonies, and which, with contingencies, exceeded £400,000. Mr. Charles Townshend, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, replied that "the Administration has given its attention to give relief to Great Britain from bearing the whole expense of securing, defending, and protecting America and the West India islands. I shall bring into the House some propositions that I hope may tend, in time, to ease the people of England upon this head, and yet not be heavy in any manner upon the people in the colonies. I know the mode by which a revenue may be drawn from America without offence." He was applauded from all sides of the House, and continued: "I am still a firm advocate for the Stamp Act, for its principle, and for the duty itself; only the heats which prevailed made it an improper time to press it. I laugh at the absurd distinction between internal and external taxes. I know of no such distinction. It is a distinction without a difference. It is perfect nonsense. If we have a right to impose the one, we have a right to impose the other. The distinction is ridiculous in the opinion of everybody except the Americans."[293] In conclusion, laying his hand on the table in front of him, he declared to the House, "England is undone if this taxation of America is given up."[294] Grenville demanded Townsend to pledge himself to his declaration of obtaining a revenue from the colonies; and did so promptly amid the applause of the House. In June, Townshend proceeded to redeem his pledge, and for that purpose brought successively three Bills into the House, all of which were passed by nearly unanimous votes.

"The first of these Bills, in the preamble, declared an American revenue expedient, and promised to raise it by granting duties on glass, red and white lead, painters' oil and paper, and threepence a pound on tea--all English productions except the last--all objects of taxation in the colonies. The exportation of tea to America was encouraged by another Act which allowed a drawback for five years of the whole duty payable on importation into England."[295] The preamble of the Bill stated that the duties are laid for the better support of the government and the administration of the colonies. One clause of the Act enabled the King, by sign manual, to establish a general civil list for each province of North America, with any salaries, pensions, or appointments his Majesty might think proper. The Act also provided, after all such ministerial warrants under the sign manual "as are thought proper and necessary" shall be satisfied, the residue of the revenue shall be at the disposal of the Parliament.[296]

2. The second Bill, intended to ensure the execution of the first, authorized his Majesty to appoint a Board of Commissioners of Customs to reside in the colonies, to give them such orders and instructions from time to time as his Majesty might think proper. This Board of Customs had its seat at Boston; its duty was to see to the strict enforcement of the revenue laws in America, and it was authorized to make as many appointments as the Commissioners might think fit, and to pay the appointees what sums they pleased, and were not accountable for their malconduct, though they were authorized to seize vessels suspected of having goods which had not been duly entered.[297]

3. A third Bill, in Mr. Charles Townshend's scheme for the taxation of the colonies, was for the establishment in America of Courts of Vice-Admiralty--at Halifax, Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston--Courts in which the colonists were deprived of the right of trial by jury, which were invested with authority to seize and transport accused persons to England to be tried there--Courts of which the officers and informers were paid out of the proceeds of sales of confiscated goods, and in proportion to their amounts, and were therefore personally interested in confiscating as many goods as possible, and from their decisions there was no appeal except to England--a process not only tedious, but ruinously expensive, even if successful, of which there could be little hope.

In connection with these three Acts (the operations and effects of which Charles Townshend did not live to see),[298] the navy and military in America were commanded, not as a defence against foreign or even Indian invasions, but as Custom-house guards and officers, to enforce the payment of taxes on the colonists. The very next day after the King had given the royal sanction to the system of Courts of Admiralty in America, "orders were issued directly to the Commander-in-Chief in America, that the troops under his command should give their assistance to the officers of the revenue for the effectual suppression of the contraband trade. Nor was there delay in following up the new law, to employ the navy to enforce the Navigation Acts. To this end Admiral Colville, the naval Commander-in-Chief on the coasts of North America, from the River St. Lawrence to Cape Florida and the Bahama Islands, became the head of a new corps of revenue officers. Each captain of his squadron had Custom-house commissions, and a set of instructions from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for his guidance; and other instructions were given them by the Admiral, to enter into the harbours or lie off the coasts of America; to qualify themselves, by taking the usual Custom-house oaths, to do the office of Custom-house officers; to seize such persons as were suspected by them to be engaged in illicit trade."[299]

The effect of these acts and measures was to create universal dissatisfaction throughout the colonies, as they were not even in pretence for the regulation of trade, but for the purpose of raising a parliamentary revenue in America, and therefore differed not in principle from the tax imposed by the Stamp Act. "The colonists contended that there was no real difference between the principle of these new duties and the Stamp Act. They were both designed to raise a revenue in America, and in the same manner. The payment of the duties imposed by the Stamp Act might have been evaded by the total disuse of stamped paper, and so might the payment of these duties by the total disuse of those articles on which they were laid; but in neither case without great difficulty. The Revenue Act of 1767 produced resolves, petitions, addresses, remonstrances, similar to those with which the colonists opposed the Stamp Act. It also gave rise to a second association for suspending further importations of British manufactures till those offensive duties should be taken off."[300]

The year 1767 closed with enlarging and multiplying associations to dispense with the use of goods of British manufacture, the appointment of Lord North to succeed Charles Townshend as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and of the Earl of Hillsborough to succeed the Earl of Shelburne as Secretary of State for the Colonies. Lord North had voted for the Stamp Act and against its repeal; and Lord Hillsborough was less indulgent to the colonies than Lord Shelburne.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 291: "This affair being brought before the House occasioned many debates, and some vigorous measures were proposed. June 15th, a Bill was passed by which the Governor, Council, and Assembly of New York were prohibited from passing or assenting to any Act of Assembly for any purpose whatsoever, till they had in every respect complied with all the terms of the Act of Parliament. This restriction, though limited to one colony, was a lesson to them all, and showed their comparative inferiority, when brought in question with the supreme legislative power." (Annual Register for 1767, Vol. X., p. 48.)]

[Footnote 292: The carrying into effect of the Billeting Act in Boston is thus stated by Mr. Holmes:

"An Act had been passed by Parliament, the same session in which the Stamp Act was passed, that obliged the Colonial Assemblies to provide quarters for the soldiers, and furnish them with fire, beds, candles, and other articles at the expense of the colonies. The jealousy of Massachusetts was awakened by the attempt of the Governor to execute this law. In June an addition was made to the British troops at the castle, in the harbour of Boston, and the Governor requested that provision be made by the Assembly for their support. After due deliberation, the House resolved that such provision be made for them while they remain here, as has been heretofore usually made for his Majesty's regular troops when occasionally in the province. The caution with which this resolution was drawn shows how reluctant the Assembly were to have a military force placed in the province; and how careful neither to yield any portion of their legislative rights, nor to furnish a precedent for the repetition of a measure equally obnoxious and dangerous to the colonists. The suspension of the power of legislation in New York justly excited alarm throughout all the colonies; for it was perceived that every Colonial Assembly would, by parity of reasoning, be put on their trial for good behaviour, of which the British Ministry would be the judge. Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, said, 'An Act for suspending the Legislature of that province hangs, like a flaming sword, over all our heads, and requires by all means to be removed.'" (Annals, etc., Vol. II., p. 149.)]

[Footnote 293: The Americans took the Chancellor of the Exchequer at his word, the plain and logical inference from which was, that if it was unlawful to impose internal taxes, it was equally unlawful to impose external taxes. The colonies had unanimously denied the lawfulness of internal taxes imposed by Parliament, and in that denial had been sustained by the opinions of Lord Camden, Pitt, and other English statesmen, and virtually by the repeal of the Stamp Act itself. Henceforth they resisted the imposition by Parliament of external as well as internal taxes.]

[Footnote 294: Referring to the applause of the Commons which greeted Townshend's utterances of his intention to draw a revenue from the colonies, Mr. Bancroft says: "The loud burst of rapture dismayed Conway, who sat in silent astonishment at the unauthorized but premeditated rashness of his presumptuous colleague. The next night the Cabinet questioned the insubordinate Minister 'how he had ventured to depart on so essential a point from the profession of the whole Ministry;' and he browbeat them all. 'I appeal to you,' said he, turning to Conway, 'whether the House is not bent on obtaining a revenue of some sort from the colonies?' Not one of the Ministry then in London (Pitt being absent and ill) had sufficient authority to advise his dismission, and nothing less could have stopped his measures." (History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap. xxvii., pp. 47-49.)]

[Footnote 295: "The colonists had been previously restrained from manufacturing certain articles for their own consumption. Other Acts confined them to the exclusive use of British merchandise. The addition of duties put them wholly in the power and discretion of Great Britain. 'We are not,' said they, 'permitted to import from any nation other than our own parent state, and have been, in some cases, restrained by her from manufacturing for ourselves; and she claims a right to do so in every instance which is incompatible with her interest. To these restrictions we have hitherto submitted; but she now rises in her demands, and imposes duties on those commodities, the purchasing of which elsewhere than in her own market her laws forbid, and the manufacturing of which for her own use she may, at any moment she pleases, restrain. Nothing is left for us to do but to complain and pay.'" (Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iii., pp. 351, 352.)]

[Footnote 296: "Townshend opened the debate with professions of candour, and the air of a man of business. Exculpating alike Pennsylvania and Connecticut, he named as the delinquent colonies--Massachusetts, which had invaded the King's prerogative by a general amnesty, and in a message to its Governor had used expressions derogatory to the authority of Parliament; Rhode Island, which had postponed but not refused to indemnify the sufferers by the Stamp Act; and New Jersey, which had evaded the Billeting Act, but had yet furnished the King's troops with every essential thing to their perfect satisfaction. Against these colonies it was not necessary to institute severe proceedings. But New York, in the month of June last, besides appointing its own Commissary, had limited its supplies to two regiments, and to those articles only which were provided in the rest of the King's dominions, and in December had refused to do more.

"It became Parliament not to engage in controversy with its colonies, but to assert its sovereignty without uniting them in a common cause. For this end he proposed to proceed against New York, and against New York alone. To levy a local tax would be to accept a penalty in lieu of obedience. He should, therefore, move that New York, having disobeyed Parliament, should be restrained from any legislative act of its own till it should comply.

"He then proceeded to advocate the establishment of a Board of Commissioners of the Customs, to be stationed in America.

"'Our right of taxation,' he continued, 'is indubitable; yet, to prevent mischief, I was myself in favour of repealing the Stamp Act. But there can be no objection to port duties on wine, oil, and fruits, if allowed to be carried to America directly from Spain and Portugal; on glass, paper, lead, and colours; and especially on tea. Owing to the high charges in England, America has supplied itself with tea by smuggling it from the Dutch possessions; to remedy this, duties hitherto levied upon it in England are to be given up, and a specific duty collected in America itself.'"

"The American revenue, it was further explained, was to be placed at the disposal of the King for the payment of his civil officers.

"This speech, pronounced with gravity and an air of moderation by an orator who was the delight of the House, implied a revolution in favour of authority. The Minister was to have the irresponsible power of establishing, by sign manual, a general civil list in every American province, and at his pleasure to grant salaries and pensions, limited only by the amount of the American revenue. The proposition bore on its face the mark of owing its parentage to the holders and patrons of American offices; and yet it was received in the House with general favour. Richard Jackson was not regarded when he spoke against the duties themselves, and foretold the mischief that would ensue." (Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap. xxix., pp. 75-77.)]

[Footnote 297: The Commissioners, from the first moment of their institution, had been an eyesore to the people of Boston. This, though partly owing to their active zeal in detecting smugglers, principally arose from the association which existed in the minds of the inhabitants between the Board of Customs and an American revenue. The Declaratory Act of 1766, the Revenue Act of 1767, together with the pomp and expense of this Board, so disproportionate to the small income of the present duties, conspired to convince not only the few who were benefitted by smuggling, but the great body of enlightened freemen, that further and greater impositions of parliamentary taxes were intended. In proportion as this opinion gained ground, the inhabitants became more disrespectful to the executive officers of the revenue, and more disposed, in the frenzy of patriotism, to commit outrages on their persons and property. The constant bickering that existed between them and the inhabitants, together with the steady opposition given by the latter to the discharge of the official duties of the former, induced the Commissioners and friends of an American revenue to solicit the protection of a regular force at Boston. In compliance with their wishes, his Majesty ordered two regiments and some armed vessels to repair thither for supporting and assisting the officers of Customs in the execution of their duty. (Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iii., pp. 355, 356.)]

[Footnote 298: His Revenue Act, and the two subsequent Acts to give it effect, produced an excitement throughout the American colonies that will be noticed hereafter. Mr. Bancroft remarks: "They would nullify Townshend's Revenue Act by consuming nothing on which he had laid a duty, and avenge themselves on England by importing no more British goods. At the beginning of this excitement (September, 1767), Charles Townshend was seized with fever, and after a short illness, during which he met danger with the unconcerned levity that had marked his conduct of the most serious affairs, he died at the age of forty-one, famed alike for incomparable talents and extreme instability." (History of the United States, Vol. VI., p. 98.)]

[Footnote 299: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. V., Chapter ix., pp. 161, 162. Mr. Bancroft adds:

"The promise of large emoluments in case of forfeiture stimulated their natural and irregular vivacity to enforce laws which had become obsolete, and they pounced upon American property as they would have gone to war in quest of prize-money. Even at first their acts were equivocal, and they soon came to be as illegal as they were oppressive. There was no redress. An appeal to the Privy Council was costly and difficult; and besides, when it so happened, before the end of the year, that an officer had to defend himself on an appeal, the suffering colonists were exhausted by the delay and expense, while the Treasury took care to indemnify their agent."--Ib., p. 162.]

[Footnote 300: Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol I., Chapter iii., pp. 352, 353.

"Towards the last of October, the inhabitants of Boston, 'ever sensitive to the sound of liberty,' assembled in a town meeting, and voted to dispense with a large number of articles of British manufacture, which, were particularly specified; to adhere to former agreements respecting funerals; and to purchase no new clothing for mourning. Committees were appointed to obtain subscribers to this agreement, and the resolves were sent in to all the towns of the province and abroad to other colonies. The 20th of the ensuing month (20th of November, the time when the Acts went into operation) passed without tumult. Placards were exhibited and effigies were set up, but the people in general were quiet. Otis (the most popular man in Boston), at a town meeting held to discountenance riot, delivered a speech in which he recommended caution, and advised that no opposition should be made to the new duties. 'The King has a right,' said he, 'to appoint officers of the Customs in what manner he pleases and by what denominations; and to resist his authority will but provoke his displeasure.' Such counsel was displeasing to the zealous, but it was followed." (Barry's History of Massachusetts, Vol. II., Chapter xi., pp. 340, 341.)]

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Chapter XIV

EVENTS OF 1768--PROTESTS AND LOYAL PETITIONS OF THE COLONISTS AGAINST THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENTARY ACTS FOR RAISING REVENUE IN THE COLONIES.

The meetings and protests against the Revenue Acts and petitions for their repeal, which began in the autumn of 1767, increased throughout the colonies in 1768. In January, the General Assembly of Massachusetts voted a temperate and loyal petition to the King,[301] and letters urging the rights of the province, addressed to Lord Shelburne, General Conway, the Marquis of Rockingham, Lord Camden, and the Earl of Chatham. The petition and these letters were all to the same effect. The petition to the King was enclosed to Denis de Berdt, a London merchant (who was appointed agent for the colony), with a long letter of instructions. All these papers are pervaded with a spirit of loyalty, and ask for nothing more than the enjoyment of the rights and privileges which they had ever possessed and enjoyed down to the year after the peace of Paris in 1763.

In addition to these representations and letters sent to England, the Massachusetts General Assembly adopted, on the 11th of February, and sent a circular letter to the Speakers of the respective Houses of Burgesses of the other American provinces. In this ably-written letter there is no dictation or assumption of authority, but a statement of their representations to England, and a desire for mutual consultation and harmonious action. They say: "This House hope that this letter will be candidly considered in no other light than as expressing a disposition freely to communicate their mind to a sister colony, upon a common concern, in the same manner as they would be glad to receive the sentiments of your or any other House of Assembly on the continent."

As this letter was the first step to the union of the American colonies, and was followed by results that culminated in the War of Independence, it may be proper to give such extracts from it as will show its character and design; in neither of which do I find anything which I think is inconsistent with the principles and spirit of a loyal subject. The general principles on which they rested their claims to the rights and privileges of British subjects are stated as follows:

"The House have humbly represented to the Ministry their own sentiments: That his Majesty's High Court of Parliament is the supreme legislative power over the whole empire. That in all free States the constitution is fixed; and as the supreme legislative derives its power and authority from the constitution, it cannot overleap the bounds of it without destroying its foundation. That the constitution ascertains and limits both sovereignty and allegiance; and therefore his Majesty's American subjects, who acknowledge themselves bound by the ties of allegiance, have an equitable claim to the full enjoyment of the fundamental rules of the British constitution. That it is an essential, unalterable right in nature, ingrafted into the British constitution as a fundamental law, and ever held sacred and irrevocable by the subjects within the realm, that what a man hath honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot be taken from him without his consent. That the American subjects may, therefore, exclusive of any consideration of Charter rights, with a decent firmness adapted to the character of freemen and subjects, assert this natural constitutional right.

"It is moreover their humble opinion, which they express with the greatest deference to the wisdom of the Parliament, that the Acts made there, imposing duties on the people of this Province, with the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, are infringements of their natural and constitutional rights; because, as they are not represented in the British Parliament, his Majesty's Commons in Great Britain by those Acts grant their property without their consent."

Then, after showing the impracticability, on various grounds, of the representation of the colonies in the British Parliament, on which account local subordinate Legislatures were established, that the colonists might enjoy the inalienable right of representation, the circular letter proceeds:

"Upon these principles, and also considering that were the right in the Parliament ever so clear, yet for obvious reasons it would be beyond the rule of equity, that their constituents should be taxed on the manufactures of Great Britain here, in addition to the duties they pay for them in England, and other advantages arising to Great Britain from the Acts of Trade, this House have preferred a humble, dutiful, and loyal petition to our most gracious Sovereign, and made such representation to his Majesty's Ministers as they apprehend would tend to obtain redress.

"They have also submitted to consideration, whether any people can be said to enjoy any degree of freedom if the Crown, in addition to its undoubted authority of constituting a Governor, should appoint him such a stipend as it shall judge proper, without the consent of the people, and at their expense; and whether, while the judges of the land and other civil officers hold not their commissions during good behaviour, their having salaries appointed for them by the Crown, independent of the people, hath not a tendency to subvert the principles of equity and endanger the happiness and security of the subjects.

"In addition to these measures, the House have wrote a letter to their agent, Mr. De Berdt, the sentiments of which he is directed to lay before the Ministry, wherein they take notice of the hardship of the Act for Preventing Mutiny and Desertion, which requires the Governor and Council to provide enumerated articles for the King's marching troops, and the people to pay the expense; and also the commission of the gentlemen appointed Commissioners of Customs to reside in America, which authorizes them to make as many appointments as they think fit, and to pay the appointees what sums they please, for whose malconduct they are not accountable." ...

"These are the sentiments and proceedings of this House; and as they have too much reason to believe that the enemies of the colonies have represented them to his Majesty's Ministers and the Parliament as factious, disloyal, and having a disposition to make themselves independent of the mother country, they have taken occasion, in the most humble terms, to assure his Majesty and his Ministers that, with regard to the people of this province, and, as they doubt not, of all the colonies, the charge is unjust.

"The House is fully satisfied that your Assembly is too generous and enlarged in sentiment to believe that this letter proceeds from an ambition of taking the lead, or dictating to other Assemblies; they freely submit their opinion to the judgment of others, and shall take it kind in your House to point out to them anything further that may be thought necessary.

"This House cannot conclude without expressing their firm confidence in the King, our common Head and Father, that the united and dutiful supplications of his distressed American subjects will meet with his Royal and favourable acceptance.

"SIGNED BY THE SPEAKER."

This circular letter of the Massachusetts Assembly was exceedingly displeasing to the British Ministry, and called forth two letters from the Earl of Hillsborough, who had succeeded the Earl of Shelburne as Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.

One of these letters was a circular addressed through the Governor to the General Assemblies of each of the several colonies. This letter is dated "Whitehall, April 21, 1768." The first paragraph is as follows:

"GENTLEMEN,--I have his Majesty's commands to transmit to you the enclosed copy of a letter from the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, addressed by order of that House to the Speaker of the Assembly of each colony upon the continent of North America; as his Majesty considers this measure to be of a most dangerous and factious tendency, calculated to inflame the minds of his good subjects in the colonies, to promote an unwarrantable combination, and to excite and encourage an open opposition to and denial of the authority of Parliament, and to subvert the true principles of the constitution, it is his Majesty's pleasure that you should, immediately upon the receipt hereof, exert your utmost influence to defeat this flagitious attempt to disturb the public peace, by prevailing upon the Assembly of your province to take no notice of it, which will be treating it with the contempt it deserves."

This most ill-advised letter of Lord Hillsborough had the very opposite effect from that which he had hoped and intended. It increased the importance of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the estimation of other colonies, and produced responses of approval from most of their General Assemblies.

The Speaker of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, dated Virginia, May 9, 1768, says:

"The House of Burgesses of this colony proceeded, very soon after they met, to the consideration of your important letter of the 11th of February, 1768, written in the name and by the order of the House of Representatives of your province; and I have received their particular direction to desire you to inform that honourable House that they applaud them for their attention to American liberty, and that the steps they have taken thereon will convince them of their opinion of the fatal tendency of the Acts of Parliament complained of, and of their fixed resolution to concur with the other colonies in their application for redress.

"After the most deliberate consultation, they thought it their duty to represent to the Parliament of Great Britain that they are truly sensible of the happiness and security they derive from their connection with and dependence upon Great Britain, and are under the greatest concern that any unlucky incident should interrupt that salutary harmony which they wish ever to subsist. They lament that the remoteness of their situation often exposes them to such misrepresentations as are apt to involve them in censures of disloyalty to their Sovereign, and the want of proper respect to the British Parliament; whereas they have indulged themselves in the agreeable persuasion, that they ought to be considered as inferior to none of their fellow-subjects in loyalty and affection.

"They do not affect an independency of their parent kingdom, the prosperity of which they are bound to the utmost of their abilities to promote, but cheerfully acquiesce in the authority of Parliament to make laws for preserving a necessary dependence and for regulating the trade of the colonies. Yet they cannot conceive, and humbly insist it is not essential to support a proper relation between the mother country and colonies transplanted from her, that she should have a right to raise money from them without their consent, and presume they do not aspire to more than the natural rights of British subjects when they assert that no power on earth has a right to impose taxes on the people, or take the smallest portion of their property, without their consent given by their representatives in Parliament. This has ever been considered as the chief pillar of the constitution. Without this support no man can be said to have the least shadow of liberty, since they can have no property in that which another can by right take from them when he pleases, without their consent."

After referring to the antiquity and grounds of their rights as British subjects, and to the fact of their not being represented in Parliament, of the impracticability of being so, and "the oppressive Stamp Act, confessedly imposing internal taxes, and the late Acts of Parliament giving and granting certain duties in the British colonies, mainly tending to the same end," the Virginia House of Burgesses proceed as follows:

"The Act suspending the legislative power of New York, they consider as still more alarming to the colonists, though it has that single province in view. If the Parliament can compel them to furnish a single article to the troops sent over, they may by the same rule oblige them to furnish clothes, arms, and every other necessary, even the pay of the officers and soldiers--a doctrine replete with every mischief, and utterly subversive of all that is dear and valuable. For what advantage can the people of the colonies derive from their right of choosing their own representatives, if those representatives, when chosen, were not permitted to exercise their own judgments--were under a necessity (on pain of being deprived of their legislative authority) of enforcing the mandates of the British Parliament?

"They trust they have expressed themselves with a firmness that becomes freemen pleading for essential rights, and with a decency that will take off every imputation of faction or disloyalty. They repose entire confidence in his Majesty, who is ever attentive to the complaints of his subjects, and is ever ready to relieve their distress; and they are not without hopes that the colonies, united in a decent and regular opposition, may prevail on the new House of Commons to put a stop to measures so directly repugnant to the interests both of the mother country and her colonies."

The day after these proceedings by the House of Burgesses, the Governor of Virginia dissolved them.

The House of Representatives of New Jersey, after gratefully acknowledging the receipt of the Massachusetts circular, observe:

"The freedom with which the House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay have communicated their sentiments upon a matter of so great concern to all the colonies, hath been received by this House with that candour the spirit and design of your letter merits. And at the same time that they acknowledge themselves obliged to you for communicating your sentiments to them, they have directed me to assure you that they are desirous to keep up a correspondence with you, and to unite with the colonies, if necessary, in further supplications to his Majesty to relieve his distressed American subjects."

Answers to the Massachusetts circular from the Houses of Representatives of Connecticut, of Georgia, and of Maryland, were given to the same effect. The Maryland House of Representatives, in addition to the answer to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, presented an address to Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, in reply to the letter of Lord Hillsborough. Their address is dated June 23rd, 1768, and contains the following words:

"In answer to your Excellency's message of the 20th, we must observe, that if the letter from the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, addressed to and communicated by our Speaker to this House, be the same with the letter, a copy of which you are pleased to intimate hath been communicated to the King's Ministers, it is very alarming to find, at a time when the people of America think themselves aggrieved by the late Acts of Parliament imposing taxes on them for the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, and in the most dutiful manner are seeking redress from the Throne, any endeavours to unite in laying before their Sovereign what is apprehended to be their just complaint, should be looked upon 'as a measure of most dangerous and factious tendency, calculated to inflame the minds of his Majesty's good subjects in the colonies, and to promote an unwarrantable combination, to excite and encourage an open opposition to and denial of the authority of Parliament, and to subvert the true principles of the constitution.'

"We cannot but view this as an attempt in some of his Majesty's Ministers to suppress all communication of sentiments between the colonies, and to prevent the united supplications of America from reaching the royal ear. We hope the conduct of this House will ever evince their reverence and respect for the laws, and faithful attachment to the constitution; but we cannot be brought to resent an exertion of the most undoubted constitutional right of petitioning the Throne, or any endeavours to procure and preserve a union of the colonies, as an unjustifiable attempt to revive those distractions which it is said have operated so fatally to the prejudice of both the colonies and the mother country. We have the warmest and most affectionate attachment to our most gracious Sovereign, and shall ever pay the readiest and most respectful regard to the just and constitutional power of the British Parliament; but we shall not be intimidated by a few sounding expressions from doing what we think is right."[302]

Thus the unconstitutional assumptions and despotic instructions of Lord Hillsborough to the Legislative Assemblies of the several colonies were manfully and in a moderate and loyal spirit repelled by them, in the clear knowledge of the constitutional rights of Englishmen, whether resident in America or England. But while Lord Hillsborough foolishly and vainly dictated to the several colonies to treat the colony of Massachusetts with contempt, he advanced a step further in his would-be domination over Massachusetts itself by directing Governor Barnard to order the House of Representatives, under a threat of dissolution, to rescind the resolution which they had adopted to send the circular to the representative Assemblies of other colonies. Lord Hillsborough, in a letter to the Governor of Massachusetts Bay, dated April 22nd, 1768, said:

"It is the King's pleasure, that so soon as the General Court is again assembled, at the time prescribed by the Charter, you should require of the House of Representatives, in his Majesty's name, to rescind the resolution which gave birth to the circular letter from the Speaker, and to declare their disapprobation thereof, and dissent to that rash and hasty proceeding." "But if, notwithstanding the apprehensions which may justly be entertained of the ill-consequences of a continuance of this factious spirit, which seems to have influenced the resolutions of the Assembly at the conclusion of the last session, the new Assembly should refuse to comply with his Majesty's reasonable expectation, it is the King's pleasure that you should immediately dissolve them, and transmit to me, to be laid before his Majesty, an account of their proceedings thereupon, to the end that his Majesty may, if he thinks fit, lay the whole matter before his Parliament, that such provisions as shall be found necessary may be made to prevent for the future a conduct of so extraordinary and unconstitutional a nature."[303]

If it was unwise for Lord Hillsborough to write letters to the Governors of the several colonies to induce their Assemblies to treat with silent contempt the circular letter of the Massachusetts Assembly, it was absurd for him to order that Assembly to rescind its resolution to send a letter which had been sent, and acted upon, and answered--a resolution and letter, indeed, of a preceding House of Assembly. But the new House of Assembly, after long deliberation and discussion, refused, by a majority of 92 to 17, to rescind the obnoxious resolution of the late House of Assembly, and at the same time prepared and addressed to Lord Hillsborough an elaborate letter in vindication of their proceedings. The House was, of course, forthwith dissolved.

Lord Hillsborough's letter produced discontent not only in Massachusetts, but in all the American provinces. It, in effect, denied the right of consultation and petition to the colonists; for, as was said by Dr. Franklin, "a demand attended with a penalty of dissolution seemed a command, not a requisition, leaving no deliberative or discretionary power in the Assembly; and the ground of its being a petition to the King, guarded with a most explicit declaration of the supreme legislative power of Parliament, it wore the severe and dreadful appearance of a penal prohibition against petitioning. It was, in effect, saying you shall not even presume to complain, and reducing them below the common state of slavery, in which, if men complain with decency, they are heard unless their masters happen to be monsters. It warmed moderation into zeal, and inflamed zeal into rage. Yet still there appeared a disposition to express their grievances in humble petitions. All the Assemblies on the continent, in answer to a requisition of similar import to that already mentioned, asserted the right of the subject to petition for redress of grievances. They joined in petitions stating the imposition of taxes upon them without their consent, and the abolition of juries in revenue cases, as intolerable grievances, from which they prayed relief."[304]

It is singular and proper to observe that the Massachusetts Assembly were now complaining, and justly complaining, of the denial of their right of petition, and of being taxed without their own consent, when more than a century before their forefathers had not only denied the right of religious worship according to their conscience to Baptists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, but the right of petition for the redress of grievances to both the local Legislature and the King and Parliament, and seized their private papers and fined and imprisoned them for attempting thus to petition; denied to four-fifths of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay the right of franchise itself, because they were not certified members of the Congregational Church; taxed them for half a century without allowing them any representation in the Legislature that taxed them, and then fined and imprisoned those of them who complained by petition of thus being taxed without representation, as well as being denied the freedom of religious worship.

But though the General Assembly of Massachusetts Bay were now receiving a part of the measure which their preceding General Assemblies had meted out in full measure to four-fifths of their own fellow-citizens during more than half of the previous century, yet that does not make Lord Hillsborough's letter the less unconstitutional and tyrannical, nor the conduct and vindication of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts Bay less manly and justifiable. The Governor of the colony and his abettors had represented constitutional opposition and remonstrances against single Acts of Parliament, and of the Ministers of the day, as disloyalty to the King and treasonable resistance to lawful authority, and had already pursued such a course of action as to create a pretext for bringing soldiers and ships of war to the city, and consequent hostility and collisions between citizens and the soldiery, so as apparently to justify the suspension of the constituted legislative authorities in Massachusetts Bay, and enable the governors, judges, and executive officers to obtain large salaries and perquisites out of the colonists for present gratification and future residence and expenditure in England.

Massachusetts was at that time the most populous and the most wealthy colony in America, and Boston was the port of the largest trade; and though the House of Representatives there had not used stronger language in its remonstrances to Parliament and petitions to the King than the House of Representatives of Virginia (the next most populous colony), or Pennsylvania, or New York, or Maryland, or New Jersey, or Connecticut, or Rhode Island, yet the British Ministry determined to establish the newly-asserted parliamentary power in America by making an example of Massachusetts and of the port of Boston. There was the appointed seat of the English Board of Commissioners of Customs, attended by a posse of officers whose haughtiness and taunts and threats contributed not a little to irritate those with whom they had intercourse.

Three circumstances occurred which tended to increase the popular irritation, and hasten the approaching crisis--the seizure and detention of a sloop, the stationing of soldiers in the city, and pressing of seamen contrary to law.

As to the seizure of the vessel, accounts differ. Dr. Holmes, in his Annals, says:

"The laws of trade had been hitherto greatly eluded, but the Commissioners of the Customs were now determined that they should be executed. On the arrival of the sloop Liberty, laden with wines from Madeira, belonging to Mr. John Hancock, an eminent merchant of Boston, the tidesman, Thomas Kirk, went on board, and was followed by Captain Marshall, who was in Mr. Hancock's employ. On Kirk's refusing several proposals made to him, Marshall with five or six others confined him below three hours, during which time the wine was taken out. The master entered some pipes next morning; but the sloop was seized for a false entry, and removed from the wharf under the guns of the Romney man-of-war. The removal of the sloop was highly resented, as implying apprehension of a rescue, and every method was taken to interrupt the officers in the execution of their business; and many persons determined to be revenged. A mob was soon collected; and Mr. Harrison, the collector, Mr. Hallowell, the comptroller, Mr. Irving, the inspector of imports and exports, and a son of the collector, very narrowly escaped with their lives. The mob proceeded to the houses of the collector and comptroller, and having broken their windows, and those of the inspector-general, they next took and dragged the collector's (pleasure) boat through the town and burned it on the common. These outrages induced the Custom-house officers to take refuge, first on board the Romney man-of-war and afterwards in Castle William."[305]

On the other hand, Dr. Franklin states the affair as follows:

"On the 10th of June a seizure was made of a sloop fastened to the wharf, by an armed force, and the seizure carried by violence to the man-of-war. That this seizure was made with every circumstance of violence and insult which could irritate a mob, is proved by the oaths of thirteen eye-witnesses whose credibility has never been impeached. Unhappily, the irritation succeeded but too well. The collector and comptroller who made the seizure in that manner were treated with great indignity and personal injury by the mob."[306]

Another circumstance, productive of more intense and general excitement, if possible, and which transpired very shortly after the seizure and detention of the sloop Liberty, was the impressment of some seamen belonging to the town by the captain of the man-of-war Romney. This was done, as alleged, in violation of an Act of Parliament for the encouragement of trade to America--6 Anne, chap. xxvii., section 9--which says:

"No mariner or other person who shall serve on board, or be retained to serve on board, any privateer or trading ship or vessel that shall be employed in any port of America, nor any mariner or person being on shore in any port thereof, shall be liable to be impressed or taken away by any officer or officers belonging to her Majesty's ships of war." To prevent the tumults which were feared from such a flagrant and dangerous infraction of the law, a legal town-meeting was called, in which the inhabitants assembled petitioned the Governor to interpose and prevent such outrages upon the rights and liberties of the people; but the Governor declined to interfere--stated that he had no control over his Majesty's ships of war--that he would, however, use his utmost endeavours to get the impressing of men for the King's ships of war so regulated as to avoid all the inconveniences to the town which the petitioners apprehended.

In the midst of these excitements and discontents, so threatening and dangerous without some form of expression, many of the peace-loving and respectable inhabitants of Boston urged the Governor to convene the Legislature, but he refused without a command from the King. The select men of Boston then proposed to the several towns and townships of the colony the election of a Convention, to meet in Boston the 22nd of September, "to deliberate on constitutional measures to obtain redress of their grievances." Ninety-six towns and eight districts elected delegates to the Convention, which sat four days; "disclaimed any legislative authority, petitioned the Governor, made loyal professions, expressed their aversion to standing armies, to tumults and disorders, their readiness to assist in suppressing riots and preserving the peace; recommended patience and good order; and after a short session dissolved."[307]

The day before the close of this Convention, it was announced that three men-of-war and transports had arrived at Boston harbour with about 900 troops, and the fleet next day came to anchor near Castle William. The Commissioners of Customs and their friends had solicited the stationing of a regular force in the town.

"The ships having taken a station which commanded the town, the troops, under cover of the cannon of the ships, landed without molestation, and to the number of 700 men marched, with muskets charged and bayonets fixed, martial music, and the usual military parade, into the common. In the evening the Select Men of Boston were required to quarter the regiments in the town; but they absolutely refused. A temporary shelter, however, in Faneuil Hall was permitted to one regiment that was without camp equipage. The next day the State House, by the order of the Governor, was opened for the reception of the soldiers; and after the quarters were settled, two field pieces with the main guard were stationed just in its front. Everything was calculated to excite the indignation of the inhabitants. The lower floor of the State House, which had been used by gentlemen and merchants as an exchange; the representatives' chamber, the Court-house, Faneuil Hall--places with which were associated ideas of justice and freedom, as well as of convenience and utility--were now filled with regular soldiers. Guards were placed at the doors of the State House, through which the Council must pass in going to their own chamber. The common was covered with tents. The soldiers were constantly marching and countermarching to relieve the guards. The sentinels challenged the inhabitants as they passed. The Lord's day was profaned, and the devotion of the sanctuary was disturbed by the sound of drums and other military music. There was every appearance of a garrisoned town. The colonists felt disgusted and injured, but not overawed, by the obtruded soldiery. After the troops had obtained quarters, the Council were required to provide barracks for them, agreeably to Act of Parliament, but they resolutely declined any measure which might be construed into submission to that Act. Several large transports arrived at Boston from Cork, having on board part of the 64th and 65th British regiments, under Colonels MacKay and Pomeroy; the object of which was to protect the revenue officers in the collection of duties."[308]

Such was the state of things in Massachusetts and in other colonies at the close of the year 1768.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 301: The following are the concluding paragraphs of this petition to the King, dated 20th January, 1768:

"With great sincerity permit us to assure your Majesty, that your subjects of this province ever have and will continue to acknowledge your Majesty's High Court of Parliament as the supreme legislative power of the whole empire, the superintending authority of which is clearly admitted in all cases that can consist with the fundamental rights of nature and the constitution, to which your Majesty's happy subjects in all parts of your empire conceive they have a just and equitable claim.

"It is with the deepest concern that your humble suppliants would represent to your Majesty, that your Parliament, the rectitude of whose intentions is never to be questioned, has thought proper to pass divers Acts imposing taxes on your Majesty's subjects in America, with the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue. If your Majesty's subjects here shall be deprived of the honour and privilege of voluntarily contributing their aid to your Majesty in supporting your government and authority in the province, and defending and securing your rights and territories in America, which they have always hitherto done with the utmost cheerfulness: if these Acts of Parliament shall remain in force, and your Majesty's Commons in Great Britain shall continue to exercise the power of granting the property of their fellow-subjects in this province, your people must then regret their unhappy fate in having only the name left of free subjects.

"With all humility we conceive that a representation of your Majesty's subjects of this province in the Parliament, considering their local circumstances, is utterly impracticable. Your Majesty has heretofore been graciously pleased to order your requisitions to be laid before the representatives of your people in the General Assembly, who have never failed to afford the necessary aid to the extent of their ability, and sometimes beyond it; and it would be ever grievous to your Majesty's faithful subjects to be called upon in a way that should appear to them to imply a distrust of their most ready and willing compliance.

"Under the most sensible impressions of your Majesty's wise and paternal care for the remotest of your faithful subjects, and in full dependence on the royal declarations in the Charter of this province, we most humbly beseech your Majesty to take our present unhappy circumstances under your Royal consideration, and afford us relief in such manner as in your Majesty's great wisdom and clemency shall seem meet." (Prior Documents, etc., pp. 175-7.)]

[Footnote 302: Prior Documents, etc., p. 219.]

[Footnote 303: Prior Documents, etc.]

[Footnote 304: Prior Documents, etc., p. 262.]

[Footnote 305: American Annals, etc., Vol II., pp. 157, 158; the authority given is Gordon, Vol. I., pp. 168-172. Dr. Ramsay gives a similar account of the affair in his Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iii., p. 355.]

[Footnote 306: Prior Documents, pp. 262, 263.

Dr. Franklin adds in a note: "That the seizure was unjust, is plain from this, that they were obliged to restore the vessel, after detaining her a long time, not being able to find any evidence to support a prosecution. The suits for enormous sums against a number of persons, brought in the Court of Admiralty, being found insupportable, were, after long continuance, to the great expense and trouble of these persons, dropt by a declaration of the King's advocate that his Majesty would prosecute no further; but the prosecuted could obtain no costs or damages, for so is the law."--Ib., p. 263.]

[Footnote 307: Holmes' Annals, etc., Vol. II., p. 158.]

[Footnote 308: Holmes' Annals, etc., Vol. II., pp. 158, 159.

The Boston American Gazette, under the head of "A Journal of Transactions in Boston," says, September 30th, 1768: "Early this morning a number of boats were observed round the town, making soundings, etc. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the Launceston, of 40 guns; the Mermaid, of 28; the Glasgow, 20; the Beaver, 14; Senegal, 14; Bonetta, 10, and several armed schooners, which, together with the Romney, of 60 guns, and the other ships of war before in the harbour, all commanded by Captain Smith, came up to town, bringing with them the 14th Regiment, Colonel Dalrymple, and the 29th Regiment, Colonel Carr, none having been disembarked at Castle Island; so that we now behold Boston surrounded, in a time of profound peace, with about fourteen ships of war, with springs on their cables, and their broadsides to the town. It the people of England could but look into the town, they would smile to see the utmost good order and observance of the laws, and that this mighty armament has no other rebellion to subdue than what has existed in the brain and letters of the inveterate G------r B-----d (Governor Barnard), and the detested Commiss (Commissioners) of the Board of Cust--s (Customs). What advantage the Court of Versailles may take of the present policy of the British Ministry can be better determined hereafter." (pp. 177, 178.)]

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Chapter XV

EVENTS OF 1769--UNJUST IMPUTATIONS OF PARLIAMENT ON THE LOYALTY OF THE COLONISTS, AND MISREPRESENTATIONS OF THEIR JUST AND LOYAL PETITIONS.

The earliest proceedings of this year in regard to the American colonies took place in the British Parliament. In all the resolutions, protests, addresses, and petitions which had been adopted by American Assemblies and at town meetings, asserting the exclusive right of the colonists to tax themselves, and against taxation without representation by the British Parliament, they professed heartfelt loyalty to the King, and disclaimed all views of independence; while in England the Parliament asserted unlimited supremacy in and over the colonies, and the Royal speeches, as well as the resolutions and addresses adopted by the Lords and Commons, represented the colonies as being in a state of disobedience to law and government, adopting measures subversive of the constitution, and manifesting a disposition to throw off all allegiance to the mother country. The House of Lords passed resolutions censuring the resolutions and proceedings of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, pronouncing the election of deputies to sit in Convention, and the meeting of that Convention at Boston, daring insults to his Majesty's authority, and audacious usurpations of the powers of Government; yet, as has been seen, that Convention expressly disclaimed any assumption of government, and simply expressed the grievances complained of, prayed for their redress, declared their loyalty to the King, and recognition of the supreme authority of Parliament according to the constitution, and quietly dissolved. But the House of Commons declared concurrence in the resolutions of the Lords; and both Houses, in their address to the King, endorsed the measures of his Ministers, declared their readiness to give effectual support to such further measures as might be found necessary to execute the laws in Massachusetts Bay, and prayed his Majesty "to direct the Governor (Barnard) to take the most effectual methods for procuring the fullest information touching all treason or misprision of treason within the Government since the 30th day of December, 1767, and to transmit the same, together with the names of the persons who were most active in the commission of such offences, to one of the Secretaries of State, in order that his Majesty might issue a special commission for inquiring, hearing and determining the said offences, within the realm of Great Britain, pursuant to the provision of the statute of the 35th of Henry the Eighth."

The holding of town-meetings and their election of deputies, etc., were as much provided for in the provincial laws as the meeting and proceedings of the House of Representatives, or as are the meetings and proceedings of town, and township, and county municipal councils in Canada. The wholesale denunciations of disloyalty and treason against the people of a country was calculated to exasperate and produce the very feelings imputed; and the proposal of the two Houses of Parliament to make the Governor of Massachusetts Bay a detective and informer-general against persons opposed to his administration and the measures of the British Ministry, and the proposition to have them arrested and brought 3,000 miles over the ocean to England, for trial before a special commission, for treason or misprision of treason, show what unjust, unconstitutional, and foolish things Parliaments as well as individuals may sometimes perpetrate. Nothing has more impressed the writer, in going through this protracted war of words, preliminary to the unhappy war of swords, than the great superiority, even as literary compositions, much more as State documents, of the addresses and petitions of the Colonial Assemblies, and even public meetings, and the letters of their representatives, when compared with the dispatches of the British Ministry of that day and the writings of their partizans.

The resolutions and joint address of the Houses of Parliament, which were adopted in February, reached America in April, and gave great offence to the colonists generally instead of exciting terror, especially the part of the address which proposed bringing alleged offenders from Massachusetts to be tried at a tribunal in Great Britain. Massachusetts had no General Assembly at that time, as Governor Barnard had dissolved the last Assembly, and the time prescribed by the Charter for calling one had not arrived; but the House of Burgesses of the old, loyal Church of England colony of Virginia took the state of all the colonies into serious consideration, passed several resolutions, and directed their Speaker to transmit them without delay to the Speakers of the Assemblies of all the colonies on the continent for their concurrence. In these resolutions the House of Burgesses declare--"That the sole right of imposing taxes on the inhabitants of this colony is now, and ever hath been, legally and constitutionally vested in the House of Burgesses, with consent of the Council, and of the King or his Governor for the time being; that it is the privilege of the inhabitants to petition their Sovereign for redress of grievances, and that it is lawful to procure the concurrence of his Majesty's other colonies in dutiful addresses, praying the Royal interposition in favour of the violated rights of America; that all trials for treason, misprision of treason, or for any felony or crime whatsoever, committed by any persons residing in any colony, ought to be in his Majesty's courts within said colony, and that the seizing of any person residing in the colony, suspected of any crime whatsoever committed therein, and sending such person to places beyond the sea to be tried, is highly derogatory of the rights of British subjects, as thereby the inestimable privilege of being tried by jury from the vicinage, as well as the liberty of producing witnesses on such trial, will be taken away from the accused."

The House agreed also to an address to his Majesty, which stated, in the style of loyalty and real attachment to the Crown, a deep conviction that the complaints of the colonists were well founded. The next day Lord Botetourt, the Governor of Virginia, dissolved the House in the following words: "Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have heard of your resolves, and augur ill of their effects. You have made it my duty to dissolve you; and you are dissolved accordingly."

The Assembly of South Carolina adopted resolutions similar to those of Virginia, as did the Lower House of Maryland and the Delaware counties, and the Assembly of North Carolina, and was on that account dissolved by Governor Tyron. Towards the close of the year, the Assembly of New York passed resolutions in concurrence with those of Virginia. The members of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, and of the Assembly of North Carolina, after their dissolution, met as private gentlemen, chose for moderators their late Speakers, and adopted resolutions against importing British goods. This was followed by other colonies, and the non-importation agreement became general. Boston had entered into the non-importation agreement as early as August, 1768, which was soon after adopted in Salem, the city of New York, and the province of Connecticut; but the agreement was not generally entered into until after the Virginia resolutions. "The meetings of non-importation associations were regularly held in the various provinces. Committees were appointed to examine all vessels arriving from Britain. Censures were freely passed on such as refused to concur in these associations, and their names were published in the newspapers as enemies of their country. The regular Acts of the Provincial Assemblies were not so much respected and obeyed as the decrees of these Committees."[309]

Governor Barnard could not delay calling the General Assembly of Massachusetts beyond the time prescribed by the Charter for its meeting in May; and when it met, its first act was to appoint a Committee to wait on the Governor, and represent to him "that an armament by sea and land investing this metropolis, and a military guard with cannon pointed at the door of the State House, where the Assembly is held, are inconsistent with the dignity and freedom with which they have a right to deliberate, consult, and determine," and added, "They expect that your Excellency will, as his Majesty's representative, give effectual orders for the removal of the above-mentioned forces by sea and land out of this port, and the gates of this city, during the session of the said Assembly." The Governor answered: "Gentlemen, I have no authority over his Majesty's ships in this port, or his troops within this town, nor can I give any orders for the removal of the same." The House persisted in declining to do business while surrounded with an armed force, and the Governor at length adjourned it to Cambridge.

On the 6th of July the Governor sent a message to the House with accounts of expenditures already incurred in quartering his Majesty's troops, desiring funds for their payment, and requiring a provision for the quartering of the troops in the town and on Castle Island, "according to Act of Parliament." The next day, among other things, the House passed the following resolutions:

"That a general discontent on account of the Revenue Acts, an expectation of the sudden arrival of a military power to enforce said Acts, an apprehension of the troops being quartered upon the inhabitants, the General Court (or Assembly) dissolved, the Governor refusing to call a new one, and the people almost reduced to a state of despair, rendered it highly expedient and necessary for the people to convene their (town) committees to associate (in convention), consult, and advise the best means to promote peace and good order; to present their united complaints to the Throne, and jointly to pray for the Royal interposition in favour of their violated rights; nor can this procedure possibly be illegal, as they expressly disclaim all governmental acts.

"That the establishment of a standing army in this colony, in time of peace, is an invasion of national rights.

"That a standing army is not known as a part of the British constitution.

"That sending an armed force into the colony, under pretence of assisting the civil authority, is highly dangerous to the people, unprecedented and unconstitutional."

On the 12th of July the Governor sent a message to the House requesting an explicit answer to his message of the 6th, as to whether the House would or would not make provision for quartering the troops. After anxious deliberation, the unusually full House of 107 members present unanimously answered:

"As representatives, by the Royal Charter and the nature of our trust, we are only empowered to grant such aids as are reasonable, of which we are free and independent judges, at liberty to follow the dictates of our own understanding, without regard to the mandates of another. Your Excellency must, therefore, excuse us in this express declaration that as we cannot, consistently with our honour or interest, and much less with the duty we owe to our constituents, so we shall never make provision for the purposes mentioned in your messages."

Governor Barnard rejoined, in his last words to the Assembly, "To his Majesty, and if he pleases to his Parliament, must be referred your invasion of the rights of the Imperial sovereignty. By your own acts you will be judged. Your publications are plain and explicit, and need no comment." And he prorogued the Assembly until the 10th day of January, 1770. He wrote to Lord Hillsborough: "Their last message exceeds everything." Three weeks afterwards, the 1st of August, unexpectedly to himself, Barnard was recalled. He had expected to be appointed Governor of Virginia; but on his arrival in England he found that the British Ministers had promised the London-American merchants that they would never employ him again in America.[310] He answered the purposes of the corrupt Ministerial oligarchy in England, to mislead the Sovereign on one hand and oppress the colonists on the other. But for him there would have been no ships of war or military sent to Boston; no conflicts between the citizens and soldiers; probably no revolutionary war. Barnard's departure from Boston was signalized by the ringing of bells, and firing of cannon, and bonfires at night. He was succeeded in the government by Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, a man who had rendered great service to his native country by his History, and his labours in the Legislature for ten years, but who had become extremely unpopular by his secret support of the English Revenue Acts and duplicate policy of Barnard, whom he at length equalled in avarice and deception, and greatly excelled in ability.

One of the most effective and least objectionable means of obtaining the repeal of the Revenue Acts was the agreement not to purchase or import goods of British manufacture or goods imported from British ports. At best the revenues arising from the operation of these Acts would not amount to £20,000 a year. They were maintained in England as a badge of the absolute authority of Parliament; they were resisted in America as a badge of colonial independence of taxation--without representation. There was no crime, political or moral, in refusing to buy goods of any kind, much less goods burdened with what they considered unlawful duties. Mr. Bancroft remarks:

"The agreement of non-importation originated in New York, where it was rigidly carried into effect. No acrimony appeared; every one, without so much as a single dissentient, approved of the combination as wise and legal; persons in the highest stations declared against the Revenue Acts, and the Governor wished their repeal. His acquiescence in the association for coercing that repeal led the moderate men among the patriots of New York to plan a union of the colonies in an American Parliament (similar to that which now exists in the Dominion of Canada), preserving the Governments of the several colonies, and having the members of the General Parliament chosen by their respective Legislatures. They were preparing the greatest work of their generation, to be matured at a later day. Their confidence of immediate success assisted to make them alike disinclined to independence and firm in their expectation of bringing England to reason by suspending their mutual trade.

"The people of Boston, stimulated by the unanimity and scrupulous fidelity of New York, were impatient that a son of Barnard, two sons of Hutchinson, and about five others, would not accede to the agreement. At a great meeting of merchants in Faneuil Hall, Hancock proposed to send for Hutchinson's two sons, hinting, what was true, that the Lieutenant-Governor was himself a partner with them in their late extraordinary importations of tea. As the best means of coercion, it was voted not to purchase anything of the recusants. Subscription papers to that effect were carried around from house to house, and everybody complied."

"A letter from New York next invited Boston to extend the agreement against importing indefinitely, until every Act imposing duties should be repealed; and on the 17th (of October), by the great influence of Molineux, Otis, Samuel Adams, and William Cooper, this new form was adopted."[311] The opposition in Boston to the reception of goods from England became so general and determined, that even Governor Hutchinson quailed before it, and the soldiers stood silent and inactive witnesses of it. Mr. Bancroft says:

"Early in October (1769), a vessel laden with goods, shipped by English houses themselves, arrived in Boston. The military officers had been speculating on what would be done, and Colonel Dalrymple stood ready to protect the factors. But his assistance was not demanded. Hutchinson permitted the merchants to reduce the consignees to submission, and even to compel an English adventurer to re-embark his goods. One and another of the Boston recusants yielded; even the two sons of Hutchinson himself, by their father's direction, gave up 18 chests of tea, and entered fully into the (non-importation) agreement. Four still held out, and their names, with those of the two sons of Hutchinson, whose sincerity was questioned, stood recorded as infamous on the journals of the town of Boston. On the 15th another ship arrived; again the troops looked on as bystanders, and witnessed the complete victory of the people."[312]

But in the following month, November, a new turn was given to public thought, and new feelings of joy were inspired throughout America, by a dispatch from Lord Hillsborough to the King's personal friend, Lord Botetourt, Governor of Virginia, promising the repeal of the obnoxious Revenue Acts, and to impose no further taxes on the colonies. Lord Hillsborough says:

"I can take upon me to assure you, notwithstanding information to the contrary from men with factious and seditious views, that his Majesty's present Administration have at no time entertained a design to propose to Parliament to lay any further taxes upon America for the purpose of raising a revenue; and that it is at present their intention to propose, the next session of Parliament, to take off the duties upon glass, paper and colours, upon consideration of such duties having been laid contrary to the true principles of commerce." Lord Hillsborough further informed Lord Botetourt that "his Majesty relied upon his prudence and fidelity to make such explanation of his Majesty's measures as would tend to remove prejudices and to re-establish mutual confidence and affection between the mother country and the colonies."

In Lord Botetourt's address to the Virginia Assembly, transmitting a copy of the dispatch, he said:

"It may possibly be objected that as his Majesty's present Administration are not immortal, their successors may be inclined to attempt to undo what the present Ministers shall have attempted to perform; and to that objection I can give but this answer: that it is my firm opinion that the plan I have stated to you will certainly take place, and that it will never be departed from; and so determined am I for ever to abide by it, that I will be content to be declared infamous if I do not, to the last hour of my life, at all times, in all places, and upon all occasions, exert every power with which I either am, or ever shall be, legally invested, in order to obtain and maintain for the continent of America that satisfaction which I have been authorized to promise this day by the confidential servants of our gracious Sovereign, who, to my certain knowledge, rates his honour so high, that he would rather part with his crown than preserve it by deceit."

These assurances were received by the Virginians with transports of joy, viewing them as they did as abandoning, never to be resumed, the design of raising a revenue in America by Act of Parliament. The General Assembly of Virginia, in reply to Lord Botetourt's address, thus expressed themselves:

"We are sure our most gracious Sovereign, under whatever changes may happen in his confidential servants, will remain immutable in the ways of truth and justice, and that he is incapable of deceiving his faithful subjects; and we esteem your lordship's information not only as warranted, but even sanctified by the Royal word."[313]

It was understood and expected on all sides that the unproductive tax on tea would be repealed with the other articles enumerated in the Revenue Acts. Such was the wish of Governor Botetourt; such was the advice of Eden, the newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Maryland; Golden, who now administered the government of New York, on account of the death of More, assured the Legislature of the greatest probability that the late duties imposed by authority of Parliament, so much to the dissatisfaction of the colonies, would be taken off the ensuing session.[314]

"Thus," says Mr. Bancroft, "all America confined its issue with Great Britain to the single question of the Act imposing a duty on tea." "Will not a repeal of all other duties satisfy the colonists?" asked one of the Ministerial party of Franklin in London. And he frankly answered, 'I think not; it is not the sum paid in the duty on tea that is complained of as a burden, but the principle of the Act expressed in the preamble.' This faithful advice was communicated to the Ministry; but what effect could it produce when Hillsborough administered the colonies, with Barnard for his counsellor?[315]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 309: Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chapter iii., p. 359.

The following are the resolutions subscribed by the merchants and traders of New York, dated 27th August, 1768:

I. That we will not send for from Great Britain, either upon our own account or on commission, this fall, any other goods than what we have already ordered.

II. That we will not import any kind of merchandise from Great Britain, either on our own account or on commission, or any otherwise, nor purchase from any factor or others, any kind of goods imported from Great Britain directly, or by way of any of the other colonies, or by way of the West Indies, that shall be shipped from Great Britain after the first day of November, until the forementioned Acts of Parliament, imposing duties on paper, glass, etc., be repealed; except only the articles of coals, salt, sailcloth, wool, card-wool, grindstones, chalk, lead, tin, sheet-copper, and German steel.

III. We further agree not to import any kind of merchandise from Hamburg and Holland, directly from thence, nor by any other way whatsoever, more than we have already ordered, except tiles and bricks.

IV. We also promise to countermand all orders given from Great Britain, or since the 16th instant, by the first conveyance; ordering those goods not to be sent, unless the forementioned duties are taken off.

V. And we further agree, that if any person or persons subscribing hereto shall take any advantage, by importing any kind of goods that are herein restricted, directly or indirectly, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this agreement, such person or persons shall by us be deemed enemies to their country.

VI. Lastly, we agree, that if any goods shall be consigned or sent over to us, contrary to our agreement in this subscription, such goods so imported shall be lodged in some public warehouse, there to be kept under confinement until the forementioned Acts be repealed.]

[Footnote 310: The following is the portrait which Mr. Bancroft has drawn of the character of Barnard, and I cannot deny its accuracy:

"Trained as a wrangling proctor in an Ecclesiastical Court, he had been a quarrelsome disputant rather than a statesman. His parsimony went to the extreme of meanness; his avarice was insatiable and restless. So long as he connived at smuggling, he reaped a harvest in that way; when Grenville's sternness inspired alarm, it was his study to make the most money out of forfeitures and penalties. Professing to respect the Charter, he was unwearied in zeal for its subversion; declaring his opposition to taxation by Parliament, he urged it with all his power. Asserting most solemnly that he had never asked for troops, his letters reveal his perpetual importunity for ships of war and an armed force. His reports were often false--partly with design, partly from the credulity of panic. He placed everything in the most unfavourable light, and was ready to tell every tale and magnify trivial rumours into acts of treason. He was despondent when conciliation prevailed in England. The officers of the army and navy despised him for his cowardice and duplicity, and did not conceal their contempt." (History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap. xli., p. 291.)]

[Footnote 311: History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap. xlii., pp. 308, 309, 311. For the first non-importation resolutions adopted by the merchants of New York, see note on page 356.

"The trade between Great Britain and her colonies on the continent of America, on an average of three years (from 1766 to 1769), employed 1,078 ships and 28,910 seamen. The value of goods exported from Great Britain on the same average was £3,370,900; and of goods exported from the colonies to Great Britain and elsewhere £3,924,606." (Holmes' Annals, etc., Vol. II., p. 162.)]

[Footnote 312: History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap, xlii., p. 311.

"To the military its inactivity was humiliating. Soldiers and officers spoke of the people angrily as rebels. The men were rendered desperate by the firmness with which the local magistrates put them on trial for every transgression of the provincial laws. Arrests provoked resistance. 'If they touch you, run them through the bodies,' said a captain of the 29th Regiment to his soldiers, and he was indicted for the speech."--Ib., p. 314.]

[Footnote 313: Quoted from Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iii., pp. 363, 364.]

[Footnote 314: Bancroft's History, Vol. VI., Chap, xlii., pp. 315, 316.

"The general tendency to conciliation prevailed. Since the merchants of Philadelphia chose to confine their agreement for non-importation to the repeal of Townshend's Act, the merchants of Boston, for the sake of union, gave up their more extensive covenant, and reverted to their first stipulations. The dispute about the Billeting Act had ceased in New Jersey and Pennsylvania; the Legislature of New York, pleased with the permission to issue colonial bills of credit, disregarded the appeal from Macdougall to the betrayed inhabitants of that city and colony, and sanctioned a compromise by a majority of one. South Carolina was commercially the most closely connected with England. The annual exports from Charleston reached in value about two and a quarter millions of dollars, of which three-fourths went directly or indirectly to England. But however closely the ties of interest bound Carolina to England, the people were high-spirited; and, notwithstanding the great inconvenience to their trade, they persevered in the strict observance of their (non-importation) association, looking with impatient anxiety for the desired repeal of the Act complained of."--Ib., pp. 317, 318.]

[Footnote 315: History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap, xlii., p. 318.]

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Chapter XVI

EVENTS OF 1770--AN EVENTFUL EPOCH--EXPECTATIONS OF RECONCILIATION AND UNION DISAPPOINTED.

This was the year of bloody collision and parliamentary decision, which determined the future relations between Great Britain and the American colonies. Dr. Ramsay observes:

"From the Royal and Ministerial assurances given in favour of America in 1769, and the subsequent repeal in 1770 of five-sixths of the duties which had been imposed in 1767, together with the consequent renewal of the mercantile intercourse between Great Britain and her colonies, many hoped that the contention between the two countries was finally closed. In all the provinces, excepting Massachusetts, appearances seemed to favour that opinion. Many incidents operated there to the prejudice of that harmony which had begun elsewhere to return. Stationing a military force among them was a fruitful source of uneasiness. The royal army had been brought thither with the avowed design of enforcing submission to the mother country. Speeches from the Throne and addresses from both Houses of Parliament had taught them to look upon the inhabitants of Massachusetts as a factious, turbulent people, who aimed at throwing off all subordination to Great Britain. They, on the other hand, were accustomed to look upon the soldiery as instruments of tyranny, sent on purpose to dragoon them out of their liberties.

"Reciprocal insults soured the tempers, and mutual injuries embittered the passions of the opposite parties. Some fiery spirits, who thought it an indignity to have troops quartered among them, were constantly exciting the townspeople to quarrel with the soldiers.

"On the 2nd of March, 1770, a fray took place near Mr. Gray's ropewalk, between a private soldier of the 20th Regiment and an inhabitant. The former was supported by his comrades, the latter by the ropemakers, till several on both sides were involved in the consequences. On the 5th a more dreadful scene was presented. The soldiers when under arms were pressed upon, insulted and pelted by the mob, armed with clubs, sticks, and snowballs covering stones. They were also dared to fire. In this situation, one of the soldiers, who had received a blow, in resentment fired at the supposed aggressors. This was followed by a single discharge from six others. Three of the inhabitants were killed and five were dangerously wounded. The town was immediately in commotion. Such were the temper, force, and number of the inhabitants, that nothing but an engagement to remove the troops out of the town, together with the advice of moderate men, prevented the townsmen from falling on the soldiers. Capt. Preston, who commanded, and the party who fired on the inhabitants, were committed to jail, and afterwards tried. The captain and six of the men were acquitted. Two were brought in guilty of manslaughter (and were lightly punished). It appeared on the trial that the soldiers were abused, insulted, threatened, and pelted before they fired. It was also proved that only seven guns were fired by the eight prisoners. These circumstances induced the jury to give a favourable verdict. The result of the trial reflected great honour on John Adams and Josiah Quincy, the counsel for the prisoners (promising young lawyers and popular leaders), and also on the integrity of the jury, who ventured to give an upright verdict in defiance of popular opinion."[316]

A further hindrance to returning harmony in Massachusetts, as in the other colonies, was another ill-judged act of the British Ministers in making the Governor and judges wholly independent of the province in regard to their salaries, which had always been paid by the local Legislature in annual grants, but which were now, for the first time, paid by the Crown. The House of Assembly remonstrated against this innovation, which struck at the very heart of public liberty, by making the administrator of the government, and the courts of law, wholly independent of the people, and wholly dependent on the Crown, all holding their offices during pleasure of the Crown, and depending upon it alone for both the amount and payment of their salaries, and that payment out of a revenue raised by taxing the people without their consent.

The House addressed the Governor and judges to know whether they would receive their salaries as heretofore, by grants of the Legislature, or as stipends from the Crown. Three out of the four judges announced that they would receive their salaries as heretofore, by grants from the local Legislature; but Governor Hutchinson and Chief Justice Oliver announced that they would receive their salaries from the Crown. They therefore became more and more odious to the inhabitants, while the discussion of the new question of the relations of the Executive and Judiciary to the people, upon the grounds of public freedom and the impartial administration of justice, greatly increased the strength of the opposition and the importance of the local House of Representatives as the counterpart of the House of Commons, and as guardians of the rights of the people.

At an early period of Canadian history, the salaries of governors and judges were determined and paid by the Crown, out of what was called a casual and territorial revenue, independent of the representatives of the people, and the judges held their places during pleasure; but after much agitation, and a determined popular struggle of several years, a civil list for both the governors and judges was agreed upon and voted by the Legislature. The tenure of the offices of judges was made that of good behaviour, instead of pleasure; and executive councillors and heads of departments were made dependent upon the confidence of the Legislature, with the control of revenues of every kind raised in the country; since which time there have been peace, loyalty, and progress throughout the provinces of the Canadian Dominion.

To turn now to the affairs of the colonies as discussed and decided upon in the British Parliament, which met the 9th of January, 1770. The King, in opening Parliament, expressed his regret that his endeavours to tranquillize America had not been attended with the desired success, and that combinations had been formed to destroy the commercial connection between the colonies and the mother country. The opposition in both Houses of Parliament dwelt strongly on the prevailing discontents, both in England and in the colonies. Ministers, admitting these discontents, imputed them to the spirit of faction, the speeches and writings of agitators, and to petitions got up and circulated by their influence. Lords Camden and Shelburne resigned, disapproving of the policy of the Administration, as did soon after, on the 28th of January, 1770, the Duke of Grafton, First Lord of the Treasury, and was succeeded by Lord North as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord Chatham, after an absence of two years, recovered sufficiently to make his clarion voice once more heard in the councils of the nation against official corruption, and in defence of liberty and the rights of the colonies, the affairs of which now occupied the attention of Parliament. The British manufacturers and merchants who traded to America had sustained immense losses by the rejection of their goods, through the non-importing associations in America, and apprehended ruin from their continuance, and therefore petitioned Parliament, stating their sufferings and imploring relief. On the 5th of March Lord North introduced a Bill into the Commons for the repeal of the whole of the Act of 1767, which imposed duties on glass, red lead, paper, and painters' colours, but retaining the preamble, which asserted the absolute authority of Parliament to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever, and retaining, as an illustration of that authority, the clause of the Act which imposed a duty on tea. He said:--"The articles taxed being chiefly British manufactures, ought to have been encouraged instead of being burdened with assessments. The duty on tea was continued, for maintaining the parliamentary right of taxation. An impost of threepence in the pound could never be opposed by the colonists, unless they were determined to rebel against Great Britain. Besides, a duty on that article, payable in England, and amounting to nearly one shilling in the pound, was taken off on its exportation to America; so that the inhabitants of the colonies saved ninepence in the pound. The members of the opposition, in both Houses, advocated the repeal of the clause on tea, and predicted the inefficiency of the Bill should that clause be retained, and repeated the arguments on the injustice and inexpediency of taxing America by Act of Parliament; but the Bill was carried by a large majority, and assented to by the King on the 12th of April."

The repeal of the obnoxious port duties of 1767 left no pretence for retaining the duty on tea for raising a revenue, as the tea duty, at the highest computation, would not exceed £16,000 a year; and when Lord North was pressed to relinquish that remaining cause of contention, he replied:

"Has the repeal of the Stamp Act taught the Americans obedience? Has our lenity inspired them with moderation? Can it be proper, while they deny our legal right to tax them, to acquiesce in the argument of illegality, and by the repeal of the whole law to give up that honour? No; the most proper time to exert our right of taxation is when the right is refused. To temporize is to yield; and the authority of the mother country, if it is now unsupported, will in reality be relinquished for ever. A total repeal cannot be thought of till America is prostrate at our feet."

Governor Pownall, who had spent many years in America, and had preceded Barnard as Governor of Massachusetts, moved an amendment, to include the repeal of the duty on tea as well as on the articles included in the original motion of Lord North. In the course of his speech in support of the amendment he said:

"If it be asked whether it will remove the apprehensions excited by your resolutions and address of the last year, for bringing to trial in England persons accused of treason in America? I answer, no. If it be asked, if this commercial concession would quiet the minds of the Americans as to the political doubts and fears which have struck them to the heart throughout the continent? I answer, no; so long as they are left in doubt whether the Habeas Corpus Act, whether the Bill of Rights, whether the Common Law as now existing in England, have any operation and effect in America, they cannot be satisfied. At this hour they know not whether the civil constitution be not suspended and superseded by the establishment of a military force. The Americans think that they have, in return to all their applications, experienced a temper and disposition that is unfriendly--that the enjoyment and exercise of the common rights of freemen have been refused to them. Never with these views will they solicit the favour of this House; never more will they wish to bring before Parliament the grievances under which they conceive themselves to labour. Deeply as they feel, they suffer and endure with alarming silence. For their liberty they are under no apprehensions. It was first planted under the auspicious genius of the constitution, and it has grown up into a verdant and flourishing tree; and should any severe strokes be aimed at the branches, and fate reduce it to the bare stock, it would only take deeper root, and spring out more hardy and durable than before. They trust to Providence, and wait with firmness and fortitude the issue."

The statements of Governor Pownall were the result of long observation and experience in America, and practical knowledge of the colonists, and were shown by results to be true to the letter, though treated with scorn by Lord North, and with aversion by the House of Commons, which rejected his amendment by a majority of 242 to 204.

The results of the combinations against the use of British manufactures were illustrated this year by the candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Harvard College appearing dressed in black cloth manufactured wholly in New England. The general plan of non-importation of English manufactured goods was now relinquished on the repeal of the duties imposed upon them; but the sentiment of the principal commercial towns was against the importation of any tea from England. An association was formed not to drink tea until the Act imposing the duty should be repealed. This was generally agreed to and observed throughout the colonies.

But the retaining of threepence in the pound on tea did not excite so much hostility in the colonies against the Parliament as might have been expected. The Act of Parliament was virtually defeated, and the expected revenue from tea failed because of the resolution of the colonial associations of the people to use no tea, and of the merchants to import none on which the duty was charged. The merchants found means to smuggle, from countries to which the authority of Great Britain did not extend, a sufficient supply of tea for the tea-drinking colonists. Thus the tea-dealers and tea-drinkers of America exercised their patriotism and indulged their taste--the one class making an additional threepence a pound on tea by evading the Act, and the other class enjoying the luxury of tea as cheap as if no tea-duty Act of Parliament existed, and with the additional relish of rendering such Act abortive. The facilities for smuggling tea, arising from the great extent of the American coasts, and the great number of harbours, and the universality of the British anti-tea associations, and the unity of popular sentiment on the subject, rendered the Act of Parliament imposing the duty a matter of sport rather than a measure of oppression even to the most scrupulous, as they regarded the Act unconstitutional, and every means lawful and right by which the obnoxious Act could be evaded and defeated. It is probable that, in the ordinary course of things, the Act would have become practically obsolete, and the relations of the colonies to the mother country have settled down into quietness and friendliness, but for another event, which not only revived with increased intensity the original question of dispute, but gave rise to other occurrences that kindled the flame of the American revolution. That event was the agreement between the Ministry and the East India Company, which interfered with the natural and ordinary channels of trade, and gave to that Company a monopoly of the tea trade of America. From the diminished exportation of tea from England to the colonies, there were, in warehouses of the British East India Company, seventeen millions of pounds of tea for which there was no demand. Lord North and his colleagues were not willing to lose the expected revenue, as small as it must be at last from their American Tea Act, and the East India Company were unwilling to lose the profits of their American tea trade.

An agreement was therefore entered into between the Ministry and the Company, by which the Company, which was authorized by law to export their tea free of duty to all places whatsoever, could send their tea cheaper to the colonies than others who had to pay the exceptionable duty, and even cheaper than before it had been made a source of revenue; "for the duty taken off it when exported from Great Britain was greater than that to be paid for it on its importation into the colonies. Confident of success in finding a market for their tea, thus reduced in its price, and also of collecting a duty on its importation and sale in the colonies, the East India Company freighted several ships with teas for the different colonies, and appointed agents (or consignees) for its disposal." This measure united both the English and American merchants in opposition to it upon selfish grounds of interest, and the colonists generally upon patriotic grounds. "The merchants in England were alarmed at the losses that must come to themselves from the exportations of the East India Company, and from the sales going through the hands of consignees. Letters were written to colonial patriots, urging their opposition to the project. The (American merchants) smugglers, who were both numerous and powerful, could not relish a scheme which, by underselling them and taking a profitable branch of business out of their hands, threatened a diminution of their gains. The colonists were too suspicious of the designs of Great Britain to be imposed upon.

"The cry of endangered liberty once more excited an alarm from New Hampshire to Georgia. The first opposition to the execution of the scheme adopted by the East India Company began with the American merchants. They saw a profitable branch of their trade likely to be lost, and the benefits of it transferred to a company in Great Britain. They felt for the wound that would be inflicted on their country's claim of exemption from parliamentary taxation; but they felt, with equal sensibility, for the losses they would sustain by the diversion of the streams of commerce into unusual channels. Though the opposition originated in the selfishness of the merchants, it did not end there. The great body of the people, from principles of the purest patriotism, were brought over to second their wishes. They considered the whole scheme as calculated to seduce them into an acquiescence with the views of Parliament for raising an American revenue. Much pains were taken to enlighten the colonists on this subject, and to convince them of the eminent hazard to which their liberties were exposed.

"The provincial patriots insisted largely on the persevering determination of the parent state to establish her claim of taxation by compelling the sale of tea in the colonies against the solemn resolutions and declared sense of the inhabitants, and that at a time when the commercial intercourse of the two countries was renewed, and their ancient harmony fast returning. The proposed vendors of the tea were represented as revenue officers, employed in the collection of an unconstitutional tax imposed by Great Britain. The colonists contended that, as the duty and the price of the commodity were inseparably blended, if the tea were sold every purchaser would pay a tax imposed by the British Parliament as part of the purchase money."[317]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 316: Colonial History, Vol. I. Chap. iii., pp. 364, 365.

Several American historians have sought to represent the soldiers as the first aggressors and offenders in this affair. The verdict of the jury refutes such representations. The accuracy of Dr. Ramsay's statements given above cannot be fairly questioned; he was a member of South Carolina Legislature, an officer in the revolutionary army during the whole war, and a personal friend of Washington. Mr. Hildreth says: "A weekly paper, the 'Journal of the Times,' was filled with all sorts of stories, some true, but the greater part false or exaggerated, on purpose to keep up prejudice against the soldiers. A mob of men and boys, encouraged by the sympathy of the inhabitants, made a constant practice to insult and provoke them. The result to be expected soon followed. After numerous fights with straggling soldiers, a serious collision at length took place: a picket guard of eight men, provoked beyond endurance by words and blows, fired into a crowd, killed three persons and dangerously wounded five others." "The story of the 'Boston massacre,' for so it was called, exaggerated into a ferocious and unprovoked assault by brutal soldiers on a defenceless people, produced everywhere intense excitement. The officer and soldiers of the picket guard were indicted and tried for murder. They were defended, however, by John Adams and Josiah Quincy, two young lawyers, the most zealous among the popular leaders: and so clear a case was made in their behalf, that they were all acquitted except two, who were found guilty of manslaughter and slightly punished." (History of the United States, Chap. xxix., pp. 554, 555, 556.)

Dr. Holmes states that "the soldiers were pressed upon, insulted by the populace, and dared to fire; one of them, who had received a blow, fired at the aggressors, and a single discharge from six others succeeded. Three of the inhabitants were killed and five dangerously wounded. The town was instantly thrown into the greatest commotion. The drums beat to arms, and thousands of the inhabitants assembled in the adjacent streets. The next morning Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson summoned a Council; and while the subject was in discussion, a message was received from the town, which had convened in full assembly, declaring it to be their unanimous opinion 'that nothing can rationally be expected to restore the peace of the town, and prevent blood and carnage, but the immediate removal of the troops.' On an agreement to this measure, the commotion subsided. Captain Preston, who commanded the party of soldiers, was committed with them to jail, and all were afterwards tried. The captain and six of the men were acquitted. Two were brought in guilty of manslaughter. The result of the trial reflected great honour on John Adams and Josiah Quincy, the counsel for the prisoners, and on the integrity of the jury." (Annals, etc., Vol. II., pp. 166, 167.)

How much more honourable and reliable are these straightforward statements of those American historians of the times, and the verdict of even a Boston jury, than the sophistical, elaborate, and reiterated efforts of Mr. Bancroft, in the 43rd and 44th chapters of his History, to implicate the soldiers as the provoking and guilty causes of the collision, and impugning the integrity of the counsel for the prosecution, the court, and the jury.

In the Diary of J. Adams, Vol. II., p. 229, are the following words:

"Endeavours had been systematically pursued for many months by certain busy characters to excite quarrels, rencounters, and combats, single or compound, in the night, between the inhabitants of the lower class and the soldiers, and at all risks to enkindle an immortal hatred between them."--(Quoted by Mr. Hildreth, Vol. II., p. 409, in a note.)]

[Footnote 317: Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iii., pp. 370-372.]

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