Volume I Part 33 (1/2)
”These are the sentiments and proceedings of this House; and as they have too much reason to believe that the enemies of the colonies have represented them to his Majesty's Ministers and the Parliament as factious, disloyal, and having a disposition to make themselves independent of the mother country, they have taken occasion, in the most humble terms, to a.s.sure his Majesty and his Ministers that, with regard to the people of this province, and, as they doubt not, of all the colonies, the charge is unjust.
”The House is fully satisfied that your a.s.sembly is too generous and enlarged in sentiment to believe that this letter proceeds from an ambition of taking the lead, or dictating to other a.s.semblies; they freely submit their opinion to the judgment of others, and shall take it kind in your House to point out to them anything further that may be thought necessary.
”This House cannot conclude without expressing their firm confidence in the King, our common Head and Father, that the united and dutiful supplications of his distressed American subjects will meet with his Royal and favourable acceptance.
”SIGNED BY THE SPEAKER.”
This circular letter of the Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sembly was exceedingly displeasing to the British Ministry, and called forth two letters from the Earl of Hillsborough, who had succeeded the Earl of Shelburne as Princ.i.p.al Secretary of State for the Colonies.
One of these letters was a circular addressed through the Governor to the General a.s.semblies of each of the several colonies. This letter is dated ”Whitehall, April 21, 1768.” The first paragraph is as follows:
”GENTLEMEN,--I have his Majesty's commands to transmit to you the enclosed copy of a letter from the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the colony of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, addressed by order of that House to the Speaker of the a.s.sembly of each colony upon the continent of North America; as his Majesty considers this measure to be of a most dangerous and factious tendency, calculated to inflame the minds of his good subjects in the colonies, to promote an unwarrantable combination, and to excite and encourage an open opposition to and denial of the authority of Parliament, and to subvert the true principles of the const.i.tution, it is his Majesty's pleasure that you should, immediately upon the receipt hereof, exert your utmost influence to defeat this flagitious attempt to disturb the public peace, by prevailing upon the a.s.sembly of your province to take no notice of it, which will be treating it with the contempt it deserves.”
This most ill-advised letter of Lord Hillsborough had the very opposite effect from that which he had hoped and intended. It increased the importance of the Ma.s.sachusetts House of Representatives in the estimation of other colonies, and produced responses of approval from most of their General a.s.semblies.
The Speaker of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Ma.s.sachusetts, dated Virginia, May 9, 1768, says:
”The House of Burgesses of this colony proceeded, very soon after they met, to the consideration of your important letter of the 11th of February, 1768, written in the name and by the order of the House of Representatives of your province; and I have received their particular direction to desire you to inform that honourable House that they applaud them for their attention to American liberty, and that the steps they have taken thereon will convince them of their opinion of the fatal tendency of the Acts of Parliament complained of, and of their fixed resolution to concur with the other colonies in their application for redress.
”After the most deliberate consultation, they thought it their duty to represent to the Parliament of Great Britain that they are truly sensible of the happiness and security they derive from their connection with and dependence upon Great Britain, and are under the greatest concern that any unlucky incident should interrupt that salutary harmony which they wish ever to subsist. They lament that the remoteness of their situation often exposes them to such misrepresentations as are apt to involve them in censures of disloyalty to their Sovereign, and the want of proper respect to the British Parliament; whereas they have indulged themselves in the agreeable persuasion, that they ought to be considered as inferior to none of their fellow-subjects in loyalty and affection.
”They do not affect an independency of their parent kingdom, the prosperity of which they are bound to the utmost of their abilities to promote, but cheerfully acquiesce in the authority of Parliament to make laws for preserving a necessary dependence and for regulating the trade of the colonies. Yet they cannot conceive, and humbly insist it is not essential to support a proper relation between the mother country and colonies transplanted from her, that she should have a right to raise money from them without their consent, and presume they do not aspire to more than the natural rights of British subjects when they a.s.sert that no power on earth has a right to impose taxes on the people, or take the smallest portion of their property, without their consent given by their representatives in Parliament. This has ever been considered as the chief pillar of the const.i.tution. Without this support no man can be said to have the least shadow of liberty, since they can have no property in that which another can by right take from them when he pleases, without their consent.”
After referring to the antiquity and grounds of their rights as British subjects, and to the fact of their not being represented in Parliament, of the impracticability of being so, and ”the oppressive Stamp Act, confessedly imposing internal taxes, and the late Acts of Parliament giving and granting certain duties in the British colonies, mainly tending to the same end,” the Virginia House of Burgesses proceed as follows:
”The Act suspending the legislative power of New York, they consider as still more alarming to the colonists, though it has that single province in view. If the Parliament can compel them to furnish a single article to the troops sent over, they may by the same rule oblige them to furnish clothes, arms, and every other necessary, even the pay of the officers and soldiers--a doctrine replete with every mischief, and utterly subversive of all that is dear and valuable. For what advantage can the people of the colonies derive from their right of choosing their own representatives, if those representatives, when chosen, were not permitted to exercise their own judgments--were under a necessity (on pain of being deprived of their legislative authority) of enforcing the mandates of the British Parliament?
”They trust they have expressed themselves with a firmness that becomes freemen pleading for essential rights, and with a decency that will take off every imputation of faction or disloyalty. They repose entire confidence in his Majesty, who is ever attentive to the complaints of his subjects, and is ever ready to relieve their distress; and they are not without hopes that the colonies, united in a decent and regular opposition, may prevail on the new House of Commons to put a stop to measures so directly repugnant to the interests both of the mother country and her colonies.”
The day after these proceedings by the House of Burgesses, the Governor of Virginia dissolved them.
The House of Representatives of New Jersey, after gratefully acknowledging the receipt of the Ma.s.sachusetts circular, observe:
”The freedom with which the House of Representatives of the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay have communicated their sentiments upon a matter of so great concern to all the colonies, hath been received by this House with that candour the spirit and design of your letter merits. And at the same time that they acknowledge themselves obliged to you for communicating your sentiments to them, they have directed me to a.s.sure you that they are desirous to keep up a correspondence with you, and to unite with the colonies, if necessary, in further supplications to his Majesty to relieve his distressed American subjects.”
Answers to the Ma.s.sachusetts circular from the Houses of Representatives of Connecticut, of Georgia, and of Maryland, were given to the same effect. The Maryland House of Representatives, in addition to the answer to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, presented an address to Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, in reply to the letter of Lord Hillsborough. Their address is dated June 23rd, 1768, and contains the following words:
”In answer to your Excellency's message of the 20th, we must observe, that if the letter from the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the colony of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, addressed to and communicated by our Speaker to this House, be the same with the letter, a copy of which you are pleased to intimate hath been communicated to the King's Ministers, it is very alarming to find, at a time when the people of America think themselves aggrieved by the late Acts of Parliament imposing taxes on them for the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, and in the most dutiful manner are seeking redress from the Throne, any endeavours to unite in laying before their Sovereign what is apprehended to be their just complaint, should be looked upon 'as a measure of most dangerous and factious tendency, calculated to inflame the minds of his Majesty's good subjects in the colonies, and to promote an unwarrantable combination, to excite and encourage an open opposition to and denial of the authority of Parliament, and to subvert the true principles of the const.i.tution.'
”We cannot but view this as an attempt in some of his Majesty's Ministers to suppress all communication of sentiments between the colonies, and to prevent the united supplications of America from reaching the royal ear. We hope the conduct of this House will ever evince their reverence and respect for the laws, and faithful attachment to the const.i.tution; but we cannot be brought to resent an exertion of the most undoubted const.i.tutional right of pet.i.tioning the Throne, or any endeavours to procure and preserve a union of the colonies, as an unjustifiable attempt to revive those distractions which it is said have operated so fatally to the prejudice of both the colonies and the mother country. We have the warmest and most affectionate attachment to our most gracious Sovereign, and shall ever pay the readiest and most respectful regard to the just and const.i.tutional power of the British Parliament; but we shall not be intimidated by a few sounding expressions from doing what we think is right.”[302]
Thus the unconst.i.tutional a.s.sumptions and despotic instructions of Lord Hillsborough to the Legislative a.s.semblies of the several colonies were manfully and in a moderate and loyal spirit repelled by them, in the clear knowledge of the const.i.tutional rights of Englishmen, whether resident in America or England. But while Lord Hillsborough foolishly and vainly dictated to the several colonies to treat the colony of Ma.s.sachusetts with contempt, he advanced a step further in his would-be domination over Ma.s.sachusetts itself by directing Governor Barnard to order the House of Representatives, under a threat of dissolution, to rescind the resolution which they had adopted to send the circular to the representative a.s.semblies of other colonies. Lord Hillsborough, in a letter to the Governor of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, dated April 22nd, 1768, said:
”It is the King's pleasure, that so soon as the General Court is again a.s.sembled, at the time prescribed by the Charter, you should require of the House of Representatives, in his Majesty's name, to rescind the resolution which gave birth to the circular letter from the Speaker, and to declare their disapprobation thereof, and dissent to that rash and hasty proceeding.” ”But if, notwithstanding the apprehensions which may justly be entertained of the ill-consequences of a continuance of this factious spirit, which seems to have influenced the resolutions of the a.s.sembly at the conclusion of the last session, the new a.s.sembly should refuse to comply with his Majesty's reasonable expectation, it is the King's pleasure that you should immediately dissolve them, and transmit to me, to be laid before his Majesty, an account of their proceedings thereupon, to the end that his Majesty may, if he thinks fit, lay the whole matter before his Parliament, that such provisions as shall be found necessary may be made to prevent for the future a conduct of so extraordinary and unconst.i.tutional a nature.”[303]
If it was unwise for Lord Hillsborough to write letters to the Governors of the several colonies to induce their a.s.semblies to treat with silent contempt the circular letter of the Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sembly, it was absurd for him to order that a.s.sembly to rescind its resolution to send a letter which had been sent, and acted upon, and answered--a resolution and letter, indeed, of a preceding House of a.s.sembly. But the new House of a.s.sembly, after long deliberation and discussion, refused, by a majority of 92 to 17, to rescind the obnoxious resolution of the late House of a.s.sembly, and at the same time prepared and addressed to Lord Hillsborough an elaborate letter in vindication of their proceedings.
The House was, of course, forthwith _dissolved_.
Lord Hillsborough's letter produced discontent not only in Ma.s.sachusetts, but in all the American provinces. It, in effect, denied the right of consultation and pet.i.tion to the colonists; for, as was said by Dr. Franklin, ”a demand attended with a penalty of dissolution seemed a command, not a requisition, leaving no deliberative or discretionary power in the a.s.sembly; and the ground of its being a pet.i.tion to the King, guarded with a most explicit declaration of the supreme legislative power of Parliament, it wore the severe and dreadful appearance of a penal prohibition against pet.i.tioning. It was, in effect, saying you shall not even presume to complain, and reducing them below the common state of slavery, in which, if men complain with decency, they are heard unless their masters happen to be monsters. It warmed moderation into zeal, and inflamed zeal into rage. Yet still there appeared a disposition to express their grievances in humble pet.i.tions. All the a.s.semblies on the continent, in answer to a requisition of similar import to that already mentioned, a.s.serted the right of the subject to pet.i.tion for redress of grievances. They joined in pet.i.tions stating the imposition of taxes upon them without their consent, and the abolition of juries in revenue cases, as intolerable grievances, from which they prayed relief.”[304]