It was at this troubled season that George Grenville brought forward a motion for extracting a direct revenue from the colonies. The idea was not altogether new, for such a scheme had been hinted at during Sir Robert Walpole’s administration. At this time it seems to have been revived, by the general complaint heard among the people of England, of the burden of taxation which they were called upon to bear. His majesty proposed such a step, as a just, as well as advantageous measure for relieving the country from the financial difficulties which had been occasioned by a war undertaken for the protection and security of the colonies themselves. Accordingly, a series of resolutions, respecting new duties to be laid on goods imported by the Americans, was brought into the House by Grenville on the 10th of March. These resolutions passed with little notice; General Conway, it is said, being the only member who protested against them; and they received the royal assent on the 5th of April. The minister, also, proposed raising a direct revenue from the colonies in the shape of a stamp-tax, but this was objected to by the opposition, and it was postponed to another session. Certain restrictions, however, were at the same time laid upon the profitable contraband trade carried on by the Americans with the Spanish colonies; a trade alike advantageous to England and the North American colonists, but of which the Spanish government was constantly and bitterly complaining to the court of Great Britain.
OPPOSITION OF THE AMERICANS.
It seems probable that ministers undertook this scheme of taxation, in order to gain popularity. It had that effect in some slight degree. The country gentlemen, in particular, were well pleased with the prospect of the non-increase on the diminution of the land-tax, and other sections of the community hoped eventually to have their burdens lightened by such a measure. In proroguing parliament the king expressed his hearty approbation of it, auguring the augmentation of the public revenues, a unity of the interests of his most distant possessions, and an increase of commerce, as its natural results. Like the Greek fisherman in Theocritus, all dreamed of gold; but in the course of a few months this pleasant dream was swept away by a strong wind across the Atlantic.
The inhabitants of New England received these “wise regulations” of the British parliament “like knives put to their throats.” Perceiving that the claim made by their mother-country to tax the colonies for her own benefit, and at her own discretion, might possibly introduce a system of oppression, they boldly denied the authority of parliament to levy any direct tax on the colonies, and declared that it was a violation of their rights as colonists, possessing by charter the privilege of taxing themselves for their own support; and as British subjects, who ought not to be taxed without their legitimate representatives. The disaffection of the northern provinces extended to those of the south, and, as a strong measure of resistance, all engaged to abstain from the use of those luxuries which had hitherto been imported from Great Britain. They also made colonial taxation a subject of their petitions to king, lords, and commons, and thus firmly established the principle of resistance to such a measure. Their resistance was confirmed by an unwise measure of Grenville, who determined to intrust the execution of his prohibitory orders to military and naval officers, who were disposed to act with rigour. Government, also, had increased the salaries of judges, which gave rise to an opinion that it was desirous of diminishing their independence; and the governors had recently acted very arbitrarily, and when complaints were made no attention was paid to them, or if a reply was given, it was accompanied with rebuke. The colonists, moreover, were encouraged in their spirit of resistance by the emigration of numbers who had lately left England, and who being disaffected persons, diffused republican sentiments in all the provinces. The seeds of discontent were, in fact, sown far and wide before this new system of taxation was projected, and it had the effect of causing them to germinate and flourish.
WAR WITH THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
It unfortunately happened, that the news of colonial taxation arrived in America when the colonists were in no very pleasant humour. On quitting Canada, the French government still retained some slight connexion with the native Indians, and partly by their agents, and in part through encroachments made by the British on their hunting-grounds, they were incited to war. The tribes flew to arms, designing to make a simultaneous attack on all the English back-settlements in harvest-time, and though their secret was made known, and their intentions prevented in some places, yet the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia were mercilessly ravaged by them, and the inhabitants in those parts utterly destroyed. The Indians also captured several forts in Canada, and massacred the garrisons; and their flying parties frequently intercepted and butchered the troops that were marching from place to place, and plundered and murdered the traders in the upper part of the country. Success made them more bold, and it seems probable, from the display of courage and of military talent which they manifested, that French officers were among them. They even resolved to advance on the principal force stationed at Fort Pitt, and they marched forward in full confidence of victory. In their route they defeated a detachment under Captain Dalzel, and killed that unfortunate officer, and the soldiers escaped with difficulty into Fort Detroit. Fort Pitt was now surrounded by them, but they soon abandoned it, in order to attack Colonel Bouquet, who was advancing with a strong corps under his command for its relief. Fearful struggles took place between Colonel Bouquet and the Indians, in which a great number was killed on both sides, but they were finally routed, and as their bravest chiefs had perished, it was supposed that their loss was irreparable. The Indians, however, in the other parts of the country were not discouraged, and they surrounded an escort, and slew about eighty officers and men near the falls of Niagara. Thus disheartened, General Amherst used the powerful influence of Sir William Johnstone, who was enabled to detach the Indians of the Six Nations from the confederacy, and to engage them on the side of the British, and after various skirmishes and surprises, the rest submitted on conditions, or retired into the depths of their native wilds and forests. In the treaty concluded with them all occasions of future quarrels were guarded against; the limits of their territories were accurately defined; their past offences forgiven; and they were re-admitted to the friendship of Great Britain: the Indians on their part solemnly engaging to commit no more acts of violence.
These occurrences had for the most part happened in the summer and autumn of the year 1763. But the recollection of them was, from their very nature, strongly impressed upon the minds of the colonists, when they heard of the system proposed for their taxation. Moreover, every one was armed for the defence of his home and property against the Indians, and being now freed from their terrors in that quarter, they were bold to think that they might be used against their mother-country, should the scheme of colonial taxation not be abandoned. Hence the colonists made a show of resistance by passing strong resolutions against the measure, which were transmitted to their agents in London, to be laid before government. The province of Pennsylvania appointed a new agent to London, in the person of the celebrated Benjamin Franklin, who was instructed to oppose the stamp-act to the very utmost, and indeed every other act that might be proposed to the British parliament to tax the Americans without their consent. A more efficient agent than Franklin could not have been chosen by the Pennsylvanians. Born in humble life, he had, nevertheless, raised himself by genius and steady perseverance, to be a man of property and science, a leading magistrate, a high functionary in their state, a powerful writer, a statesman, and a philosopher.