The public acts of kings and ministers of state, in that age, when our ancestors emigrated, which were not complained of, remonstrated and protested against by the commons, are looked upon as sufficient proof of the "sense" of the parent country.
The charter to the treasurer and company of Virginia, 23d March, 1609, grants ample power of government, legislative, executive and judicial, and then contains an express covenant "to and with the said treasurer and company, their successors, factors and assigns, that they, and every of them, shall be free from all taxes and impositions forever, upon any goods or merchandizes, at any time or times hereafter, either upon importation thither, or exportation from thence, into our realm of England, or into any other of our realms or dominions."
I agree with this writer, that the authority of a supreme legislature, includes the right of taxation. Is not this quotation then an irresistible proof, that "it was not the sense of king James or his ministers, or of the ancestors of the Virginians, that they were to remain subject to parliament as a supreme legislature?"
After this, James issued a proclamation, recalling the patent, but this was never regarded. Then Charles issued another proclamation, which produced a remonstrance from Virginia, which was answered by a letter from the lords of the privy council, 22d July, 1634, containing the royal assurance that "all their estates, trade, freedom, and privileges should be enjoyed by them, in as extensive a manner, as they enjoyed them before those proclamations."
Here is another evidence of the sense of the king and his ministers.
Afterwards parliament sent a squadron of ships to Virginia; the colony rose in open resistance until the parliamentary commissioners granted them conditions, that they should enjoy the privileges of Englishmen; that their assembly should transact the affairs of the colonies; that they should have a free trade to all places and nations, as the people of England; and fourthly, that "Virginia shall be free from all taxes, customs, and impositions whatever, and none shall be imposed on them without consent of their general assembly; and that neither forts nor castles be erected, or garrisons maintained, without their consent."
One would think this was evidence enough of the sense both of the parent country and our ancestors.
After the acts of navigation were passed, Virginia sent agents to England, and a remonstrance against those acts. Charles, in answer, sent a declaration under the privy seal, 19th April, 1676, affirming, "that taxes ought not to be laid upon the inhabitants and proprietors of the colony, but by the common consent of the general assembly; except such impositions as the parliament should lay on the commodities imported into England from the colony." And he ordered a charter, under the great seal, to secure this right to the Virginians.
What becomes of the "sense" of the parent country and our ancestors? for the ancestors of the Virginians are our ancestors, when we speak of ourselves as Americans. From Virginia let us pass to Maryland. Charles 1st, in 1633, gave a charter to the baron of Baltimore, containing ample powers of government, and this express covenant: "to and with the said lord Baltimore, his heirs and assigns, that we, our heirs and successors, shall at no time hereafter, set or make, or cause to be set any imposition, custom, or other taxation, rate, or contribution whatsoever, in and upon the dwellings and inhabitants of the aforesaid province, for their lands, tenements, goods or chattels, within the said province; or to be laden or unladen, within the ports or harbours of the said province."