 Chapter 3, Part 2 of Eve of the Revolution by Carl Becker, this LibriVox recording is in the public domain. But fate or providence, or whatever it is that presides at the destinies of nations, has a way of setting aside with ironical smile the most deliberate actions of men. And so, on this occasion, it turned out that the hard-won victory of masseuse, Randolph, Bland, Pendleton, and Whith was of no avail. William Gordon tells us, without mentioning the source of his information, that a manuscript of the unrevised resolves soon reached Philadelphia, having been sent off immediately upon their passing, that the earliest information of what had been done might be obtained by the Sons of Liberty. From Philadelphia a copy was forwarded, on June 17, to New York, in which loyal city the resolutions were thought, so treasonable that their possessors declined printing them. But an Irish gentleman from Connecticut, who was then in town inquired after them and was with great precaution, permitted to take a copy which he straightway carried to New England. All this may be true or not, but certain it is that six resolutions purporting to come from Virginia were printed in the Newport Mercury on June 24, 1765, and afterwards on July 1, in many Boston papers. The document best printed did not indeed include the famous Fifth Resolution, upon which the debate in the House of Burgesses was most bloody, in which had been there adopted by a single vote, and afterwards erased from the record, but it included two others much stronger than that eminently treasonable one. Resolved that His Majesty's liege people, the inhabitants of this colony, are not bound to yield obedience to any law or ordinance, whatever, designed to impose any taxation whatsoever upon them, other than the laws and ordinances of the General Assembly or for said. Resolved that any person who shall, by speaking or writing, assert or maintain that any person or persons, other than the General Assembly of this colony, have any right or power to impose any taxation on the people here shall be deemed an enemy to His Majesty's colony. These resolutions which Governor Farquhar had not seen and which were perhaps never debated in the House of Burgesses were now circulated far and wide as part of the mature decision of the Virginia Assembly. On the 14th of September, Messiers Randolph with Nicholas were appointed a committee to apprise the Assembly's agent of a spurious copy of the Resolves of the Last Assembly being dispersed and printed in the newspapers and to send him a true copy of the votes on that occasion. In those days of slow and difficult communication, the truth three months late could not easily overtake the falsehood or ever effectively replace it. In later years, when it was thought and honored to have begun the revolution, many men denied the decisive effect of the Virginia Resolutions in convincing the colonists that the Stamp Act might be successfully resisted. The contemporaries were agreed and according to them that glory or that infamy two or three months ago said Governor Bernard. I thought that this people would submit to the Stamp Act. Mermers were indeed continually heard but they seemed to be such as would die away. The publishing of the Virginia Resolutions proved an alarm bell to the disaffected. We read that Resolutions said Jonathan Sewell with wonder. They savored of independence. They clattered the human passions. The reasoning was specious. We wished it conclusive. The transition to believing it so was easy and we almost all America followed their example in resolving that the Parliament had no such right. And the good Patriot John Adams who afterwards attributed the honor to James Otis said in 1776 that the author of the first Virginia Resolutions against the Stamp Act will have the glory with posterity beginning this great revolution. James Otis in 1765 declared the Virginia Resolutions to be treasonable. It was precisely their treasonable flavor that electrified the country while the fact that they came from the Old Dominion made men think that a union of the colonies so essential to successful resistance might be achieved in spite of all. The Old Dominion counted the most English of the colonies in respect to her institutions and her sympathies had a character for loyalty that in any matter of opposition to Britain gave double weight to her action. Easygoing tobacco planters, Church of England men all were well known not to be great admirers of the precise Puritans of New England whose moral fervor and conscious rectitude seemed to them a species of fanaticism, savoring more of canting hypocrisy than of that natural virtue affected by many parts. Franklin may well have had Virginia and Massachusetts in mind when he said but a few years earlier no one need fear that the colonies will unite against their own nation which it is well known they all love much more than they love one another. Nor could anyone have supposed that the ancient and loyal colony of Virginia would out Boston Boston in asserting the rights of America yet this was what had come to pass the evidence of which was the printed resolutions now circulating far and wide and being read in this month of July when it was being noised about that a Congress was proposed for the coming October. The proposal had in fact come from Massachusetts Bay in the form of a circular letter inviting all the colonies to send delegates to New York for the purpose of preparing a loyal and humble representation of their condition and of imploring relief from the King and Parliament of Great Britain. No very encouraging response was immediately forthcoming the Assembly of New Jersey unanimously declined to send any delegates although it declared itself not without a just sensibility respecting the late acts of Parliament and wish such other colonies as think proper to be active every success they can morally and reasonably desire. For two months there was no indication that any colony would think it proper to be active but during August and September the assemblies of six colonies chose deputies to the Congress and when that body finally assembled in October less formally designated representatives from three other colonies appeared upon the scene. The Assembly of New Hampshire declined to take part Virginia Georgia and North Carolina were also unrepresented which was perhaps due to the fact that the governors of those provinces refused to call the assemblies together to consider the Massachusetts circular letter. Of the 27 members of the Stamp Act Congress few of any were inclined to rash or venture some measures. It is reported that Lord Melbourne as Prime Minister of England once remarked to his cabinet it doesn't matter what we say but we must all say the same thing. What the Stamp Act Congress said was to be sure of some importance but that it should say something which all could agree to was of even greater importance. There ought to be no New England man no New Yorker known on the continent wrote Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina but all of us Americans New Yorkers and New England men could not indeed be so easily transformed overnight but the Stamp Act Congress was significant as marking a kind of beginning in that slow and difficult process after 11 days of debate in which sharp differences of opinion were no doubt revealed. A declaration of rights and grievances was at last adopted a declaration which was so cautiously and loyally phrased that all could subscribe to it and which was perhaps for that very reason not quite satisfactory to anyone. His Majesty's subjects in the colonies the declaration affirmed are entitled to those inherent rights and liberties which are enjoyed by his natural born subjects in Great Britain among which rights is that most important one of not being taxed without their own consent and since the people of the colonies from local circumstances cannot be represented in the House of Commons it follows that taxes cannot be imposed upon them but by their respective legislatures. The Stamp Act being a direct tax was therefore declared to have a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the colonies. The Sugar Act which was not a direct tax so much could not be said but this act was at least burdensome and grievous being subversive of trade if not of liberty. No one was likely to be profoundly stirred by the declaration of the Stamp Act Congress in this month of October when the spirited Virginia resolutions were everywhere well known. The frozen politicians of a more northern government according to the Boston Gazette say they the people of Virginia have spoken treason but the Boston Gazette for its part thought they had spoken very sensibly with much reading of the resolutions and of the commendatory remarks with which they were everywhere received the reasonable flavor of their boldest phrases no doubt grew less pronounced and high talk took on more and more the character of good sense. During the summer of 1765 the happy phrase of Isaac Barray these sons of liberty was everywhere repeated and was put on as a kind of protective coloring by strong patriots who henceforth thought of themselves as sons of liberty and no traitors at all rather were they traitors who would in any way justify an act of tyranny most of all those so-called Americans accepting the office of Stamp Master who cunningly aspired to make a farthing profit out of the hateful business of enslaving their own countrymen who these gentry might be was not certainly known until early August when Jared Ingersoll himself as it turned out one of the miscreants brought the commissions over from London where upon the names were all printed in the papers it then appeared that the gentleman appointed to distribute the stamps in Massachusetts was Andrew Oliver a man very well connected in that province and of great influence with the best people not infrequently entrusted with high office and perquisites and but recently elected by the unsuspecting Bostonians to represent them in the Council of Massachusetts Bay Colony it seemed inconsistent that a man so often honored by the people should meanwhile pledge himself to destroy their liberties and so on the morning of the 14th of August Mr. Oliver's effigy together with a horned devil's head peeping out of an old boot was to be seen hanging from the Liberty tree at the south end of Boston near the distillery of Thomas Chase Brewer and warm son of Liberty during the day people stopped to make merry over the spectacle and in the evening after work hours a great crowd gathered to see what would happen when the effigy was cut down and carried away the crowd very naturally followed along through the streets and through the town house justifying themselves many respectable people were in the crowd for being there by calling out Liberty and property forever no stamp and what with tramping and shouting in the warm August evening the whole crowd became much heated and ever more enthusiastic so that the line of March by some chance lying past the new stamp office and Mr. Oliver's house the people were not to be restrained from destroying the former and breaking in the windows of the ladder in detestation of the hated stamp act and of the principal's property might be taken without consent Mr. Oliver hastened to resign his office which doubtless led many people to think the methods taken to induce him to do so were very good ones and such as might well be made further use of it was in fact not long afterwards about dusk of the evening of the 26th of August that a mob of men more deliberately organized than before ran sack the office of William Story deputy registrar of the court of Admiralty and after burning the obnoxious records kept there they forcibly entered the house in the cellar to a Benjamin Hallowell comptroller of the customs then the monsters says decontutor being inflamed with rum and wine which they got in said Hallowell's cellar proceeded with shots to the dwelling house of the honorable Thomas Hutchinson Esquire lieutenant governor and entered in a violent manner at that moment the lieutenant governor was sitting comfortably at dinner and had barely time to escape with his family before the massive front door was broken in with axes as young Mr. Hutchinson went out by the back way he heard someone say damn him he's upstairs we'll have him yet they did not indeed accomplish this purpose but when the morning broke the splendid house was seen to be completely gutted the partition walls broken in the roof partly off and the priceless possessions of the owner ruined past repair mahogany and walnut furniture finished in Morocco and crimson damask tapestries and turkey carpets rare paintings cabinets of fine glass and old china stores of macula linen india padua soy gowns and red general robes a choice collection of books richly bound in leather many manuscript documents the fruit of 30 years labor and collecting are broken and cut and cast about to make a rubbish heap and a bonfire from the mire of the street there was afterwards picked up by manuscript history of massachusetts which is preserved to this day the soil pages of which may still be seen in the boston library mr. Hutchinson was no friend of the stamp act but he was a rich man lieutenant governor of the province and brother-in-law of andrew oliver government offered the usual rewards which were never claimed for evidence leading to the detection of any persons concerned in the riots men of repute including the staunchest patriots such as samuel adams and jonathan mayhew expressed their abhorrence of mobs and the broad licentious proceedings in general but many were nevertheless disposed to think with good deacon tutor that in this particular instance the universal abhorrence of the stamp act was the cause of the mob's rising it would be well to punish the mob but punishing the mob would not cure the evil which was the cause of the mob for where there was oppression the lower sort of people as was well known would be sure to express opposition in the way commonly practiced by them everywhere in london as well as in boston by gathering in the streets and crowds in which events some deplorable excesses were bound to follow however much deprecated by men of substance and standing administrators wish the people to be tranquil let them repeal the stamp act if they were determined to persist in it and should attempt to land and distribute the stamps loyal and law abiding citizens however much they might regret the fact could only say that similar disorders were very likely to become even more frequent and more serious in the future than they had been in the past as the first of november approached that being the day set for the loving of the tax attention and discussion came naturally to center on the stamps rather than on the stamp act crowds of curious people gathered wherever there seemed a prospect of catching a glimpse of the bundles of stamped papers upon their arrival the papers had to be landed they could therefore be seen and the mere sight of them was likely to be a sufficient challenge to action it seemed a simple matter to resist a law which could be of no effect without the existence of certain papers paper being a substance easily disposed of and everywhere in fact the stamps were disposed of disposed of by mobs with the tacit consent and impalpable encouragement of many men who having a reputable position to maintain with themselves by no means endured to be seen in a common crowd men of good estate whom no one could think of as countenances of violence but who were on this occasion as mr. Livingston said not a verse to a little rioting on condition that it be kept within bounds and well directed to the attainment of their just rights a little rioting so easy to be set on foot was difficult to keep within reasonable bounds as mr. Livingston and his friends in new york soon discovered somewhat to their chagrin in new york even after the stamps were surrendered by lieutenant governor colden and safely lodged in the townhouse there were many excesses wholly unnecessary to the attainment of the original object mr. colden's new cherry certainly never designed to carry the stamps was burned and on repeated occasions windows were broken and particulars threatened that their houses were presently be pulled down mr. Livingston was himself the owner of houses had an immense respect for property rights and for the law that guaranteed them and therefore wished very much that the lower sort of people would give over their mobish practices now that the stamps had been disposed of since the law could not now operate without stamps what more was necessary except to wait in good order patiently denying themselves those activities that involved a violation of the law until the law should be repealed the stamp act congress had protested in a proper and becoming manner merchants had agreed not to import british goods the governor had closed the courts stopping of business would doubtless be annoying it might very likely produce some distress but it would be legal and it would be effective the government would get no revenue british merchants no profit and americans could not be charged with violating a law the failure of which was primarily due to the fact that papers indispensable to its application were for one reason or another not forthcoming mr. Livingston happily possessed of the conservative temperament was disposed to achieve desired ends with the least possible disturbance of his own affairs and those of his country and most men of independent means landowners and merchants of considerable estates moneyed men and high salary officials whose incomes were not greatly affected by any temporary business depression were likely to be of mr. Livingston's opinion particularly in this matter of the stamp act sitting comfortably at dinner every day and while knowing where they could lay hands on money to pay current bills they enjoyed a high sense of being defenders of liberty and at the same time eminently law-abiding citizens they professed a decided preference for nullifying the stamp act without violating it sitting at dinner over their wine they swore that they would let ships lie in harbor and rot there if necessary and without the courts closed for a year or two years rather than employ tax papers to collect their just debts with around oath they bound themselves to it sealing the pledge very likely by sipping another glass of madera in the defense of just rights mr. Livingston and his conservative friends were willing to sacrifice much they foresaw some months of business stagnation which they nevertheless contemplated with equanimity being prepared to tide over the dull time by living in a diminished manner if necessary even dispensing with customary bottles of madera at dinner men of radical temperament having generally less regard for the status quo are quick to see ulterior motives back of conservative timidity and solemn profession of respect for law and order it was so in the case of the stamp act small shopkeepers who were soon sold out and had no great stock of old moth-eaten goods to offer at enhanced prices rising young lawyers whose fees ceased with the closing of the courts artisans and laborers who bought their dinners no madera included with their daily wage these and indeed all the lower sort of people contemplated the stopping of business with much alarm mr. John Adams a young lawyer a brain tree in boston was greatly interested in the question of the courts of justice were the courts to be closed on the ground that no legal business could be done without stamped papers or were they to go on trying cases enforcing the collection of debts and probating wills precisely as if no stamp act had ever been heard up the boston superior court was being adjourned continuously for a fortnight at a time through the influence of mr. Hutchinson and Oliver to the great and steadily rising wrath of young mr. Adams the courts must soon be opened he said to himself their inactivity will make a large cousin in my affairs if it should not reduce me to distress young mr. Adams who had no less than mr. Oliver a family to support and children to provide for was just at the point of making a reputation and winning a competence when this execrable project was set on foot for my ruin as well as that of america in general and therefore mr. Adams and mr. Sandler Adams and mr. early semester gridley in order to avert the ruin of america in general were very warm to have the courts open and very bitter against mr. Hutchinson and Oliver whose insolence and impudence and chicanery in the matter were obvious and whose secret motives might easily be inferred little wonder if these men who had managed by hook or crook to get into their own hands or into the hands of their families nearly all the lucrative offices in the province now sought to carry favor with ministers in order to maintain their amazing ascendancy when the stamp act was passed all men in america had professed themselves and were thought to be sons of liberty even mr. Hutchinson had declared himself against ministerial measures but scarce a month had elapsed since the law was to have gone into effect before it was clear to the discerning that for all their professions most of the better sort were not genuine sons of liberty at all but timid sycophants pliant instruments of despotism far more intent upon the ruin of mr. Adams and of america in general than any minister could be shown to be for the policy of dispensing with activities requiring stamp papers much lauded by these gentry as an effective and constitutional means of defeating the law was after all nothing but a sort of admittance of the legality of the stamp act and had a tendency to enforce it since there was just reason to apprehend that the secret enemies of liberty had actually a design to introduce it by the necessity to which the people would be reduced by the cessation of business it was well therefore a view of such insidious designs of secret enemies that the people even to the lowest rank should become more attentive to their liberties and more inquisitive about them and more determined to defend them than they were ever before known or had occasion to be to defend their liberties not against ministers but against ministerial tools who were secret betrayers of america true patriots accordingly banded themselves in societies which took to themselves the name of sons of liberty and of which the object was by putting business in motion again in the usual channels without stamps to prevent the stamp act ever being enforced such a society composed mainly of the lower orders of people and led by rising young lawyers was formed in new york on january 7 and mr howards coffee house abandoning the secrecy which had hitherto veiled their activities its members declared to the world their principles and the motives that would determine their action in the future resolved that we will go to the last extremity and venture our lives and fortunes effectively to prevent the said stamp act from ever taking place in this city and province resolved that any person who shall deliver out or receive any instrument of writing upon stamp paper shall incur the highest resentment of this society and be branded with everlasting infamy resolved that the people who carry on business as formerly on on stamp paper shall be protected through the utmost power of this society malicious men said that the sons of liberty were much concerned that the gentlemen of fortune don't publicly join them for which reason the society formed a committee of correspondence with their liberty boys in the neighboring provinces in february the society did in fact appoint such a committee which sent out letters to all the counties of new york and to all the colonies except georgia proposing the formation of an intercolonial association of the true sons of liberty to which letters many replies were received some of which are still preserved among the papers of the secretary mr john lamb the general sense of these letters was that an intercolonial association and close correspondence were highly necessary in view of the presence in nearly every colony of many secret and inveterate enemies of liberty and of the desirability of keeping a watchful eye over all those who from the nature of their offices vocations or dispositions may be the most likely to introduce the use of stamped paper to the total subversion of the british constitution no doubt the society kept its watchful eye on every unusual activity at all suspicious characters but to what extent it succeeded in putting business in motion again in the usual channels without stamps cannot be said both before and after the society was founded much business was carried on in violation of the law newspapers and pamphlets continued to flourish in the land the inferior courts at least were sooner or later opened in nearly every colony and not infrequently unstamped clearance papers were issued to ship masters willing to take the risk of seizure in london or elsewhere mr john hancock easily persuading himself that there should be no risk shift a cargo of oil with the boston packet in december i'm under no apprehensions he wrote his london agent should there be any difficulty in london as to marshals clearance you will please to represent the circumstances that no stamps could be obtained in which case i think i am to be justified and i'm not liable to a seizure or even run any risk at all as i have taken the step of the law and made application for clearance and can get no other notwithstanding such practices which were frequent enough it was a dull winter with little profit flowing into the coffers of mr hancock with low wages or none at all for worthy artisans and laborers so that it must often have seemed as governor more said morally impossible that the people here can subsist any time under such inconveniences as they have brought on themselves such inconveniences became more irksome as time passed with the result that during the cold and during months of february and march it became every day a more pressing question particularly for the poor to know whether the bad times would end at last in the repeal or the admission of the tyrannical act confronted with this difficult dilemma the faithful sons of liberty were preparing in april to assemble a continental congress as a last resort when rumors began to spread that parliament was on the point of carrying the repeal the project of a congress was accordingly abandoned and everywhere recrimination gave place to rejoicing on april 21 1766 the vigilant boston sons voted that when the rumors should be confirmed they would celebrate the momentous event in a befitting manner would celebrate it under the deepest sense of duty and loyalty to our most gracious sovereign king george and in respect and gratitude to the patriotic ministry mr pit and the glorious majority of both houses of parliament by whose influence under divine providence against the most strenuous opposition a happy repeal of the stamp act so unconstitution as well as grievous to his majesty's good subjects of america is attained whereby our incontestable right of internal taxation remains to us in violent end of chapter three part two chapter four part one aviv of the revolution by carl becker this lever box recording is in the public domain defining the issue a peppercorn in acknowledgement of the right is of more value than millions without it george grendel a perpetual jealousy respecting liberty is absolutely requisite in all three states john dickinson good americans everywhere celebrated the repeal of the stamp act with much festivity and joyful noises in the streets and with genteel entertainments in taverns where innumerable toasts were drunk to liberty and to its english defenders before his house on beacon hill mr john hancock on occasion a generous man erected a platform and placed there a pipe of madera which was brooched for all comers at colonel engersaw's where 28 gentlemen attended to take dinner 15 toasts were drunk and very loyal they were and suited to the occasion upon which occasion we are told mr hancock again treated every person with cheerfulness throughout the land men with literary gifts or instincts delivered themselves a vigorous free verse bounded upon the antithesis of freedom and tyranny and enforcing the universal truth that in the unequal war oppressors fall the hate contempt and endless curse of all in new york on the occasion of the king's birthday an ox was roasted whole in the fields and 20 kegs of beer were open for a great dinner at the king's arms and afterwards through the generosity of the assembly of that province there was erected on the bowling green a mounted statue made of lead but without present intention of being turned into bullets representing his majesty king george the third of ever glorious memory the restore of liberty the joyful americans could not know how little king george aspired to be thought the restore of liberty in reality he was extremely sulky in his silent stubborn way over the repeal of the stamp act and vexed most particularly at the part which he himself had been forced to play in it the idea of a patriot king conceived by lord bolingbroke one time jackabyte exile and instilled into the mind of the young hanoverian monarch by an ambitious mother had little to do with liberty either british or colonial but had much to do with authority the patriot king was to be a king indeed seeking advice of all virtuous men of whatever connections without being bound by any man or faction of men it was not to restore liberty nor yet to destroy it but to destroy factions that the king was ambitious and for this purpose he desired a ministry that would do his bidding without too much question if mr granville did not satisfy his majesty it was not on account of the stamp act in respect to which the king was holy of mr granville's opinion that it was a just law and ought to be enforced in july 1765 when mr granville was dismissed there had indeed as yet been no open resistance in america and if the king had been somewhat annoyed by the high talk of his loyal subjects in virginia he had been annoyed much more by mr granville who was disposed in spite of his outward air of humility and solemn protestations of respect to be very firm with his majesty in the matter of ministerial prerogative reading him from time to time carefully prepared pedantic little curtain lectures on the customs of the constitution and the duties of kings under particular circumstances unable to endure mr granville longer the king turned to mr pit this statesman although extremely domineering in the house was much subdued in the presence of his sovereign and along with many defects had won great virtue in his majesty's eyes which was that he shared the king's desire to destroy the factions the king was accordingly ready to receive the great commoner even though he insisted on bringing the constitution and url temple into the bargain with him to st. james's palace but when it appeared that url temple was opposed to the repeal of the stamp act mr pit declined after all to come to st. james's on any terms even with his beloved constitution whereupon the harassed young king rather than submit again to mr grenville's lectures surrendered himself temporarily to the old line wigs under the lead of the marquis of rockingham in all the negotiations which ended in this unpromising arrangement of the king's business the stamp act had apparently not been once mentioned except that mr grenville upon retiring adventure to say to his majesty is a kind of abbreviated parting homily that if any man ventured to defeat the regulations laid down for the colonies by a slackness in the execution he mr grenville should look upon him as a criminal and the betrayer of his country the marquis of rockingham and his friends had no intention of betraying their country they had perhaps when they were thus accidentally lifted to power no very definite intentions of any sort respecting the stamp act as most alarming reports began to come in from america his majesty's opposition backed by the landed interest and led by mr grenville and the duke of bedford knew its mind much sooner than ministers knew theirs america was an open rebellion they said and so far from doing anything about it ministers were not even prepared four months after disturbances began to lay necessary information before the house under pressure of such talk the marquis of rockingham had to make of his mind it would be odd and contrary to well-established precedent for ministers to adopt a policy already outlined by opposition and in view of the facts that good wig tradition even if somewhat obscured in latter days committed them to some kind of liberalism that the city in the mercantile interest thought mr grenville's measures disastrous to trade and that they were much in need of mr pit's eloquence to carry them through ministers at last in january 1766 declared for the repeal now that it was a question of repealing mr grenville's measures serious attention was given to them and honorable members in the notable debate of 1766 learned much about america and the rights of englishmen which they had not known before lord mansfield the most eminent legal authority in england argued that the stamp act was clearly within the power of parliament while lord camden whose opinion was by no means to be despised state his reputation that the law was unconstitutional mr grenville in his precise way laid it down as axiomatic that since great britain protects america america is therefore bound to yield obedience if not he desired to know when americans were emancipated whereupon mr pit springing up desired to know when they were made slaves the great commoner rejoiced that america had resisted and expressed the belief that three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be made slaves would be very fit instruments to make slaves of all englishmen honorable members were more disposed to listen to mr pit than to vote with him and were doubtless less influenced by his hot eloquence than by the representations of english merchants to the effect that trade was being ruined by mr grenville's measures sir george sevill honorable member for yorkshire spoke the practical mind of businessmen when he wrote to lord rockingham our trade is hurt what the devil have you been doing for our part we don't pretend to understand your politics and american matters but our trade is hurt pray remedy it and a plague of you if you won't this was not so eloquent as mr pit's speech but still very eloquent in its way and more easily followed than mr pit's theory that taxation is no part of the governing or legislative power constitutional arguments evenly balanced pro and con were not certain to change many minds while such brief statements as that of sir george sevill although clearly revealing the opinion of that gentleman did little to enlighten the house on the merits of the question that members might have every opportunity to inform themselves about america the ministers thought it worthwhile to have benjamin franklin a philadelphia printer and friend of the human race brought before the bar of the house to make such statements of fact or opinion as might be desired of him the examination was a long one the questions very much to the point the replies very ready and often more to the point than the questions with much exact information the provincial printer maintained that the colonists having taxed themselves heavily in support of the last war were not well able to pay more taxes and that even if they were abundantly able those sugar duties and the stamp tax were improper measures the stamps in remote districts would frequently require more in postage to obtain than the value of the tax the sugar duties had already greatly diminished the volume of colonial trade while both the duties and the tax having to be paid in silver were draining america of its specie and thus making it impossible for merchants to import from england to the same extent as formally it was well known that at the moment americans were indebted to english merchants to the amount of several million pounds sterling which they were indeed willing as english merchants themselves said but unable to pay necessarily therefore americans were beginning to manufacture their own cloth which they could very well do before their old clothes were worn out they would have new ones of their own making against the stamp act honorable members were reminded there was a special objection to be urged it was thought with good reason to be unconstitutional which would make kids application difficult if not impossible troops might no doubt be sent to enforce it but troops would find no enemy to contend with no men and arms they would find no rebellion in america although they might indeed create one pressed by mr townsen to say whether the colonies might not on the ground of magna carta as well deny the validity of external as internal taxes the doctor was not ready to commit himself on that point it was true many arguments had lately been used in england to show americans that if parliament has no right to tax them internally it has none to tax them externally or to make any other law to bind them in reply to which he could only say that at present they do not reason so but in time they may possibly be convinced by these arguments whether the parliament was truly enlightened and resolved by statistical information and lofty constitutional argument is not certainly known but it is known that the king whose steady mind did not readily change was still opposed to the repeal the fact supposed to be not without influence in unsettling the opinions of some honorable members lord mansfield have discreetly advised his majesty that although it was contrary to the spirit of the constitution to endeavor by his majesty's name to carry questions in parliament yet where the lawful rights of the king and parliament were to be asserted and maintained he thought the making his majesty's opinion in support of those rights to be known was very fit and becoming the distinction was subtle but perhaps not too subtle for a great lawyer it was apparently not too subtle for a patriot king since certain noble lords who could be counted on to know the king's wishes conveyed information to the proper persons that those who founded against their conscience to vote for the repeal would not for that reason be received coldly at saint james's palace in order to preserve the constitution as well as to settle the question of the repeal on its merits lord rockingham and the earl of shellburn obtained an interview with the king at which they pointed out to him the manifest irregularity of such a procedure and in addition express their conviction that on account of the high excitement in the city they to repeal the stamp act would be attended with very serious consequences whether to preserve the constitution or to allow the repeal to be determined on its merits or for some other reason the king at last gave in writing his consent to the minister's measure on february 22 by a vote of 275 to 167 mr conway was given leave to bring in the bill for a total repeal of the stamp act the bill was accordingly brought in passed by both houses and on march 18 assented to by the king in the colonies the repeal was thought to be a victory for true principles of government at least a tacit admission by the mother country that the american interpretation of the constitution was the correct one no englishman denied that the repeal was an american victory and there were some like pit and camden who preferred the constitutional theories of daniel delaney to those of george grenville the most englishman who took the trouble to have any views on such recondite matters having in general poor opinion of provincial logic easily dismissed the whole matter with the convincing phrase of charles townsend that the distinction between internal and external taxes was perfect nonsense the average britain taking it for granted that all the subtle legal aspects of the question have been thoroughly gone into by lord mansfield was content to read mr som jennons a writer a verse and member of the board of trade who in a leisure hour had recently turned his versatile mind to the consideration of colonial rights with the happiest results in 23 very small pages he had disposed of the objections to the taxation of our american colonies in a manner highly satisfactory to himself and doubtless also to the average reading britain who understood constitutional questions best when they were briefly considered and when they were humorously expounded in pamphlets that could be had for six pence having a logical mind mr jennons easily perceived that taxes could be objected to on two grounds the ground of right and the ground of expediency in his opinion the right of parliament to lay taxes on america and the expediency of doing so at the present moment were propositions so clear that any man in order not to bring his intelligence in question needed to apologize for undertaking to defend them mr jennons wished it known that he was not the man to carry owls to athens and that he would never have thought it necessary to prove either the right or the expediency of taxing our american colonies had not many arguments been lately flung out which with insolence equal to their absurdity deny them both with this conciliatory preliminary disclaimer of any lack of intelligence on his own part mr jennons proceeded to point out in his most happy vein how unsubstantial american reasoning really appeared when brushing aside the fogging irrelevancies he once got to the heart of the question the heart of the question was the proposition that there should be no taxation without representation upon which principle it was necessary to observe only that many individuals in england such as copyholders and leaseholders and many communities such as manchester and birmingham were taxed in parliament without being represented there if americans quoted you lock sydney selden and and many other great names to prove that every englishman is still represented in parliament he would only ask why since englishmen are all represented in parliament are not all americans represented in exactly the same way either manchester is not represented or massachusetts is are americans not british subjects are they not englishmen or are they only englishmen when they solicit protection but not englishmen when taxes are required to enable this country to protect them americans said they had assemblies of their own to tax them which was a privilege granted them by charter without which that liberty whichever englishman has a right to is torn from them they are all slaves and all is lost colonial charters were however undoubtedly no more than those of all corporations which empowered them to make bylaws as for liberty the word had so many meanings having within a few years been used as a synonymous term for blasphemy body trees and libel strong beer insider that mr genens could not presume to say what it meant against the expediency of the taxes mr genens found that two objections have been raised that the time was improper and the manner wrong as to the manner the colonies themselves had in a way prescribed it since they had not been able at the request of ministers to suggest any other the time mr genens fought most propitious a point upon which he grew warm and almost serious can anytime be more proper to require some assistant from our from our colonies to preserve to themselves their present safety than when this country is almost undone by procuring it can anytime be more proper to impose some tax upon their trade than when they are unable to rival us in their manufacturers by the encouragement and protection which we have given them can anytime be more proper to oblige them to settle handsome incomes on their governors than when we find them unable to procure a subsistence on any other terms than those of breaking all their instructions and betraying the rights of their sovereign can there be a more proper time to force them to maintain an army at their expense than when that army is necessary for their own protection and we are utterly unable to support it lastly can there be a more proper time for this mother country to leave off feeding out of her own vitals these children whom she has nursed up than when they are arrived at such strength and maturity as to be well able to provide for themselves and ought rather with filial duty to give some assistance to her distresses Americans after all were not the only ones who might claim to have grievance it was upon a lighter note not to end in anti-climax that Mr. Jennings concluded his able pamphlet he had heard it hinted that allowing the colonies representation in parliament would be a simple plan for making taxes legal the impractability of this plan he would not go into since the planet itself had nowhere been seriously pressed but he would upon that offer the following consideration I've lately seen so many specimens of the great powers of speech of which these American gentlemen are possessed that I should be much afraid that the sudden importation of so much eloquence at once would greatly endanger the safety of the government of this country if we can avail ourselves of these taxes on no other condition I shall never look upon it as a measure of frugality being perfectly satisfied that in the end it would be much cheaper for us to pay their army than their orators Mr. Jennings's pamphlet which could be had for six pence was widely read with much appreciation for its capital width and extraordinary common sense more widely read in England that Mr. James Otis's rights of the British colonies asserted and proved or Daniel Delaney's considerations on the propriety of imposing taxes on the British colonies and it therefore did much more than these able pamphlets to clarify English opinion on the rights of parliament and the expediency of taxing America no one could deny that government had yielded in the face of noisy clamor and forcible resistance to yield under the circumstances may have been wise or not but government had not yielded on any ground of right but had on the contrary most expressly affirmed in the declaratory act that the king's majesty by and with the advice of the lord's spiritual and temporal and commons of great Britain in parliament assembled had had and of right ought to have full power and authority to make such laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America subjects of the crown of great Britain in all cases whatsoever government had not even denied the expediency of taxing America the total repeal of the stamp act and the modification of the sugar act having been carried on a consideration of the inexpediency of these particular taxes only taxes not open to the same objection might in future be found and doubtless must be found in as much as the troops were still retained in America and the quartering act continued in force there for new taxes however it would doubtless be necessary to await the formation of a new ministry the formation of a new ministry was not an unusual occurrence in the early years of King George the third no one supposed that Lord Rockingham could hold on many months and as early as July 1766 all London knew that Mr Pitt had been sent for the coming and going of great men in times of ministerial crisis was always a matter of interest but the formation of that ministry of all the factions which the Patriot King had long desired was something out of the ordinary the point of greatest speculation being how many irreconcilables Mr Pitt the Earl of Chatham he was now could manage to get seated about a single table from the point of view of irreconcilability no one was more eligible than Mr Charles Townsend at that moment pay master of the forces a kind of all fall to riba of English politics of whom Horace Walpole could say with every likelihood of being believed that his speech of last Friday made while half drunk was all written in discretion nobody but he could have made it nobody but he would have made it if he could he beat Lord Chatham in language Burke in metaphors Grenville in presumption Rigby in impudence himself and folly and everybody in good humor this gentleman much to his astonishment one day received the following note from Lord Chatham sir you are too great a magnitude not to be in a responsible place I intend to propose you for Chancellor of the Exchequer and must desire to have your answer by nine o'clock tonight Mr Townsend was dismayed as well as astonished his dismay arising from the fact that the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer was worth about two thousand seven hundred pounds which was precisely four thousand three hundred pounds less than he was then receiving his pay master of the forces to be a great magnitude on small pay had its disadvantages and Mr Townsend after remaining home all day in great distress of mind beg Mr Pitt to be allowed to retain the office of pay master which was no sooner granted than he changed his mind and beg Mr Pitt to be allowed to accept the Exchequer place which Mr Pitt at first refused and was only persuaded to grant finally upon the intercession of the Duke of Grafton the day following Mr Townsend accordingly informed the king that he had decided in view of the urgent representations of the Earl of Chatham to accept the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer in his majesty's new ministry no one's supposed least of all himself that this delightful man would have any influence in formulating the policies of the Chatham ministry Lord Chatham's policies were likely to be his own and in the present case so far as America was concerned they were not such as could be readily associated with Mr Townsend's views so far as those views were known or were not inconsistent for dealing with America the Earl of Shelburne because of his sympathetic understanding of colonial matters have been brought into the ministry to formulate a comprehensive and conciliatory plan as for the revenue always the least part of Lord Chatham's difficulties as it was the chief of Mr Grenville's it was thought that the possessions of the East India Company have taken over by the government but bring into the treasury some's quite sufficient to pay the debt as well as to relieve the people in England and America at least of those heavy taxes which Mr Grenville and his party had thought necessarily involved in the extension of empire it was a curious chapter of accidents that brought all these well lay plans to not scarcely was the ministry formed when the Earl of Chatham incapacitated by the gout retired into a seclusion that soon became impenetrable and even before this resplendent orb was entirely set and while the western horizon was in a blaze with his descending glory on the opposite quarter of the heavens arose another luminary and for his hour it became Lord of the Ascendant this luminary was Mr Charles Townsend Mr Townsend was the delight and ornament of the house as Edmund Burke said never was a man in any country of more pointed and finished with or where his passions were not concerned of a more refined exquisite and penetrating judgment never a man to excel him in luminous explanation and display of his subject nor ever one last he's or better able to conform himself exactly to the temper of the house which he seemed to guide because he was always sure to follow it in 1765 Mr Townsend had voted for the stamp act but in 1766 when the stamp act began to be no favor he voted for the repeal and would have spoken for it to event illness had not prevented him and now in 1767 Mr Townsend was Chancellor of the Exchequer and as such responsible for the revenue a man without any of that temperamental obstinacy which persists in opinions once formed and without any fixed opinions to persist in but quite disposed according to habit to hit the house just between wind and water and to win its applause by speaking for the majority or by haranguing inimitably on both sides when the majority was somewhat uncertain In January 1767 when Lord Shatom was absent and the majority was very uncertain Mr Grenville took occasion in the debate upon the extraordinary's for the army in England and America to move that America like Ireland should support its own establishment the opportunity was one which Mr Townsend could not let pass much to the astonishment of everyone and most of all to that of his colleagues in the ministry he supported Mr Grenville's resolution declaring himself now in favor of the stamp act which he had voted to repeal treating Lord Shatom's distinction between internal and external taxation as contemptuously as Mr Grenville have done and pledging himself able if necessary to find a revenue in America nearly adequate to the proposed project the Earl of Shelburne in great distress of mind at once wrote to Lord Shatom relating the strange if character is the conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and declaring himself entirely ignorant of the intentions of his colleagues it was indeed an anomalous situation of Lord Shatom's policies were still to be considered those of the ministry Mr Townsend might be said to be an opposition a circumstance which made many people think Lord Shatom ill at St. James's only Lord Shatom was not ill at St. James's he was most likely very well at St. James's being unable to appear there thus leaving the divided ministry amenable to the king's management or helpless before a factious opposition the opportunity of the opposition came when that Chancellor of the Exchequer in February proposed to continue the land tax at four shillings for one year or more after which time he thought it might be reduced to three shillings in view of additional revenues to be obtained from the East India Company but opposition saw no reason why in view of the revenue which Mr Townsend had pledged himself to find in America a shilling might not be taken from the land at once a proposal which Mr Dawes well moved should be done and which was accordingly voted through the influence of Mr Grenville and the Duke of Bedford who had formally carried the stamp act aided by the Rockingham wigs who had formally repealed it if Lord Shatom was ill at St. James's this was a proper time to resign it was doubtless a proper time to resign in any case but Lord Shatom did not resign in March he came to London endeavor to replace Mr Townsend by Lord North which he failed to do and then retired to Bath to be seen no more leaving Mr Townsend more than ever master of the rebels Mr Townsend did not resign either but continued in office quite undisturbed by the fact that a cardinal measure of the ministry had been decisively voted down Mr Townsend reasoned that if opposition would not support the ministry all difficulties would be straightened down by the ministry supporting the opposition this was the more reasonable since opposition had perhaps been right after all so far as the colonies were concerned late reports from that quarter seemed to indicate that the repeal of the stamp act far from satisfying the Americans had only confirmed that um rages people in a spirit licentiousness which was precisely what opposition had predicted as the sure result of any weak concession the new york assembly it now appeared refused to make provision for the troops according to the terms of the quartering act new york merchants were petitioning for a further modification of the trade acts the precious Bostonians wrangling refined doctrinaire points with governor Bernard were making interminable difficulties about compensating the sufferers from the stamp act riots if lurch atom in february 1767 could go so far as to say that the colonies had drunk deep of the bane for cup of infatuation Mr Townsend having voted for the stamp act and for its repeal might well think in May that the time was ripe for a return to rigorous measures on may 13 in a speech which charmed the house Mr Townsend opened his plan for settling the colonial question the growing spirit of insubordination which must be patent to all he thought could be most effectively checked by making an example of new york where defiance was at present most open for which purpose it was proposed that the meetings of the assembly of that province be totally suspended until it should have complied with the terms of the mutiny act as one chief source of power and colonial assemblies which contributed greatly to make them insubordinate was the dependence of executive officials upon them for salaries Mr Townsend now renewed the proposal which he formally brought forward in 1763 to create an independent civil list for the payment of governors and judges from england the revenue for such a civil list would naturally be raised in america Mr Townsend would not however venture to renew the stamp act which had been so opposed on the ground of its being an internal tax he was free to say that the distinction between internal and external taxes was perfect nonsense but since the logical americans thought otherwise he would concede the point and would accordingly humor them by laying only external duties which he thought might well be on various kinds of glass and paper on red and white lead and upon teas the duties to be collected in colonial ports upon the importation of these commodities from england it was estimated that the duties might altogether make about 40 000 pounds if the collection were properly attended to and in order that the collection might be properly attended to and for the more efficient administration of the american customs in general Mr Townsend further recommended that a board of customs commissioners be created and established in massachusetts bay with slight opposition all these recommendations were enacted into law and the commissioners of the customs shortly afterward appointed by the king arrived in boston in november 1767 end of chapter four part one chapter four part two of eve of the revolution by carl becker this libra vox recording is in the public domain at boston the commissioners found much to be done in the way of collecting the customs particularly in the matter of madera wines madera wines were much drunk in the old bay colony being commonly imported directly from the islands without too much attention to the duty of seven pounds per ton lawfully required in that case mr john hancock a popular boston merchant did a thriving business in this way and his sloop liberty in the ordinary course of trade carrying six pipes of good sailboat madera for the coffee house retailers four pipes of the very best for his own table and two pipes more of the best for the treasurer of the province entered the harbor on may 9 1768 in the evening mr thomas kirk tide waiter acting the commissioners boarded the sloop where he found the captain nat bernard and also by some chance another of mr hancock skippers young james marshal together with half a dozen of his friends they sat with punch served by the captain all round until nine o'clock when young james marshal casually asked if a few casks might not as well be set on shore that evening mr kirk replied that it could not be done with his leave where apony found himself hoved down into the cabin and confined there for three hours from which point of disadvantage he could distinctly hear overhead a noise of many people at work a hoisting out of goods in due time mr kirk was released having suffered no injury except perhaps a little in his official character next day mr hancock's cargo was duly entered no pipes of madera listed and to all appearance the only serious aspect of the affair was that young james marshal died before morning it was thought from overexertion and excitement very likely few people in boston knew anything about this interesting episode and the month later much excitement was accordingly raised by the news that mr hancock's sloop liberty had been ordered seized for non-payment of customs a crowd watched the ship towed for a safekeeping under the guns of the romney in the harbor when the commissioners who had come down to see the thing done left the wharf they were roughly handled by the incensed people and in the evening windows of some of their houses were broken and a boat belonging to a collector was hauled on shore and burnt on the common governor benard at last informed the commissioners that he could not protect them in boston whereupon they retired with their families to the romney and later to castle william there they continued under difficulties the work of systematizing the american customs and not without success in as much as the income from the duties during the years from 1768 to 1774 averaged about 30 000 pounds sterling at an annual cost of the revenue of not more than 13 000 pounds this saving was nevertheless not affected without the establishment at boston on the recommendation of the commissioners of two regiments of the line which arrived september 28 1768 and were landed under the guns of eight men of war without opposition the cost of maintaining the two regiments in boston was doubtless not included in the 13 000 pounds charged to the revenue as the annual expense of collecting 30 000 pounds of customs in spite of the two regiments of the line with artillery boston was not quiet in this year 1768 the soldiers acted decently enough no doubt but their manners were very british and their coats were red and their simple presence conveying every day the suggestion of compulsion was an intolerable grievance every small matter was magnified the people says hutchinson had been used to answer to the call of the town watch in the night yet they did not like to answer to the frequent calls of the sentinels posted at the barracks and either a refusal to answer or an answer accompanied with irritating language endangered the peace of the town on sundays especially the boston mind found something irreverent something yet the very least irrelevant in the presence of the bright colored and highly secular coats while the noise of fife and drum so disturbing to the sabbath calm call forth from the selectmen a respectful petition to the general requesting him to dispense with the band these were but slight matters but as time passed little grievances accumulated on both sides until the relation between the people and the soldiers was one of settled hostility and at last after two years the tense situation culminated in the famous boston massacre on the evening of march 5 1770 there was an alarm of fire false as it turned out which brought many people into the streets especially boys whom one may easily imagine catching up as they ran handfuls of damp snow to make snowballs for snow balls there could be no better target than red coated sentinels standing erect and motionless at the post of duty and it chants that one of these individuals stationed before the custom's house door was pelted with the close packed missiles being several times struck he called for aid the guard turned out and a crowd gathered one of the soldiers was presently knocked down another was hit by a club and at last six or seven shots were fired with or without orders the result of which was four citizens lying dead on the snow covered streets of boston the boston massacre was not as serious as the massacre of saint barthelomy or the sicilian vespers but has served to raise passion to a white heat in the little provincial town on the next day there was assembled under the skillful leadership of samuel adams a great town meeting which demanded in no uncertain terms the removal of the troops from boston under the circumstances six hundred british soldiers would have fared badly in boston and in order to prevent further bloodshed acting governor hutchinson finally gave the order within a fortnight the two small regiments retired to castle william seven months later captain preston and other soldiers implicated in the riot were tried before a boston jury ably defended by john adams and joe sya quincy they were all acquitted on the evidence except two who were convicted and lightly punished for manslaughter as it happened the boston massacre occurred on the fifth of march 1770 which was the very day that lord north rose in the house of commons to propose the partial repeal of the towns and duties this outcome was not unconnected with events that had occurred in america during the 18 months since the landing of the troops in boston in september 1768 in 1768 john adams could not have foretold the boston massacre or have foreseen that he would himself incur popular displeasure for having defended the soldiers but he could even at that early date divine the motives of the british government in sending the troops to boston to his mind the very appearance of the troops in boston was a strong proof that the determination of great britain to subjugate us was too deep and inveterate to be altered all the measures of ministry seemed indeed to confirm that view mr townsons condescension in accepting the colonial distinction between internal and external taxes was clearly only a subtle maneuver designed to conceal an attack upon liberty far more dangerous than the former attempts of mr grenville after all mr townson was probably right in thinking the distinction of no importance the main point being whether as lord chatham had said the parliament could buy any kind of taxes take money out of their pockets without their consent duties on glass and tea certainly would take money out of their pockets without their consent and therefore it must be true that taxes could be rightly laid only by colonial assemblies in which alone americans could be represented but of what value was it to preserve the abstract right of taxation by colonial assemblies if meanwhile the assemblies themselves might by actor parliament be abolished and had not the new york assembly been suspended by active parliament and were not the new duties to be used to pay governors and judges thus by subtle indirection undermining the very basis of legislative independence and now in the year 1768 the massachusetts assembly having sent a circular letter to the other colonies requesting concerted action in defense of their liberties was directed by lord hillsboro speaking in his majesty's name to rescind the resolution which gave birth to the circular letter from the speaker and to declare their disapprobation of and dissent to that rash and hasty proceeding clearly it was no mere question of taxation but the larger question of legislative independence that now confronted americans a more skillful dialectic was required to defend american rights against the towns and duties than against the stamp act it was a somewhat stubborn fact that parliament had for more than a hundred years past laws effectively regulating colonial trade and for regulating trade had imposed duties some of which had brought into the exchequer a certain revenue americans wishing to be thought logical as well as loyal could not well say at this late date that parliament had no right to lay duties in regulation of trade must they then submit to the towns and duties or was it possible to draw a line making a distinction rather more subtle than the old one between internal and external taxes between duties for regulation and duties for revenue this letter feat was undertaken by mr john dickinson of pennsylvania anonymously under the guise of a simple but intelligent and virtuous farmer whose arcadian existence had confirmed in him an instinctive love of liberty and had supplied him with a leisure to meditate at large upon human welfare and the excellent british constitution mr dickinson readily granted america to be dependent upon great britain as much dependent upon great britain as one perfectly free people can be on another but it appeared axiomatic to the unsophisticated mind of a simple farmer that no people could be free if taxed without its consent and that parliament had accordingly no right to lay any taxes upon the colonies from which it followed that the sole question in respect to duties late on trade was whether they were intended for revenue or for regulation intention in such matters was of primary importance since all duties were likely to be regulated to some extent that might be objective that it will be difficult for any persons but the makers of the laws to determine which of them are made for regulation of trade and which for raising a revenue this was true enough but at present of academic importance only in as much as the makers of the sugar act the stamp act in the towns and duties had conveniently and very clearly proclaimed their intention to be the raising of a revenue yet this question academic now might soon become extremely practical the makers of laws might not always express their intentions so explicitly they might with intention to raise a revenue pass acts professing to be for regulation only and therefore since names will not change the nature of things americans ought firmly to believe that unless the most watchful attention be exerted a new servitude may be slipped upon us under the sanction of usual and respectable terms in such case the intention should be inferred from the nature of the act and the farmer for his parts sincerely hope that his countrymen would never to their latest existence want understanding sufficient to discover the intentions of those who rule over them mr. Dickinson's farmers letters were widely read and highly commended the argument subtle but clear deriving the nature of an act from the intention of its makers and the intention of its makers from the nature of the act contributed more than any other exposition to convince americans that they had the same right that all states have of judging when their privileges are invaded as much dependent on great britain as one perfectly free people can be on another the farmer said englishmen might be excused for desiring a more precise delimitation of parliamentary jurisdiction that then could be found in this phrase as well as for asking what clear legal ground there was for making any delimitation at all to the first point mr. Dickinson said in effect that parliament had not the right to tax the colonies and that it had not the right to abolish their assemblies through which they alone could tax themselves the second point mr. Dickinson did not clearly answer although it was undoubtedly most fundamental to this point mr. Samuel Adams had given much thought and in letters which he drafted for the massachusetts assembly in the famous circular letter particularly and in the letter of january 12 1769 sent to the assembly's agent in england mr. Dennis DeBurt mr. Adams formulated a theory designed to show that the colonies were subordinate but not subject to the british parliament the delimitation of colonial and parliamentary jurisdictions mr. Adams achieved by subordinating all legislative authority to an authority higher than any positive law an authority deriving its sanction from the fixed and universal law of nature this higher authority which no legislature could overleap without destroying its own foundation was the british constitution mr. Adams spoke of the british constitution with immense confidence as something singularly definite and well known the provisions of which were clearly ascertainable which singular effect outlets came from the fact that he thought of it not indeed as something written down on paper and deposited in archives of state but as a series of propositions which as they were saying in france were indelibly written in the hearts of all men the british constitution he said like the constitution of every free state is fixed having its foundation not in positive law which would indeed give parliament an ultimate and therefore a despotic authority but in the law of god and nature there were in the british empire many legislatures all deriving their authority from and all finding their limitations in the constitution parliament had certainly a supreme or superintending legislative authority in the empire as the colonial assemblies had a subordinate in the sense of a local legislative authority but neither the parliament nor any colonial assembly could overleap the constitution without destroying its own foundation and therefore since the constitution is founded in the law of god and nature and since it is an essential natural right that a man shall quietly enjoy and have the sole disposal of his property the americans must enjoy this right equally with englishmen and parliament must be bound to respect this right in the colonies as well as in england from which it bothered irresistibly that the consent of the colonies to any taxation must be sought exclusively in their own assemblies it being manifestly impossible for that consent to be constitutionally had in parliament it was commonly thought in america that mr adams although not a judge had a singular gift for constitutional interpretation far-sighted men could nevertheless believe that a powerful party in england inspired by inveterate hatred of america and irretrievably bent upon a ruin would pronounce all his careful distinctions ridiculous and would still reply to every argument by the mere assertion as a fact behind which one could not go that parliament had always had and must therefore still have full power to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever if britain would not budge from this position americans would soon be confronted with the alternative of admitting parliament to have full power or denying it to have any with that sharp set alternative in prospect it would be well to keep in mind the fact that arguments lost carrying power in proportion to their subtlety and in the opinion of so good a judge as benjamin franklin the reasoning of mr adams and mr dickinson was perhaps not free from this grave disadvantage i'm not yet master he was free to confess of the idea these writers have of the relation between britain and our colonies i know not what the boston people mean by the subordination they acknowledge in their assembly to parliament while they deny its power to make laws for them nor what bounds the farmer sets to the power he acknowledges in parliament to regulate the trade of the colonies it being difficult to draw lines between duties for regulation and those for revenue and if the parliament is to be the judge it seems to me that establishing such a principle of distinction will amount to little the more i have thought and read on the subject the more i find myself confirmed in opinion that no middle ground can be well maintained i mean not clearly with intelligible arguments something might be made of either of the extremes that parliament has power to make all laws for us or that it has a power to make no laws for us and i think the arguments for the latter more numerous and weighty than those for the former the good doctor had apparently read and thought a great deal about the matter since the day when mr grenville had called him in to learn if there were good objections to be urged against the stamp act practical men were meanwhile willing to allow the argument to take whatever direction the exigencies of the situation might require being ready to believe that mr dickinson counseled well and that mr franklin counseled well being nevertheless firmly convinced from past experience that an englishman's ability to see reason was never great except when his pocket was touched practical men were therefore generally of the opinion that they could best demonstrate their rights by exhibiting their power this happily they could do by bringing pressure to bear upon english merchants by taking money out of their pockets without their consent to be sure but in a manner strictly legal by means of non importation agreements voluntarily entered into as early as october 1767 the boston merchants entered into such an agreement which was however not very drastic and proved to be of no effect as it was at first unsupported by the merchants in any other colony in april 1768 the merchants of new york seeing the necessity of concerted action agreed not to import any goods save a very few enumerated articles which shall be shipped from great britain after the first of october next provided boston and philadelphia adopt similar measures by the first of june philadelphia merchants said they were not opposed to the principle of non importation but greatly feared the new york plan would serve to create a monopoly by enabling men of means to lay in a large stock of goods before the agreement went into effect this was very true but the objection if it was an objection proved not to be an insurmountable one before the year was out in the late summer for the most part the merchants in all the commercial towns had subscribed to agreements differing somewhat in detail of which the substance was that they would neither import from great britain any commodities nor buy or sell any which might inadvertently find their way in until the duties imposed by the towns and act should have been repealed the merchants agreements were for whatever reason much better observed in some places than in others imports from great britain to new york fell during the year 1769 from about 482 000 pounds to about 74 000 pounds imports into new england and into pennsylvania declined a little more than one half whereas in the southern colonies there was no decline at all but on the contrary an increase slight in the case of mariland and virginia rather marked in the carolinas in spite of these defections the experiment was not without effect upon english merchants english merchants but little interested in the decline or increase of trade to particular colonies were chiefly aware that the total exportation to america was nearly a million pounds less in 1769 than in 1768 understanding little about colonial rights but knowing only as in 1766 that their trade was hurt they accordingly applied once more to parliament for relief the commerce with america which was so essential to afford employment and subsistence to the manufacturers of these kingdoms to augment the public revenue to serve as a nursery for seaman and to increase our navigation and maritime strength this commerce said the merchants and traders of the city of london trading to america is at present in an alarming state of suspension and the merchants and traders of this city of london therefore humbly prayed parliament to repeal the duties which were the occasion of their inconveniences the petition of the london merchants came before the house in march 5 1770 that being the day fixed by lord north for proposing on behalf of the ministry certain measures for america no one said the first minister could be more free than himself to recognize the importance of american trade or more disposed to meet the wishes of the london merchants as far as possible the inconveniences under which that trade now labored were manifest but he could not think with the petitioners that these inconveniences arose from the nature of the duty so much as through the medium of the dissatisfaction of the americans and those combinations and associations of which we have heard associations and combinations which had been called in and addressed to the house unwarrantable but which he for his part would go so far as to call illegal these illegal combinations in america were obviously what caused the inconveniences of which the merchants complained to the pressure of illegal combinations alone parliament ought never to yield and ministers wished it clearly understood that if they were about to propose a repeal of some of the duties they were not led to take this step from any consideration of the disturbances in the colonies on the contrary the duties which it was now proposed to repeal the duties on lead glass and paper were to be repealed strictly on the ground that they ought never to have been laid because duties on british manufacturers were contrary to true commercial principles last year when ministers had expressed in a letter of lord hillsborough to the governors their intention to repeal these duties some members have been in favor of repealing all the duties and some were still in favor of doing so as to that the first minister could only say that he had not formally been opposed to it and would not now be opposed to it had the americans in response to the earl of hillsborough's letter exhibited any disposition to cease their illegal disturbances or renounce their combinations but the fact was that conditions in america had grown steadily worse since the earl of hillsborough's letter and never had been so bad as now in view of which fact ministers could not but think it wise to maintain some tax as a matter of principle purely they would therefore recommend that the tax on t no burden certainly on anyone be continued as a concrete application of the right of parliament to tax the colonies in so far as they were designed to bring pressure to bear upon the mother country the merchants agreements were clearly not without a measure of success having helped perhaps to bring parliament to the point of repealing the duties on lead glass and paper as well as to bring ministers to the point of keeping the duty on t americans generally were doubtless well pleased with this effect but not all americans were able to regard the experiment in non importation with unqualified approval in other respects non importation by diminishing the quantity and increasing the price of commodities involved a certain amount of personal sacrifice this sacrifice however felt chiefly on the consumers the non importation not being under certain circumstances altogether without advantage to merchants who faithfully observed their pledges as well as to those who observed them only occasionally so long as their warehouses well stocked in advance contained anything that could be sold at a higher price than formally non importation was no bad thing even for those merchants who observed the agreement for those who did not observe the agreement as well as for those engaged in the smuggling trade from Holland it was no bad thing at any time and it promised to become an increasingly excellent thing in exact proportion to the exhaustion of the fair trader stock and the consequent advance in prices as time passed therefore the fair trader became aware that the non importation experiment practically considered was open to certain objections whereas the unfair trader was more in favor of the experiment the longer it endured being every day more convinced that the non importation agreement ought to be continued and strictly adhered to as essential to the maintenance of american liberties the practical defects of non importation were likely to be understood by those who could ever understand them in proportion to the decay of business and in the spring of 1770 they were nowhere better understood than in new york where the decay of business was most marked this decrease was greatest in new york so the merchants maintained because that city had been most faithful in observing the agreement importation having there fallen from 482 000 pounds 274 000 pounds during the year it is possible however that the decay of business in new york was due in part and perhaps primarily to the retirement in november 1768 of the last issues of the old bills of credit according to the terms of the paper currency act passed by parliament during mr. grendel's administration as a result of this retirement of all the paper money in the province money of any sort was exceedingly scarce during the years 1769 and 1770 lion dollars were rarely seen and the quantity of spanish silver brought into the colony through the trade with the foreign islands formally considerable but now greatly diminished by the stricter enforcement of the towns and trade acts was hardly sufficient for local exchange alone to say nothing of settling heavy balances in london although fortunately perhaps there were in the year 1769 no heavy london balances to be settled on account of the faithful observance of the non importation agreement by the merchants the lack of money was therefore doubtless a chief cause of the great decay of business in new york and some there were who maintained that the faithful observance of the non importation agreement by the merchants was due to the decay of trade rather than the decay of trade being due to the faithful observance of the non importation agreement whatever the true explanation of this academic point might be it was an undoubted fact that business was more nearly at a standstill in new york than elsewhere accordingly in the spring of 1770 when money was rarely to be seen and debtors were selling their property at one half or one third of its former value in order to discharge obligations long overdue the fair trading merchants of new york were not disposed to continue an experiment of which as they said they had borne the chief burden to the advantage of others and to their own impending ruin zealous sons of liberty such as alexander mcdukel and john land popular leaders of the inhabitants of the city were on the other hand determined that the non importation agreement should be maintained unimpaired the hard times they said were due chiefly to the monopoly prices exacted by the wealthy merchants who were not ruined at all who had on the contrary made a good thing out of the non importation as long as they had anything to sell and his patriotism god saved the mark had now suddenly grown lukewarm only because they had disposed of all their goods including old mothy clothes that had been rotting in the shops for years these aspersions the merchants knew how to ignore their determination not to continue the non importation was nevertheless sufficiently indicated in connection with the annual celebration in march of the repeal of the stamp act on this occasion the merchants refused to meet as formally with the sons of liberty but made provision for a dinner of their own at another place where all the friends of liberty and trade were invited to be present both dinners were well attended and at both the repeal of the stamp act was celebrated with patriotic enthusiasm the main difference being that whereas the sons of liberty drank a toast to mr mcdukel and to a continuance of the non importation agreement until the revenue acts are repealed the friends of liberty and trade ignored mr mcdukel and drank to trade and navigation and a speedy removal of their embarrassments in the determination not to continue the old agreement the friends of liberty and trade were meanwhile strongly confirmed when it was learned that britain was willing on her part to make concessions by the middle of may it was known that the towns and duties except the duty on t had been repealed and in june it was learned that parliament had it last after many representations from the assembly passed a special act permitting new york to issue 120 000 pounds and bills of credit receivable at the treasury it was thought that concession on the part of great britain ought injustice to meet with concession on the part of america accordingly on the ground that other towns and boston in particular were more active in resolving what they ought to do than in doing what they had resolved and on the ground that the present non importation agreement no longer served any other purpose than tying the hands of honest men to let robes smugglers and men of no character plunder their country the new york merchants on july 9 1770 resolved that for the future they would import from great britain all kinds of commodities except such as might be subject to duties imposed by parliament the new york merchants were on every hand loudly denounced for having betrayed the cause of liberty but before the year was out the old agreement was everywhere set aside yet everywhere as at new york the merchants found themselves not to import any british teas the duty on british teas was slight americans might have paid the duty without increasing the price of their much prized luxury ministers might have collected the same duty in england to the advantage of the exchequer that britain should have insisted on this peppercorn in acknowledgement of her right that america should have refused it in vindication of her liberty may be taken as a high tribute from two eminently practical peoples to the power of abstract ideas end of chapter four part two