A School History of the United States. John Bach McMaster
catch smugglers. Offenders when seized were to be tried in some vice-admiralty court, where they could not have trial by jury.[1]
[Footnote 1: This is one of the things complained of in the Declaration of Independence.]
%109. The Sugar Act and Stamp Tax.%—The Sugar Act was not a new grievance. In 1733 Parliament laid a tax of 6_d_. a gallon on molasses and 5_s_. per hundredweight on sugar brought into this country from any other place than the British West Indies. This was to force the colonists to buy their sugar and molasses from nobody but British sugar planters. After having expired five times and been five times reënacted, the Sugar Act expired for the sixth time in 1763, and the colonies begged that it might not be renewed. But Parliament merely reduced the molasses duty to 3_d_. and laid new duties on coffee, French and East Indian goods, indigo, white sugar, and Spanish and Portuguese wines. It then resolved that "for further defraying the expense of protecting the colonists it would be necessary to charge certain stamp duties in the colonies."
At that time, 1764, no such thing as an internal tax laid by Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue existed, or ever had existed, in America. Money for the use of the King had always been raised by taxes imposed by the legislatures of the colonies. The moment, therefore, the people heard that this money was to be raised in future by parliamentary taxation, they became much alarmed, and the legislatures instructed their business agents in London to protest.
This the agents did in February, 1765. But Grenville, the Prime Minister, was not to be persuaded, and on March 22, 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act[1].
[Footnote 1: The exact text of the Stamp Act has been reprinted in American History Leaflets, No. 21. For an excellent account of the causes and consequences of the Stamp Act, read Lecky's England in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. III., Chap. 12; Frothingham's Rise of the Republic of the United States, Chap. 5; Channing's The United States of America, 1765–1865, pp. 41–50.]
%110. The Stamp Distributors.%—That the collection of the new duty might give as little offense to the colonists as possible, Grenville desired that the stamps and the stamped paper should be sold by Americans, and invited the agents of the colonies to name men to be "stamp distributors" in their colonies. The law was to go into effect on the 1st of November, 1765. After that day every piece of vellum, every piece of paper, on which was written any legal document for use in any court, was to be charged with a stamp duty of from three pence to ten pounds sterling. After that day, every license, bond, deed, warrant, bill of lading, indenture, every pamphlet, almanac, newspaper, pack of cards, must be written or printed on stamped paper to be made in England and sold at prices fixed by law. If any dispute arose under the law, the case might be tried in the vice-admiralty courts without a jury.[2]
[Footnote: The stamps were not the adhesive kind we are now accustomed to fasten on letters. Those used for newspapers and pamphlets and printed documents consisted of a crown surmounting a circle in which were the words, "One Penny Sheet" or "Nine Pence per Quire," and were stamped on each sheet in red ink by a hand stamp not unlike those used at the present day to cancel stamps on letters. Others, used on vellum and parchment, consisted of a square piece of blue paper, glued on the parchment, and fastened by a little piece of brass. A design was then impressed on the blue paper by means of a little machine like that used by magistrates and notaries public to impress their seals on legal documents. When this was done, the parchment was turned over, and a little piece of white paper was pasted on the back of the stamp. On this white piece was engraved, in black, the design shown in the second picture on p. 113, the monogram "G. R." meaning Georgius Rex, or King George.]
[Illustration: Stamps used in 1765]
The money raised by this tax was not to be taken to England, but was to be spent in America for the defense of the colonies. Nevertheless, the colonists were determined that none should be raised. The question was not, Shall America support an army? but, Shall Parliament tax America?
%111. The Virginia Resolutions.%—In opposition to this, Virginia now led the way with a set of resolutions. In the House of Burgesses, as the popular branch of her legislature was called, was Patrick Henry, the greatest orator in the colonies. By dint of his fiery words, he forced through a set of resolutions setting forth
1. That the first settlers in Virginia brought with them "all the privileges and immunities that have at any time been held" by "the people of Great Britain."
2. That their descendants held these rights.
3. That by two royal charters the people of Virginia had been declared entitled to all the rights of Englishmen "born within the realm of England."
4. That one of these rights was that of being taxed "by their own Assembly."
5. That they were not bound to obey any law taxing them without consent of their Assembly.[1]
[Footnote 1: These resolutions, printed in full from Henry's manuscript copy, are in Channing's _The United States of America, 1765–1865, _pp. 51, 52. They were passed May 29, 1765.]
Massachusetts followed with a call for a congress to meet at New York city.
%112. Stamp-act Congress.%—To the congress thus called came delegates from all the colonies except New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. The session began at New York, on the 5th of October, 1765; and after sitting in secret for twenty days, the delegates from six of the nine colonies present (Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland) signed a "Declaration of Rights and Grievances." [1]
[Footnote 1: This declaration is printed in full in Preston's Documents Illustrative of American History, pp. 188–191.]
%113. Declaration of Rights.%—The ground taken in the declaration was:
1. That the Americans were subjects of the British crown.
2. That it was the natural right of a British subject to pay no taxes unless he had a voice in laying them.
3. That the Americans were not represented in Parliament.
4. That Parliament, therefore, could not tax them, and that an attempt to do so was an attack on the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of self-government.
%114. Grievances.%—The grievances complained of were: 1. Taxation without representation. 2. Trial without jury (in the vice-admiralty courts). 3. The Sugar Act. 4. The Stamp Act. 5. Restrictions on trade.
%115. The English View of Representation.%—We, in this country, do not consider a person represented in a legislature unless he can cast a vote for a member of that legislature. In Great Britain, not individuals but classes were represented. Thus, the clergy were represented by the bishops who sat in the House of Lords; the nobility, by the nobles who had seats in the House of Lords; and the mass of the people, the commons, by the members of the House of Commons. At that time, very few Englishmen could vote for a member of the House of Commons. Great cities like Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, did not send even one member. When the colonists held that they were not represented in Parliament because they did not elect any members of that body, Englishmen answered that they were represented, because they were commoners.
%116. Sons of Liberty.%—Meantime, the colonists had not been idle. Taking the name of "Sons of Liberty," a name given to them in a speech by a member of Parliament (named Barré) friendly to their cause, they began to associate for resistance to the Stamp Act. At first, they were content to demand that the stamp distributors named by the colonial agents in London should resign. But when these officers refused, the people became violent; and at Boston, Newark, N.J., New Haven, New London, Conn., at Providence, at Newport, R.I., at Dover, N.H., at Annapolis, Md., serious riots took place. Buildings were torn down, and more than one unhappy distributor was dragged from his home, and forced to stand before the people and shout, "Liberty, property, and no stamps."
%117. November 1, 1765.%—As the 1st of November, the day on which the Stamp Act was to go into force, approached, the newspapers appeared decorated with death's-heads, black borders, coffins, and obituary notices. The Pennsylvania Journal dropped its usual heading, and in place of it put an arch with a skull and crossbones