its happy termination, they derived no advantage which was not the source of ultimate profit to her. 10. Upon men who entertained the strictest notions of colonial dependence, and parliamentary supremacy, these arguments had little effect. The minister was not diverted from his purpose. In March, 1765, he laid before parliament a bill, imposing stamp duties on certain papers and documents used in the colonies. At the first reading, it was warmly opposed; by some because it was impolitic, by two only because it was a violation of right. 11. The bill was supported by Charles Townshend, a brilliant orator, on the side of the ministry. At the conclusion of an animated speech, he demanded: "And these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, protected by our arms, until they are grown to a good degree of strength and opulence, will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy load of national expense which we lie under ?" 12. Colonel Barre, immediately rising, indignantly and elo quently exclaimed: "Children planted by your care! No. Your oppressions planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny into a then uncultivated land, where they were exposed to all the hardships to which human nature is liable; and among others, to the cruelties of a savage foe, the most subtle, and I will take upon me to say, the most terrible, that ever inhabited any part of God's earth. And yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all these hardships with pleasure, when they compared them with those they suffered in their own country, from men who should have been their friends. 13. "They nourished by your indulgence! No. They grew by your neglect. When you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them, who were the deputies of some deputy sent to spy out their liberty, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them; whose behavior, on many occasions, has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them; men promoted to the highest seats of justice, some of whom were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of justice in their own. 14. "They protected by your arms! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence. They have exerted their valor, amidst their constant and laborious industry, for the defence of a country which, while its frontier was drenched in blood, has yielded all its little savings to your emolument. Believe me, and remember I this day told you so, the same spirit which actuated L that people at first, still continues with them; but prudence for bids me to explain myself farther. 15. "God knows I do not at this time speak from party heat, However superior to me in general knowledge and experience, any one here may be, I claim to know more of America, having been conversant in that country. The people there are as truly loyal as any subjects the king has; but they are a people jealous of their liberties, and will vindicate them if they should be vio lated. But the subject is delicate; I will say no more." 16. Eloquence and argument availed nothing. The bill was almost unanimously passed. The night after, Doctor Franklin, then in England as agent for Pennsylvania, wrote to Charles Thompson: "The sun of liberty is set; you must light up the candles of industry and economy." "Be assured," said Mr. Thompson, in reply, "that we shall light up torches of quite an other sort ;" thus predicting the commotions which followed. 17. The act provided that all contracts and legal processes should be written on stamped paper, which was to be furnished, at exorbitant prices, by the government, or should have no force in law. Information of its passage was received in all the colonies with sorrow and dismay. They saw that they must either surrender, without a struggle, their darling rights, or resist the government of a nation, which they had been accustomed to regard with filial respect, and was then the most powerful in the world. 18. The general assembly of Virginia were in session when the information arrived. Of that body, Patrick Henry, a young man, but a distinguished orator, was a member. Near the close of the session, he proposed five resolutions, in the first four of which were asserted the various rights and privileges claimed by the colonists, and, in the fifth, the right of parliament to tax America, was boldly and explicitly denied. These he defended by strong reason and irresistible eloquence, and they were adopted by a majority of one. 19. The next day, in his absence, the fifth resolution was rescinded; but that and the others had gone forth to the world. and imparted higher animation to the friends of freedom. They were a signal to the resolute and ardent; they gave encouragement to the timid and cautious: they were industriously but privately circulated, in the principal cities, until they arrived in New-England, where they were fearlessly published in all the newspapers. 20. Nearly at the same time, and before the proceedings of Virginia were known in Massachusetts, her general court adopted measures to procure a combined opposition to the offensive laws. They passed a resolve proposing that a congress of delegates from the several colonies, should be held at New-York, and addressed letters to the other assemblies, earnestly soliciting their concurrence. 21. These legislative proceedings took place in May and June, 1765. They were the moderate and dignified expression of feelings, which animated, in a more intense degree, a great majority of the people. In New-England, associations, for the purpose of resisting the law, were organized, assuming, from Barre's speech, the appellation of "Sons of Liberty;" pamphlets were published vindicating the rights of the colonies; and the public journals were filled with essays pointing out the danger which threatened the cause of liberty, and encouraging a bold and manly resistance. 22. Excited by these publications, a multitude assembled in Boston, on the 14th of August, burned the effigy of Andrew Oliver, who had been appointed stamp-distributer, and demolished a building which they supposed he had erected for his office. Fearful of farther injury, Mr. Oliver declared his intention to resign, when the people desisted from molesting him. 23. Several days afterwards, a mob beset the house of Mr. Story, an officer of the detested admiralty court. They broke his windows, destroyed his furniture, and burned his papers. They then proceeded to the house of lieutenant-governor Hutchinson, by whose advice, it was supposed, the stamp act had been passed. They entered it by force. Himself, his wife, and children fled. His elegant furniture was carried off or destroyed. The partitions of the house were broken down, and the next morning nothing but the bare and desolate walls remained. 24. When intelligence of these proceedings reached Newport, in Rhode Island, the people of that place assembled and committed similar outrages. Two houses were pillaged, and the stamp-distributer, to preserve his own, was obliged to give to the leader of the exasperated populace a written resignation of his office. In Connecticut, similar commotions were also quieted by the resignation of the distributer of stamps for that colony. 25. In New-York, the people displayed equal spirit, but less turbulence and rage. The obnoxious act was printed, under the title of "The folly of England, and the ruin of America," and thus exhibited for sale in the streets. At an early period, the stamp-distributer prudently resigned his office; and when the stamped paper arrived, it was deposited for safe keeping in the fort. A mob required the lieutenant-governor to place it in their hands. He refused; but, terrified by their menaces, con sented to deliver it to the magistrates, who deposited it in the city hall. Ten boxes, which afterwards arrived, were seized by the people, and committed to the flames. 26. So general was the opposition to the law, that the stamp officers, in all the colonies, were compelled to resign. In Boston, care was taken, on the one hand, to prevent the recurrence of violent proceedings, and, on the other, to keep in full vigor the spirit of resistance. A newspaper was established, having for its device a snake divided into as many parts as there were colonies, and for its motto, "join or die." Mr. Oliver was required to resign his office, with more ceremony and solemnity, under a large elm, which had, from the meetings held under it, received the name of the tree of liberty. 27. In October, the congress recommended by Massachusetts, convened at New-York. Delegates from six provinces only were present. Their first act was a Declaration of Rights, in which they asserted, that the colonies were entitled to all the rights and liberties of natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain, the most essential of which were the exclusive right to tax themselves, and the privilege of trial by jury. A petition to the king, and a memorial to both houses of parliament, were also agreed on; and the colonial assemblies were advised to appoint special agents to solicit, in concert, a redress of grievances. To interest the people of England in the cause of the colonies, the merchants of New-York directed their correspondents, in that country, to purchase no more goods until the stamp act should be repealed. Immediately after, non-importation agreements were adopted in the other colonies, and associations were organized for the encouragement of domestic manufactures. To avoid the necessity of stamps, proceedings in the courts of justice were suspended, and disputes were settled by arbitration. 28. In the mean time, an entire change had taken place in the British cabinet, and a proposition to repeal the stamp act was, by the new ministry, laid before parliament. An interesting debate ensued. Mr. Grenville, the late prime minister, declared, that to repeal the act under existing circumstances, would degrade the government, and encourage rebellion. “When,” he demanded, "were the Americans emancipated? By what law, by what reason, do they ungratefully claim exemption from defraying expenses incurred in protecting them?" 29. William Pitt, he who had wielded, with such mighty ef fect, the power of England, in the late war, rose to reply. He regretted that he had not been able to attend in his place, and oppose the law on its passage. "It is now an act that has 1 passed. I would speak with decency of every act of this house; but I must beg the indulgence of this house to speak of it with freedom. Assuredly a more important subject never engaged your attention; that subject only excepted, when, nearly a century ago, it was the question whether you yourselves were bond or free? 30. "Those who have spoken before me, with so much vehemence, would maintain the act because our honor demands it. But can the point of honor stand opposed against justice, against reason, against right? It is my opinion that England has no right to tax the colonies. At the same time, I assert the authority of this kingdom over the colonies to be sovereign and supreme, in every circumstance of government and legislation whatsoever. 31. “Taxation is no part of the governing or legislative pow er. The taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the commons alone; when, therefore, in this house, we give and grant, we give and grant what is our own. But in an American tax, what do we do? We, your majesty's commons of Great Britain, give and grant to your majesty-what? Our own property? No. We give and grant to your majesty the property of your commons in America. It is an absurdity in terms. Three 32. "It has been asked, when were the Americans emanci pated? But I desire to know when they were made slaves. I hear it said, that America is obstinate; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of ourselves. 33. "The honorable member has said, for he is fluent in words of bitterness, that America is ungrateful. He boasts of his bounties towards her. But are not these bounties intended finally for the benefit of this kingdom? The proîts of Great Britain, from her commerce with the colonies, are two millions a year. This is the fund that carried you triumphantly through the last war. The estates that were rented at two thousand pounds a year, seventy years ago, are at three thousand pounds at present. You owe this to America. This is the price she pays you for protection. 34. "A great deal has been said without doors, and more than is discreet, of the power, of the strength of America. In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this country can crush America to atoms. But on the ground of this tax, when it is wished to prosecute an evident injustice, I am one who will lift my hands and my voice against it. In such a cause, your success would be deplorable and victory hazardous. America, |