The Justice and Necessity of Taxing the American Colonies, Demonstrated / Together with a Vindication of the Authority of Parliament

by Unknown

Their insolence is arrived to such a pitch that they are not ashamed to assume to themselves the merit of bringing the last war but one to a period. According to them, what obliged the enemy to listen to terms of accommodation was not our success by sea, not the ruin of the French navy, not the total stagnation of their trade, not the march of the Russian auxiliaries; but the reduction, in a couple of short days, by a couple of little cannon, of a little island hardly discernable in a map, called Cape-Breton.

This undutiful, this disobedient behaviour of Britain's children abroad, owed, no doubt, its origin partly to the causes assigned above, and partly to the murmurs and discontent of those at home; the Sacheveril in London produced another in Boston; the spirit of disaffection and mutiny, which the harangues of a general raised in the cyder counties, those of a colonel conjured up in New-England. Out of one hydra many more arose, and there wants a Hercules to crush them. But who has the courage and skill to wield his club? In hopes that such a hero will arise, I will endeavour to furnish him with weapons, and to show him how to pierce the vitals of the monster.

The most effectual way, in my opinion, of laying the spirit of disaffection among the colonists, and of quieting the present disturbances to the mutual satisfaction of each party, is to convince the Americans that they ought to be taxed rather than the English, and to prove that the interest of both is best promoted by leaving the power of taxation in the hands of the British legislature; I shall therefore address myself now to this task.

In this age all the kingdoms in Europe maintain a standing military force, which may be ready on all occasions to defend themselves, and to seize every opportunity of annoying their foes; Great-Britain therefore is obliged to keep, tho' contrary to the genius of its constitution, a large body of regular troops in constant pay: and as America must have a considerable share of these for its safeguard, on whom ought the burden of supporting them to fall, but on the Americans, to whom they prove an immediate benefit? Great-Britain is sufficiently exhausted already; she has spilt plenty of her blood in their cause, she has expended many millions in their service, and has by these means contracted an immense load of debt, of which she is never likely to be eased. Must she then expire under her pressures? Instead of being relieved, must a new burden be laid on her shoulders to crush her entirely? A tax for the support of American guards and garrisons must be raised somewhere; else all the labour of the last war may be lost in a moment; the colonies may be conquered by our enemies in one campaign.

What then must be done? America must be taxed. By no means, says America; I am sufficiently taxed already; the many restrictions and prohibitions, under which I labour in point of trade, are an ample tax. You gain of me by way of balance about half a million a year; let this be applied to the defence of America, and it will be found an abundant provision for all her wants.

But why, good America, dost thou not also desire us to apply to the defence of Spain and Turkey all that we gain by them annually? The argument will hold equally good, and cannot be absurd in the latter case without being so in the former.

Why likewise, do'st thou not throw into the opposite scale the many millions, which we have already laid out for thy preservation, and see whether they do not make all, that we have ever drawn from thee, mount up and kick the beam.

Thou sayest indeed, that we receive in the general course of trade all the specie, which thou can'st spare; and that it is cruel, nay, impolitick, to exact more than thou can'st afford; as excessive imposts always damp industry, create a despondency in merchants, and incapacitate a state for furnishing its ordinary quota of taxes.

But let me tell thee that the money raised by the stamp act, being all necessary for paying the troops within thy own territories, must center wholly in thyself, and therefore cannot possibly drain thee of thy bullion.

It is true, this act will hinder thee from sucking out the blood of thy mother, and gorging thyself with the fruit of her labour. But at this thou oughtest not to repine, as experience assures us that the most certain method of rendering a body politick, as well as natural, wholesome and long-lived, is to preserve a due equilibrium between its different members; not to allow any part to rob another of its nourishment, but, when there is any danger, any probability of such a catastrophe, to make an immediate revulsion, for fear of an unnatural superfetation, or of the absolute ruin and destruction of the whole.