A School History of the United States Part 12

CHAPTER X

"LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS"

%105. The New Provinces.%--The acquisition of Canada and the Mississippi valley made it necessary for England to provide for their defense and government. To do this she began by establishing three new provinces.

In Canada she marked out the province of Quebec, part of the south boundary of which is now the north boundary of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

In the South, out of the territory given by Spain, she made two provinces, East and West Florida. The north boundary of West Florida was (1764) a parallel of lat.i.tude through the junction of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers. The north boundary of East Florida was part of the boundary of the present state. The territory between the Altamaha and the St. Marys rivers was "annexed to Georgia."

%106. The Proclamation Line.%--By the same proclamation which established these provinces, a line was drawn around the head waters of all the rivers in the United States which flow into the Atlantic Ocean, and the colonists were forbidden to settle to the west of it. All the valley from the Great Lakes to West Florida, and from the proclamation line to the Mississippi, was set apart for the Indians.

%107. The Country to be defended.%--Having thus provided for the government of the newly acquired territory, it next became necessary to provide for its defense; for n.o.body doubted that both France and Spain would some day attempt to regain their lost possessions. Arrangements were therefore made to bring over an army of 10,000 regular troops, scatter them over the country from Canada to Florida, and maintain them partly at the expense of the colonies and partly at the expense of the crown.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1764]

The share to be paid by the colonies was to be raised

1. By enforcing the old trade and navigation laws.

2. By a tax on sugar and mola.s.ses brought into the country.

3. By a stamp tax.

%108. Trial without Jury.%--In order to enforce the old laws, naval vessels were sent to sail up and down the coast and catch smugglers.

Offenders when seized were to be tried in some vice-admiralty court, where they could not have trial by jury.[1]

[Footnote 1: This is one of the things complained of in the Declaration of Independence.]

%109. The Sugar Act and Stamp Tax.%--The Sugar Act was not a new grievance. In 1733 Parliament laid a tax of 6_d_. a gallon on mola.s.ses and 5_s_. per hundredweight on sugar brought into this country from any other place than the British West Indies. This was to force the colonists to buy their sugar and mola.s.ses from n.o.body but British sugar planters. After having expired five times and been five times reenacted, the Sugar Act expired for the sixth time in 1763, and the colonies begged that it might not be renewed. But Parliament merely reduced the mola.s.ses duty to 3_d_. and laid new duties on coffee, French and East Indian goods, indigo, white sugar, and Spanish and Portuguese wines. It then resolved that "for further defraying the expense of protecting the colonists it would be necessary to charge certain stamp duties in the colonies."

At that time, 1764, no such thing as an internal tax laid by Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue existed, or ever had existed, in America. Money for the use of the King had always been raised by taxes imposed by the legislatures of the colonies. The moment, therefore, the people heard that this money was to be raised in future by parliamentary taxation, they became much alarmed, and the legislatures instructed their business agents in London to protest.

This the agents did in February, 1765. But Grenville, the Prime Minister, was not to be persuaded, and on March 22, 1765, Parliament pa.s.sed the Stamp Act[1].

[Footnote 1: The exact text of the Stamp Act has been reprinted in _American History Leaflets_, No. 21. For an excellent account of the causes and consequences of the Stamp Act, read Lecky's _England in the Eighteenth Century_, Vol. III., Chap. 12; Frothingham's _Rise of the Republic of the United States_, Chap. 5; Channing's _The United States of America, 1765-1865_, pp. 41-50.]

%110. The Stamp Distributors.%--That the collection of the new duty might give as little offense to the colonists as possible, Grenville desired that the stamps and the stamped paper should be sold by Americans, and invited the agents of the colonies to name men to be "stamp distributors" in their colonies. The law was to go into effect on the 1st of November, 1765. After that day every piece of vellum, every piece of paper, on which was written any legal doc.u.ment for use in any court, was to be charged with a stamp duty of from three pence to ten pounds sterling. After that day, every license, bond, deed, warrant, bill of lading, indenture, every pamphlet, almanac, newspaper, pack of cards, must be written or printed on stamped paper to be made in England and sold at prices fixed by law. If any dispute arose under the law, the case might be tried in the vice-admiralty courts without a jury.[2]

[Footnote: The stamps were not the adhesive kind we are now accustomed to fasten on letters. Those used for newspapers and pamphlets and printed doc.u.ments consisted of a crown surmounting a circle in which were the words, "One Penny Sheet" or "Nine Pence per Quire," and were stamped on each sheet in red ink by a hand stamp not unlike those used at the present day to cancel stamps on letters. Others, used on vellum and parchment, consisted of a square piece of blue paper, glued on the parchment, and fastened by a little piece of bra.s.s. A design was then impressed on the blue paper by means of a little machine like that used by magistrates and notaries public to impress their seals on legal doc.u.ments. When this was done, the parchment was turned over, and a little piece of white paper was pasted on the back of the stamp. On this white piece was engraved, in black, the design shown in the second picture on p. 113, the monogram "G. R." meaning Georgius Rex, or King George.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Stamps used in 1765]

The money raised by this tax was not to be taken to England, but was to be spent in America for the defense of the colonies. Nevertheless, the colonists were determined that none should be raised. The question was not, Shall America support an army? but, Shall Parliament tax America?

%111. The Virginia Resolutions.%--In opposition to this, Virginia now led the way with a set of resolutions. In the House of Burgesses, as the popular branch of her legislature was called, was Patrick Henry, the greatest orator in the colonies. By dint of his fiery words, he forced through a set of resolutions setting forth

1. That the first settlers in Virginia brought with them "all the privileges and immunities that have at any time been held" by "the people of Great Britain."

2. That their descendants held these rights.

3. That by two royal charters the people of Virginia had been declared ent.i.tled to all the rights of Englishmen "born within the realm of England."

4. That one of these rights was that of being taxed "by their own a.s.sembly."

5. That they were not bound to obey any law taxing them without consent of their a.s.sembly.[1]

[Footnote 1: These resolutions, printed in full from Henry's ma.n.u.script copy, are in Channing's _The United States of America, 1765-1865, _pp.

51, 52. They were pa.s.sed May 29, 1765.]

Ma.s.sachusetts followed with a call for a congress to meet at New York city.

%112. Stamp-act Congress.%--To the congress thus called came delegates from all the colonies except New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. The session began at New York, on the 5th of October, 1765; and after sitting in secret for twenty days, the delegates from six of the nine colonies present (Ma.s.sachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland) signed a "Declaration of Rights and Grievances." [1]

[Footnote 1: This declaration is printed in full in Preston's _Doc.u.ments Ill.u.s.trative of American History_, pp. 188-191.]

%113. Declaration of Rights.%--The ground taken in the declaration was:

1. That the Americans were subjects of the British crown.

2. That it was the natural right of a British subject to pay no taxes unless he had a voice in laying them.

3. That the Americans were not represented in Parliament.

4. That Parliament, therefore, could not tax them, and that an attempt to do so was an attack on the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of self-government.

%114. Grievances.%--The grievances complained of were: 1. Taxation without representation. 2. Trial without jury (in the vice-admiralty courts). 3. The Sugar Act. 4. The Stamp Act. 5. Restrictions on trade.

%115. The English View of Representation.%--We, in this country, do not consider a person represented in a legislature unless he can cast a vote for a member of that legislature. In Great Britain, not individuals but cla.s.ses were represented. Thus, the clergy were represented by the bishops who sat in the House of Lords; the n.o.bility, by the n.o.bles who had seats in the House of Lords; and the ma.s.s of the people, the commons, by the members of the House of Commons. At that time, very few Englishmen could vote for a member of the House of Commons. Great cities like Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, did not send even one member. When the colonists held that they were not represented in Parliament because they did not elect any members of that body, Englishmen answered that they were represented, because they were commoners.

%116. Sons of Liberty.%--Meantime, the colonists had not been idle.

Taking the name of "Sons of Liberty," a name given to them in a speech by a member of Parliament (named Barre) friendly to their cause, they began to a.s.sociate for resistance to the Stamp Act. At first, they were content to demand that the stamp distributors named by the colonial agents in London should resign. But when these officers refused, the people became violent; and at Boston, Newark, N.J., New Haven, New London, Conn., at Providence, at Newport, R.I., at Dover, N.H., at Annapolis, Md., serious riots took place. Buildings were torn down, and more than one unhappy distributor was dragged from his home, and forced to stand before the people and shout, "Liberty, property, and no stamps."

%117. November 1, 1765.%--As the 1st of November, the day on which the Stamp Act was to go into force, approached, the newspapers appeared decorated with death's-heads, black borders, coffins, and obituary notices. The _Pennsylvania Journal_ dropped its usual heading, and in place of it put an arch with a skull and crossbones underneath, and this motto, "Expiring in the hopes of a resurrection to life again." In one corner was a coffin, and the words, "The last remains of the _Pennsylvania Journal_, which departed this life the 31st of October, 1765, of a stamp in her vitals. Aged 23 years." The _Pennsylvania Gazette_, on November 7, the day of its first issue after the Stamp Act became law, published a half sheet, printed on one side, without any heading, and in its place the words, "No stamped paper to be had."

During the next six months, every sc.r.a.p of stamped paper that was heard of was hunted up and given to the flames. Thus, when a vessel from Barbados, with a stamped newspaper published on that island, reached Philadelphia, the paper was seized and burned, one evening, at the coffeehouse, in the presence of a great crowd. A vessel having put in from Halifax, a rumor spread that the captain had brought stamped paper with him, and was going to use it for his Philadelphia clearance. This so enraged the people that the vessel was searched, and a sheet of paper with three stamps on it was found, and burned at the coffee-house.

%118. Non-importation Agreements.%--Meantime, the merchants in the larger towns, and the people all over the country, had been making written agreements not to import any goods from England for some months to come.

The effect of this measure was immense. Not a merchant nor a manufacturer in Great Britain, engaged in the colonial trade, but found his American orders canceled and his goods left on his hands. Not a ship returned from this country but carried back English wares which it had brought here to sell, but for which no purchaser could be found.

%119. Stamp Act repealed.%--When Parliament met in December, 1765, such a cry of distress came up from the manufacturing cities of England, that Parliament was forced to yield, and in March, 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed. In the outburst of joy which followed in America, the intent and meaning of another act pa.s.sed at the same time was little heeded. In it was the declaration that Parliament did have the right to tax the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."

%120. The Townshend Acts.%--If the people thought this declaration had no meaning, they were much mistaken, for next year (1767) Parliament pa.s.sed what have since been called the Townshend Acts. There were three of them. One forbade the legislature of New York to pa.s.s any more laws till it had provided the royal troops in the city with beds, candles, fire, vinegar, and salt, as required by what was called the Mutiny Act.

The second established at Boston a Board of Commissioners of the Customs to enforce the laws relating to trade. The third laid taxes on gla.s.s, red and white lead, painter's colors, paper, and tea. None of these taxes was heavy. But again the right of Parliament to tax people not represented in it had been a.s.serted, and again the colonists rose in resistance. The legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts sent a letter to each of the other colonial legislatures, urging them to unite and consult for the protection of their rights. Pennsylvania sent protests to the King and to Parliament. The merchants all over the country renewed their old agreements not to import British goods, and many a shipload was sent back to England.

%121. Colonial Legislatures dissolved.%[1]--The letter of Ma.s.sachusetts to the colonial legislatures having given great offense to the King, the governors were ordered to see to it that the legislatures did not approve it. But the order came too late. Many had already done so, and as a punishment the a.s.semblies of Maryland and Georgia were dismissed and the members sent home. To dissolve a.s.semblies became of frequent occurrence. The legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts was dissolved because it refused to recall the letter. That of New York was repeatedly dissolved for refusing to provide the royal troops with provisions. That of Virginia was dismissed for complaining of the treatment of New York.

[Footnote 1: One of the charges against the King in the Declaration of Independence.]