[Sidenote: His speech in the Parson's Cause, 1763.]
105. The Parson's Cause, 1763.--The next important case arose in Virginia and came about in this way. The Virginians made a law regulating the salaries of clergymen in the colony. The king vetoed the law. The Virginians paid no heed to the veto. The clergy men appealed to the courts and the case of one of them was selected for trial. Patrick Henry, a prosperous young lawyer, stated the opinions of the Virginians in a speech which made his reputation. The king, he said, had no right to veto a Virginia law that was for the good of the people. To do so was an act of tyranny, and the people owed no obedience to a tyrant. The case was decided for the clergyman. For the law was clearly on his side.
But the jurymen agreed with Henry. They gave the clergyman only one farthing damages, and no more clergymen brought cases into the court.
The king's veto was openly disobeyed.
[Sidenote: Proclamation of 1763. McMaster, 110.]
106. The King's Proclamation of 1763.--In the same year that the Parson's Cause was decided the king issued a proclamation which greatly lessened the rights of Virginia and several other colonies to western lands. Some of the old charter lines, as those of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, and the Carolinas had extended to the Pacific Ocean. By the treaty of 1763 (p. 69) the king, for himself and his subjects, abandoned all claim to lands west of Mississippi River. Now in the Proclamation of 1763 he forbade the colonial governors to grant any lands west of the Alleghany Mountains. The western limit of Virginia and the Carolinas was fixed. Their pioneers could not pass the mountains and settle in the fertile valleys of the Ohio and its branches.
CHAPTER 12
TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION
[Sidenote: George III.]
[Sidenote: George Grenville.]
[Sidenote: The British Parliament.]
107. George III and George Grenville.--George III became king in 1760. He was a narrow, stupid, well-meaning, ignorant young man of twenty-one. He soon found in George Grenville a narrow, dull, well-meaning lawyer, a man who would do what he was told. So George Grenville became the head of the government. To him the law was the law.
If he wished to do a thing and could find the law for it, he asked for nothing more. His military advisers told him that an army must be kept in America for years. It was Grenville's business to find the money to support this army. Great Britain was burdened with a national debt. The army was to be maintained, partly, at least, for the protection of the colonists. Why should they not pay a part of the cost of maintaining it? Parliament was the supreme power in the British Empire. It controlled the king, the church, the army, and the navy. Surely a Parliament that had all this power could tax the colonists. At all events, Grenville thought it could, and Parliament passed the Stamp Act to tax them.
[Sidenote: Taxation and representation.]
[Sidenote: Henry's resolutions, 1765. Higginson, 161-164; McMaster, 112-114.]
108. Henry's Resolutions, 1765.--The colonists, however, with one voice, declared that Parliament had no power to tax them. Taxes, they said, could be voted only by themselves or their representatives. They were represented in their own colonial assemblies, and nowhere else.
Patrick Henry was now a member of the Virginia assembly. He had just been elected for the first time. But as none of the older members of the assembly proposed any action, Henry tore a leaf from an old law-book and wrote on it a set of resolutions. These he presented in a burning speech, upholding the rights of the Virginians. He said that to tax them by act of Parliament was tyranny. "Caesar and Tarquin had each his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell, and George III"--"Treason, treason," shouted the speaker. "May profit by their example," slowly Henry went on. "If that be treason, make the most of it." The resolutions were voted. In them the Virginians declared that they were not subject to Acts of Parliament laying taxes or interfering in the internal affairs of Virginia.
[Illustration: HENRY'S FIRST AND LAST RESOLUTIONS (FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL DRAFT)]
[Sidenote: Opposition to the Stamp Act, 1765. Higginson, 164-165; McMaster, 116.]
109. Stamp Act Riots, 1765.--Until the summer of 1765 the colonists contented themselves with passing resolutions. There was little else that they could do. They could not refuse to obey the law because it would not go into effect until November. They could not mob the stamp distributers because no one knew their names. In August the names of the stamp distributers were published. Now at last it was possible to do something besides passing resolutions. In every colony the people visited the stamp officers and told them to resign. If they refused, they were mobbed until they resigned. In Boston the rioters were especially active. They detested Thomas Hutchinson. He was lieutenant-governor and chief justice and had been active in enforcing the navigation acts. The rioters attacked his house. They broke his furniture, destroyed his clothing, and made a bonfire of his books and papers.
[Sidenote: Colonial congresses.]
[Sidenote: Albany Congress, 1754.]
[Sidenote: Stamp Act Congress, 1765.]
110. The Stamp Act Congress, 1765.--Colonial congresses were no new thing. There had been many meetings of governors and delegates from colonial assemblies. The most important of the early congresses was the Albany Congress of 1754. It was important because it proposed a plan of union. The plan was drawn up by Benjamin Franklin. But neither the king nor the colonists liked it, and it was not adopted. All these earlier congresses had been summoned by the king's officers to arrange expeditions against the French or to make treaties with the Indians. The Stamp Act Congress was summoned by the colonists to protest against the doings of king and Parliament.
[Illustration: PATRICK HENRY "I am not a Virginian, but an American."]
[Sidenote: Declaration of the Rights and Grievances of the Colonists, 1765. McMaster, 115.]
111. Work of the Stamp Act Congress.--Delegates from nine colonies met at New York in October, 1765. They drew up a "Declaration of the Rights and Grievances of the Colonists." In this paper they declared that the colonists, as subjects of the British king, had the same rights as British subjects living in Britain, and were free from taxes except those to which they had given their consent. They claimed for themselves the right of trial by jury--which might be denied under the Stamp Act.
But the most important thing about the congress was the fact that nine colonies had put aside their local jealousies and had joined in holding it.
[Sidenote: Benjamin Franklin.]
[Sidenote: Examined by the House of Commons.]
112. Franklin's Examination.--Born in Boston, Benjamin Franklin ran away from home and settled at Philadelphia. By great exertion and wonderful shrewdness he rose from poverty to be one of the most important men in the city and colony. He was a printer, a newspaper editor, a writer, and a student of science. With kite and string he drew down the lightning from the clouds and showed that lightning was a discharge of electricity. He was now in London as agent for Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. His scientific and literary reputation gave him great influence. He was examined at the bar of the House of Commons. Many questions and answers were arranged beforehand between Franklin and his friends in the House. But many questions were answered on the spur of the moment. Before the passage of the Stamp Act the feeling of the colonists toward Britain had been "the best in the world." So Franklin declared. But now, he said, it was greatly altered. Still an army sent to America would find no rebellion there. It might, indeed, make one. In conclusion, he said the repeal of the act would not make the colonists any more willing to pay taxes.
[Sidenote: Fall of Grenville.]
[Sidenote: Repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766.]
[Sidenote: The Declaratory Act, 1766.]
113. Repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766.--It chanced that at this moment George III and George Grenville fell out. The king dismissed the minister, and gave the Marquis of Rockingham the headship of a new set of ministers. Now Rockingham and his friends needed aid from somebody to g
ive them the strength to outvote Grenville and the Tories. So when the question of what should be done about the Stamp Act came up, they listened most attentively to what Mr. Pitt had to say. That great man said that the Stamp Act should be repealed wholly and at once. At the same time another law should be passed declaring that Parliament had power to legislate for the colonies in all cases whatsoever. The Rockinghams at once did as Mr. Pitt suggested. The Stamp Act was repealed. The Declaratory Act was passed. In the colonies Pitt was praised as a deliverer. Statues of him were placed in the streets, pictures of him were hung in public halls. But, in reality, the passage of the Declaratory Act was the beginning of more trouble.
[Sidenote: The Chatham Ministry.]
[Sidenote: The Townshend Acts, 1767. McMaster, 117-118.]
114. The Townshend Acts, 1767.--The Rockingham ministers did what Mr. Pitt advised them to do. He then turned them out and made a ministry of his own. He was now Earl of Chatham, and his ministry was the Chatham Ministry. The most active of the Chatham ministers was Charles Townshend. He had the management of the finances and found them very hard to manage. So he hit upon a scheme of laying duties on wine, oil, glass, lead, painter's colors, and tea imported into the colonies. Mr.
Pitt had said that Parliament could regulate colonial trade. The best way to regulate trade was to tax it. At the same time that Townshend brought in this bill, he brought in others to reorganize the colonial customs service and make it possible to collect the duties. He even provided that offences against the revenue laws should be tried by judges appointed directly by the king, without being submitted to a jury of any kind.
[Sidenote: The Sugar Act.]
[Sidenote: Enforcement of the Navigation Acts.]
115. Colonial Opposition, 1768.--Many years before this, Parliament had made a law taxing all sugar brought into the continental colonies, except sugar that had been made in the British West Indies. Had this law been carried out, the trade of Massachusetts and other New England colonies would have been ruined. But the law was not enforced. No one tried to enforce it, except during the few months of vigor at the time of the arguments about writs of assistance. As the taxes were not collected, no one cared whether they were legal or not. Now it was plain that this tax and the Townshend duties were to be collected. The Massachusetts House of Representatives drew up a circular letter to the other colonial assemblies asking them to join in opposing the new taxes.
The British government ordered the House to recall the letter. It refused and was dissolved. The other colonial assemblies were directed to take no notice of the circular letter. They replied at the first possible moment and were dissolved.
[Sidenote: Seizure of the sloop Liberty, 1768.]
116. The New Customs Officers at Boston, 1768.--The chief office of the new customs organization was fixed at Boston. Soon John Hancock's sloop, Liberty, sailed into the harbor with a cargo of Madeira wine.
As Hancock had no idea of paying the duty, the customs officers seized the sloop and towed her under the guns of a warship which was in the harbor. Crowds of people now collected. They could not recapture the Liberty. They seized one of the war-ship's boats, carried it to the Common, and had a famous bonfire. All this confusion frightened the chief customs officers. They fled to the castle in the harbor and wrote to the government for soldiers to protect them.
[Illustration: ONE OF JOHN HANCOCK'S BILL-HEADS.]
[Sidenote: Virginia Resolves, 1769.]
117. The Virginia Resolves of 1769.--Parliament now asked the king to have colonists, accused of certain crimes, brought to England for trial. This aroused the Virginians. They passed a set of resolutions, known as the Virginia Resolves of 1769. These resolves asserted: (1) that the colonists only had the right to tax the colonists; (2) that the colonists had the right to petition either by themselves or with the people of other colonies; and (3) that no colonist ought to be sent to England for trial.
[Sidenote: Non-Importation Agreements, 1769.]
[Sidenote: Partial repeal of the Townshend Acts, 1770.]
118. Non-Importation Agreements, 1769.--When he learned what was going on, the governor of Virginia dissolved the assembly. But the members met in the Raleigh tavern near by. There George Washington laid before them a written agreement to use no British goods upon which duties had been paid. They all signed this agreement. Soon the other colonies joined Virginia in the Non-Importation Agreement. English merchants found their trade growing smaller and smaller. They could not even collect their debts, for the colonial merchants said that trade in the colonies was so upset by the Townshend Acts that they could not sell their goods, or collect the money owing to them. The British merchants petitioned Parliament to repeal the duties, and Parliament answered them by repealing all the duties except the tax on tea.
[Illustration: THE "RALEIGH TAVERN"]
CHAPTER 13
REVOLUTION IMPENDING
[Sidenote: The British soldiers at New York.]
[Sidenote: Soldiers sent to Boston, 1768.]
119. The Soldiers at New York and Boston.--Soldiers had been stationed at New York ever since the end of the French war because that was the most central point on the coast. The New Yorkers did not like to have the soldiers there very well, because Parliament expected them to supply the troops with certain things without getting any money in return. The New York Assembly refused to supply them, and Parliament suspended the Assembly's sittings. In 1768 two regiments came from New York to Boston to protect the customs officers.
[Sidenote: The Boston Massacre, 1770. Higginson, 166-169; McMaster, 118.]
120. The Boston Massacre, 1770.--There were not enough soldiers at Boston to protect the customs officers--if the colonists really wished to hurt them. There were quite enough soldiers at Boston to get themselves and the colonists into trouble. On March 5, 1770, a crowd gathered around the soldiers stationed on King's Street, now State Street. There was snow on the ground, and the boys began to throw snow and mud at the soldiers. The crowd grew bolder. Suddenly the soldiers fired on the people. They killed four colonists and wounded several more. Led by Samuel Adams, the people demanded the removal of the soldiers to the fort in the harbor. Hutchinson was now governor. He offered to send one regiment out of the town. "All or none," said Adams, and all were sent away.
[Sidenote: Town Committees of Correspondence.]
[Sidenote: Colonial Committees of Correspondence, 1769.]
121. Committees of Correspondence.--Up to this time the resistance of the colonists had been carried on in a haphazard sort of way. Now Committees of Correspondence began to be appointed. These committees were of two kinds. First there were town Committees of Correspondence.
These were invented by Samuel Adams and were first appointed in Massachusetts. But more important were the colonial Committees of Correspondence. The first of these was appointed by Virginia in 1769. At first few colonies followed Massachusetts and Virginia in appointing committees. But as one act of tyranny succeeded another, other colonies fell into line. By 1775 all the colonies were united by a complete system of Committees of Correspondence.
[Sidenote: The tax on tea. McMaster, 119.]
122. The Tea Tax.--Of all the Townshend duties only the tax on tea was left. It happened that the British East India Company had tons of tea in its London storehouses and was greatly in need of money. The government told the company that it might send tea to America without paying any taxes in England, but the three-penny colonial tax would have to be paid in the colonies. In this way the colonists would get their tea cheaper than the people of England. But the colonists were not to be bribed into paying the tax in any such way. The East India Company sent over ship-loads of tea. The tea ships were either sent back again or the tea was stored in some safe place where no one could get it.
[Sidenote: Boston Tea Party, 1773. Higginson, 171-173; Eggleston, 165; Source-Book, 137.]
123. The Boston Tea Party, 1773.--In Boston things did not go so smoothly. The agents of the East India
Company refused to resign. The collector of the customs refused to give the ships permission to sail away before the tea was landed. Governor Hutchinson refused to give the ship captains a pass to sail by the fort until the collector gave his permission. The commander at the fort refused to allow the ships to sail out of the harbor until they had the necessary papers. The only way to get rid of the tea was to destroy it. A party of patriots, dressed as Indians, went on board of the ships as they lay at the wharf, broke open the tea boxes, and threw the tea into the harbor.
[Sidenote: Repressive acts, 1774. McMaster, 120.]
124. Punishment of Massachusetts, 1774.--The British king, the British government, and the mass of the British people were furious when they found that the Boston people had made "tea with salt water." Parliament at once went to work passing acts to punish the colonists.
One act put an end to the constitution of Massachusetts. Another act closed the port of Boston so tightly that the people could not bring hay from Charlestown to give to their starving horses. A third act provided that soldiers who fired on the people should be tried in England. And a fourth act compelled the colonists to feed and shelter the soldiers employed to punish them.
[Sidenote: The colonists aid Massachusetts. Higginson, 174-177.]
[Sidenote: George Washington.]
125. Sympathy with the Bostonians.--King George thought he could punish the Massachusetts people as much as he wished without the people of the other colonies objecting. It soon appeared that the people of the other colonies sympathized most heartily with the Bostonians. They sent them sheep and rice. They sent them clothes. George Washington was now a rich man. He offered to raise a thousand men with his own money, march with them to Boston, and rescue the oppressed people from their oppressors. But the time for war had not yet come although it was not far off.
[Sidenote: The Quebec Act, 1774.]
126. The Quebec Act, 1774.--In the same year that Parliament passed the four acts to punish Massachusetts, it passed another act which affected the people of other colonies as well as those of Massachusetts.
A Short History of the United States by Channing Page 7