On the 19th of March, his majesty went to the house of peers, and passed the bill for repealing the American stamp act, as also that for securing the dependency of the colonies on the British crown. On this occasion the American merchants made a most numerous appearance to express their gratitude and joy; ships in the river displayed their colors; the city was illuminated; and every method was adopted to demonstrate the sense entertained of the wisdom of parliament in conciliating the minds of the people on this critical occasion. In America, the intelligence was received with acclamations of the most sincere and heart-felt gratitude by all classes of people. Public thanksgivings were offered up in all the churches. The resolutions which had been passed on the subject of importations were rescinded, and their trade with the mother country was immediately renewed with increased vigor. The homespun dresses were given to the poor, and once more the colonists appeared clad in the produce of British looms.
The administration of the marquis of Rockingham terminated in July, 1766, and a new ministry was formed, under the direction of Mr. Pitt, composed of men of different political principles and parties. The duke of Grafton was placed at the head of the treasury; lord Shelburne was joined with general Conway, as one of the secretaries of state; Charles Townshend was made chancellor of the exchequer; Camden lord chancellor; Pitt had the privy seal, and was made a peer, with the title of the earl of Chatham; and lord North and George Cooke were joint paymasters. Under this chequered administration, the scheme of taxing America was revived. In May, 1767, the new chancellor of the exchequer submitted a plan of this kind to parliament. Charles Townshend was a man of genius and talents, but of high passions, eccentric, and versatile. He had warmly supported Grenville in the passage of the stamp act, and had voted with the marquis of Rockingham in its repeal. The ex-minister Grenville may indeed be considered the real author of thesecond plan for taxing the colonies, for he was ever urging the subject on the new ministers.[106]
The measure proposed by Townshend to the house was for imposing duties on glass, paper, pasteboard, white and red lead, painters’ colors, and tea, imported into the colonies. The preamble declared, ‘that it was expedient to raise a revenue in America, and to make a more certain and adequate provision for defraying the charge of the administration of justice and the support of the civil government in the provinces, and for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing them.’ The earl of Chatham was then confined by sickness in the country; the bill passed both houses without much opposition, and on the 29th of June received the royal assent.
The conduct of the assemblies of Massachusetts and New York had given great dissatisfaction in Great Britain. The refusal of the assembly of the latter to comply with the requisitions of the mutiny act, in particular, had excited the indignation of the ministry and parliament to such a degree, that three days after the passage of the new tax bill an act was passed restraining the legislature of that province from passing any act whatever, until they had furnished the king’s troops with all the articles required by the mutiny act. The ministry at the same time determined to establish a new board of custom-house officers in America. An act was therefore passed, enabling the king to put the customs and other duties in America, and the execution of the laws relating to trade there, under the management of commissioners to be appointed for that purpose, and to reside in the colonies. This, as the preamble declares, would ‘tend to the encouragement of commerce, and to better securing the rates and duties, and the more speedy and effectual collection thereof.’ These three acts arrived in America about the same time.
The appropriation of the new duties to the support of crown officers and to the maintenance of troops in America, was a subject of serious complaint. It had long been a favorite object of the British cabinet to establish in the colonies a fund, from which the salaries of the governors, judges, and other officers of the crown, should be paid, independent of the annual grants of the colonial legislatures. As these officers held their places during the pleasure of the king, the people of Massachusetts, it will be remembered, had uniformly resisted such establishment, though repeatedly urged on the part of the crown. On this subject the house of representatives maintained, in resolutions indicative of great firmness, their former purpose. The house also, during this session, addressed a circular letter to the other colonies, stating the difficulties to be apprehended by the operation of the late acts of parliament, and requesting their co-operation for redress. When the question of addressing a circular to the colonies was first presented to the house it was opposed, as seeming to countenancethe meeting of another congress, heretofore so offensive to the British government; and the motion was negatived. The subject was afterwards reconsidered, and the letter so worded as to satisfy a large majority of the house. The other colonies approved of the proceedings of Massachusetts, and joined in applying to the king for relief.
The circular letter of Massachusetts created no little alarm in the British cabinet. Directions were issued by the secretary of state to the governor of this colony, requiring him to demand of the house of representatives a recantation of that offensive measure. This the house peremptorily refused. They viewed the letter of lord Hillsborough as an unwarrantable attempt on their rights; and in their answer to the communication of the governor on this subject, express themselves with no little warmth. ‘If the votes of the house were to be controlled by the direction of a minister,’ they say, ‘we have left us but a shadow of liberty!’ On the question to rescind, Mr. Otis, one of the representatives from Boston, said—‘When lord Hillsborough knows that we will not rescind our acts, let him apply to parliament to rescind theirs. Let Britain rescind their measures, or they are lost forever.’ On receiving information of the decision of the house, the governor immediately dissolved the assembly. This ministerial mandate to the other colonies was equally disregarded.
Americans looked with astonishment at such a system of policy proceeding from a ministry of which lord Chatham constituted a part. They found it impossible to reconcile the conduct now adopted towards them with their ideas of his lordship’s character. They had heretofore regarded him as a friend, in whose honest and liberal principles they might securely trust the management of all that concerned the colonies; but here was a melancholy evidence before their eyes of the insincerity of ministerial professions. In justice to the character of lord Chatham, however, it must be observed, that he was not in parliament during any part of the time that these measures of Mr. Townshend were under discussion. The state of his health was such as not only to detain him from his seat in the house, but to render him incapable of attending to any of the duties of his high station; and it appears that his opinion weighed but little with the men whom he had raised to power.
Charles Townshend, from whom all the troubles and commotions that were now rapidly spreading through the colonies in a great measure originated, did not live to witness their effects. He died in September, 1767, and was succeeded as chancellor of the exchequer by Frederick lord North, a young nobleman, then but little known in the political world, but who will be found to make a conspicuous figure in the sequel of this history. Very soon afterwards, lord Chatham, disgusted at the corrupt influence which manifested itself in every act of the court, and sick of the political world, resigned the privy seal.
The colonists meanwhile were adopting all the peaceable means in their power to show their sense of the wrongs heaped upon them. Petitions, memorials, and remonstrances to the king and parliament, and letters to the individual friends of America, were addressed from all the legislatures; but the most favorable reply which any of them received was an exhortation to suffer with patience and in silence. To suffer tamely, and without seeking redress, however, was not the character of the sturdy sons of freedom who inhabited the colonies. They entered into the same kindof resolutions of non-importation, the effects of which had been so severely felt by the traders in England under the stamp act. Boston, as before, took the lead. At a town meeting held in October, it was voted that measures should be immediately taken to promote the establishment of domestic manufactures, by encouraging the consumption of all articles of American manufacture. They also agreed to purchase no articles of foreign growth or manufacture, but such as were absolutely indispensable. New York and Philadelphia soon followed the example of Boston; and in a short time the merchants themselves entered into associations to import nothing from Great Britain but articles that necessity required.
The new board of commissioners of the customs established at Boston had now entered on the duties of their office. From the great excitement at that place, a collision between the new custom-house officers and the people was by no means improbable. The indignation of the people of Boston was at length excited to open opposition by the seizure of Mr. Hancock’s sloop Liberty, for a violation of the revenue laws. Under the idea that the sloop would not be safe at the wharf in their custody, the custom-house officers had solicited aid from a ship of war which lay in the harbor, the commander of which ordered the sloop to be cut from her fastenings and brought under the guns of his ship. It was to prevent this removal that the mob collected; many of the officers were severely wounded in the scuffle, and the mob, being baffled in their attempts to retain the sloop at the wharf, repaired to the houses of the collector, comptroller, and other officers of the customs, where they committed many acts of violence and injury to their property. This riotous disposition continued for several days, during which the commissioners applied to the governor for assistance, but his excellency not being able to protect them, advised them to remove from Boston; they consequently retired, first on board the Romney man-of-war, and then to castle William. The excitement at Boston was greatly increased about this time by the impressment of some seamen belonging to that town by order of the officers of the Romney. The inhabitants of Boston were assembled on this occasion, and their petition to the governor, praying his interference to prevent such outrages for the future, shows to what a state of alarm, anxiety, and even despair, they were then reduced. ‘To contend,’ they said, ‘against our parent state, is, in our idea, the most shocking and dreadful extremity; but tamely to relinquish the only security we and our posterity retain for the enjoyment of our lives and properties without one struggle, is so humiliating and base, that we cannot support the reflection.’