“I can see no reason to doubt but that the imposition of taxes, whether on trade, or on land, or houses, or ships, on real or personal, fixed or floating property, in the Colonies, is absolutely irreconcilable with the rights of the colonists, as British subjects, and as men. I say men, for in a state of Nature no man can take my property from me without my consent. If he does, he deprives me of my liberty and makes me a slave.… The very act of taxing, exercised over those who are not represented, appears to me to be depriving them of one of their most essential rights as freemen, and, if continued, seems to be in effect an entire disfranchisement of every civil right. For what one civil right is worth a rush, after a man’s property is subject to be taken from him at pleasure, without his consent?”[104]
Such was the voice of James Otis, who was our John the Baptist. It was he who went before in this great controversy. He first stated the case between the Colonies and the mother country, and first developed the principles in issue. But, though first, he was not long alone. Conspicuous among his followers was Samuel Adams, that austere patriot, always faithful and true, who desired to make Puritan Boston “a Christian Sparta.” He was remarkable for the simplicity, accuracy, and harmony of his style, and on this account often held the pen for the Legislature or the town-meeting. In obedience to the latter, he drew up instructions to the Representatives of Boston, afterward adopted in Faneuil Hall, where, repeating the very arguments of Otis, he says, “If our trade may be taxed, why not our lands, why not the produce of our lands, and everything we possess or make use of?” And then, advancing in the subject, he asks: “If taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves?”[105] In proposing this question, he leaves no room to doubt the answer it deserved.
Soon thereafter, Franklin, as agent of Pennsylvania, maintained the same principles in England. But the ministry, hurried on by fatal folly leading to destruction, persevered in their pretension. The Stamp Act was passed, and for the first time in our history papers bore stamps, to swell the revenue of the Crown. Massachusetts remonstrated in formal resolutions, “particularly considered,” wherein it is declared, “That there are certain essential rights of the British Constitution of Government, which are founded in the law of God and Nature, and are the common rights of mankind,—therefore, … that no man can justly take the property of another without his consent,— … that all acts made by any power whatever, other than the General Assembly of this Province, imposing taxes on the inhabitants, are infringements of our inherent and unalienable rights as men and British subjects, and render void the most valuable declarations of our Charter.”[106] In an address to the Royal Governor, the Legislature, after setting forth the injustice of the Stamp Act, proceeded to say, “We must beg your Excellency to excuse us from doing anything to assist in the execution of it.”[107] The people in town-meetings took up the strain, and all united against the Act. But Massachusetts was not alone.
Virginia, by positive statute, as early as 1655-6 recognized the just principle, as we have already seen;[108] and now a writer of that State, catching the spirit of Otis, declared, in an elaborate pamphlet, that it was “an essential principle of the English Constitution that the subject shall not be taxed without his consent”; and then again, quoting the words of another, “All men have natural, and freemen legal rights, which they may justly maintain, and no legislative authority can deprive them of.”[109] The Legislature of Virginia, even before Massachusetts, adopted resolutions kindred in spirit, which were moved by Patrick Henry, and heroically carried by his eloquent voice, even against the menacing cry of “Treason.” Thus spoke Virginia, exposing the true issue, and insisting on the inseparability of taxation and representation:—
“Resolved, That the taxation of the people by themselves, or by persons chosen by themselves to represent them, who can only know what taxes the people are able to bear, or the easiest method of raising them, and must themselves be affected by every tax laid on the people, is the only security against a burdensome taxation and the distinguishing characteristic of British freedom, without which the ancient Constitution cannot exist.”[110]
Pennsylvania, by her House of Assembly, spoke also to the same effect:—
“Resolved, N. C. D., That this House think it their duty thus firmly to assert with modesty and decency their inherent rights, that their posterity may learn and know that it was not with their consent and acquiescence that any taxes should be levied on them by any persons but their own representatives.”[111]
The controversy proceeded. At the invitation of Massachusetts, moved by Otis, a Congress assembled at New York in October, 1765, having delegates from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina, which, after a prolonged session, adopted a declaration of colonial rights and grievances, where it is declared:—
“That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent, given personally or by their representatives.
“That the people of these Colonies are not, and from their local circumstances cannot be, represented in the House of Commons in Great Britain.”[112]