USA > New Jersey > The history of New Jersey : from its earliest settlement to the present time : including a brief historical account of the first discoveries and settlement of the country, Vol. I > Part 32
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" They nourished up by YOUR indulgence ! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care for them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them in one depart- ment and another, who were, perhaps the deputies of deputies
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to some members of this house, sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them ; men whose behaviour, 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 who, to my knowledge, were glad by going to a free country, to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own.
" They protected by YOUR arms ! Those Sons of Liberty have nobly taken up arms in your defence, have exerted their valor amidst their constant and laborious industry for the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your emolument. And believe me-remember, I this day told you so,-that same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first, will accompany them still ; but prudence forbids me to explain my- self further. God knows, I do not at this time speak from any motives of party heat ; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me, in general knowledge and experience, the respectable body of this house may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant with their country. The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the king has, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be violated. But the subject is too delicate-I will . say no more."
Barre's eloquence had its effect, but it was only momentary ; the bill passed by a vote of two hundred and forty-five to forty- nine ; there was no division or the slightest opposition in the Lords ; and on the 22d of March 1765, the royal assent was given, and the stamp act became a law.
Barre's words had been heard in the gallery by an American, who wrote them out, sent them across the Atlantic, and by mid- summer, they were as familiar as household words to the Ameri- cans, and the name of SONS OF LIBERTY cheered and strengthened the hearts of thousands to dare and do in behalf of their rights. It was on the very night of the passage of the bill, that Dr. Frank- lin being then in London, wrote to his friend Charles Thompson,
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the words quoted on a previous page, and received from him, the significant reply also there stated.
The Virginia assembly was in session in May of the same year when the news arrived of the passage of these acts, when Patrick Henry denounced them in the severest terms, and offered resolu- tions condemnatory of the principles of taxation as adopted - by parliament.
Upon them a violent debate ensued, which was protracted for hours. Henry, roused by imputations freely uttered by those who opposed action, exclaimed-" Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell and George III"-
"Treason !" cried the speaker-" Treason !" echoed from every part of house. "It was one of those trying moments," as Mr. Wirt well says, " which are decisive of character."
Henry faltered not for an instant, but rising to a loftier atti- tude, and fixing on the speaker an eye of the most determined fire, he finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis,-" and George III may profit by their example ! If this be treason, sir, make the most of it."*
In Massachusetts, James Otis ably defended the colonists.
The pressure in Great Britain by the people by the injury of their trade to the colonies was so strong that the ministry was compelled to resign, and others were appointed in their places. While efforts were put forth on this side of the Atlantic to obtain redress for American grievances, the colonial agents, the friends of freedom and equal rights, and the merchants interested in the American trade, were not idle in Great Britain.
The refusal to import her manufactures touched her in a vital part. The great diminution for orders for goods, compelled a powerful class of traders to advocate liberal principles, who, under other circumstances, would have gladly sustained any policy which might have had a tendency to lessen their burden of taxation.
The lofty position assumed by the Americans was intolerable. They had long been viewed as men of an inferior race. The arrogant philosophy of Europe had placed them and the animal
* Wirt's " Life of Patrick Henry," p. 83.
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productions of the country low in the scale of perfectability. By the mass of the vulgar portion of the English, they were ranked with savages and negroes. The colonies, the dependencies of Great Britain, on which she had, for years, poured forth the scourings of her prisons, had denied her supremacy, and refused to submit to her parliament, hitherto deemed throughout her vast empire, politically omnipotent. With the sin of a rebellious temper, they were also charged with ingratitude. Under the pressure of accumulated debt and heavy taxation, the English people envied the display of wealth by the provincialists in the late war, and forgot that its exhibition was made in the common cause, with a generosity which had . enforced from English justice, the return of more than a million sterling. Thus sup- ported, the ministry which sought relief for the people, by tax- ing American industry, would scarcely have been driven from their purpose. But other causes transferred the government to other statesmen, whom consistency required, at least, to reverse measures which they had denounced with unqualified reproba- tion.
Under the new ministers an inquiry was instituted into the effects of the colonial policy of their predecessors. The merchants and manufacturers gave ample testimony of the paralysis in trade, while Dr. Franklin, as the representative of America, before a committee of the whole house of commons, demonstrated the impossibility of levying the new impositions, and the consequent necessity of the repeal. The majority of parliament was now divided into two parties. The larger one affirmed the right to tax the colonies, but denied the expediency of its present exer- cise ; the other, led by Mr. Pitt, repudiated this right, on the ground that all aids are gifts from the people, and can never be legally obtained without their assent ; and that this assent could not be had in parliament, since the colonists were not there repre- sented. A repeal on these principles, however just, according to the English constitution, would not have saved the pride of the nation, and would have destroyed the hopes of future revenue at the will of parliament. Hence the repeal of the stamp act, which took place on the eighteenth of March, by a vote of two hundred and seventy-five, to one hundred and sixty-seven, was accompanied
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by a declaration of the right of parliament to tax America. It was followed by an act indemnifying those who had incurred penalties on account of stamp duties. The tidings of this event were received in America with joy more temperate than might have been expected from the excitement of the public mind.
At the meeting of the assembly of New Jersey in June, 1766, Governor Franklin congratulated the house on the repeal of the odious stamp act ; to which, however, he had been but little accessory, and while he lauded, with the warmth becoming a dependent of the crown, " the tenderness, levity and condescen- sion, the wisdom, justice and equity which His Majesty and the parliament had manifested on this signal occasion," he carefully refrained from reminding the members of the obstacles he had endeavored to raise to their action on the case, and the severity with which he reprehended them for sending delegates to the New York convention, and their approval of its proceedings. The assembly did not fail to use so favorable an opportunity for retaliation, rendered more poignant that the moderation of the province had received the commendation of the ministry ; but the house would have enjoyed its triumph with forbearance, had not the governor by an angry message drawn forth a severe retort.
When the repeal came up in parliament, William Pitt, who was not connected with either the Grenville or the Rockingham ministry, and who was not present when the act was passed, and had taken but little part in public affairs, owing to ill health, now appeared in his place in the house, and strongly advocated its repeal. He said-" It is a long time, Mr. Speaker, since I have attended in parliament : when the resolution was taken in this house to tax America, I was ill in bed. If I could have endured to have been carried in my bed, so great was the agita- tion of my mind for the consequences, I would have solicited some kind hand to have laid me down on this floor to have borne my testimony against it. It is my opinion that this kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon the colonies. At the same time, I assert the authority of this kingdom to be sovereign and supreme in every circumstance of government and legislature whatsoever. Taxation is no part of the governing or legislative
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power ; and taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the commons alone. This house represents the commons of Great Britain. When in this house we give and grant, therefore, we give and grant what is our own ; but, can we give and grant the property of the commons of America? It is an absurdity in terms. There is an idea in some, that the colonies are virtually repre- sented in this house. I would fain know by whom? The idea of virtual representation is the most contemptible that ever entered into the head of man ; it does not deserve a serious refutation. The commons in America, represented in their several assemblies, have invariably exercised this constitutional right of giving and granting their own money ; they would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed it.
" The colonies acknowledged your authority in all things, with the sole exception that you shall not take their money out of their pockets without their consent. Here would I draw the line-quam ultra citraque vequit consistere rectum."
A profound silence succeeded these words, and for a time no one seemed disposed to advocate the cause of. the late ministry. At length, Grenville* himself, a man of no mean powers, rose and said, " protection and obedience are reciprocal ; Great Britain protects America ; America is therefore, bound to yield obedience. If not, tell me when were the Americans emanci- pated ?" Looking significantly at Mr. Pitt, he exclaimed, " the ' seditious spirit of the colonies owes its birth to the factions in this house ! Gentlemen are careless what they say, provided it serves the purposes of opposition. We were told, we trod on tender ground ; we were bid to expect disobedience ; what is
*Grenville was the brother-in-law of Pitt, and received at his hands, a " so- briquet that annoyed him not a little. On one occas on, in the course of de- bate, he had called on the gentleman opposite to him, to say where an addi. tional tax could be laid. "Let them tell me where," he repeated fretfully. " I say, sir, let them tell me where ; I repeat it, sir, I am entitled to say to them, tell me where " Pitt, who was in the house that evening, in a whining tone resembling Grenville's, hummed a line of a well known song, " Gentle Shepherd, tell me where." Grenville was in a rage, but the house laughed heartily. The nickname, " Gentle Shepherd," stuck to him, and it was long before it was forgotten.
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this but telling America to stand out against the law? To en- courage their obstinacy with the expectation of support here ? Ungrateful people of America ! The nation has run itself into an immense debt to give them protection ; bounties have been extended to them ; in their favor, the act of navigation, that palladium of British commerce, has been relaxed ; and now that they are called upon to contribute a small share towards the pub- lic expense, they renounce your authority, insult your officers, and break out, I might almost say, into open rebellion !"
The insinuation was not to be borne for an instant. Every one yielded at once to Pitt, who repelled the attack with charac- teristic intrepidity, " Sir, a charge is brought against gentlemen sitting in this house, of giving birth to sedition in America. The freedom with which they have spoken their sentiments against this unhappy act, is imputed to them as a crime ; but the imputation shall not discourage me. It is a liberty which I hope no gentleman will be afraid to exercise ; it is a liberty by which the gentleman who calumniates it, might have profited. He ought to have desisted from his project. We are told America is obstinate-America is almost in open rebellion. Sir, I rejoice America has resisted; three 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 all the rest. I came not here armed at all points with law cases and acts of parlia- ment, with the statute book doubled down in dog's ears, to de- fend the cause of liberty, but for the defence of liberty upon a general constitutional principle; it is ground on which I dare meet any man. I will not debate points of law ; but what, after all, do the cases of Chester and Durham prove, but that under the most arbitrary reigns, parliament was ashamed of taxing a people without their consent, and allowed them representatives ? A higher and better example might have been taken from Wales ; that principality was never taxed by parliament till it was incor- porated with England."
" We are told of many classes of persons in this kingdom not represented in parliament ; but are they not all virtually repre- sented as Englishmen within the realm ? Have they not the option, many of them at least, of becoming themselves electors ?
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Every inhabitant of this kingdom is necessarily included in the general system of representation. It is a misfortune that more are not actually represented.
" The honorable gentleman boasts of his bounties to America. Are not these bounties intended finally for the benefit of this kingdom ? If they are not, he has misapplied the national treas- ures. I am no courtier of America. I maintain that parliament has a right to bind, to restrain America. Our legislative power over the colonies is sovereign and supreme. The honorable gentleman tells us he understands not the difference between in- ternal and external taxation ; but surely there is a plain distinc- tion between taxes levied for the purpose of raising a revenue, and duties imposed for the regulation of commerce. 'When,' said the honorable gentleman, ' were the colonies emancipated ?' At what time, say I in answer, were they made slaves? I speak from actual knowledge when I say that the profit to Great Britain from the trade of the colonies, throughout all its branches, is two millions per annum. This is the fund that carried you triumphantly through the war; this is the price America pays you for her protection ; and shall a miserable financier come with a boast that he can fetch a peppercorn into the exchequer at the loss of millions to the nation ? I know the valor of your troops ; I know the skill of your officers ; I know the force of this country, but in such a cause, your success would be hazard- ous. America, if she fell, would fall like a strong man; she would embrace the pillars of the state, and pull down the consti- tution with her. Is this your boasted peace ? not to sheathe the sword in the scabbard, but to sheathe it in the bowels of your countrymen ? The Americans have been wronged, they have been driven to madness by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness you have occasioned ? No, let this country be the first to resume its prudence and temper ; I will pledge myself for the colonies, that on their part, animosity and resentment will cease. Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the house in a few words, what is really my opinion. It is that the stamp act be repealed absolutely, totally and immediately. At the same time, let the sovereign authority of this country over the colonies, Le asserted in as strong terms as can be devised, and be made to
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extend to every point of legislation whatsoever ; that we may bind their trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise any power whatsoever, except that of taking their money out of their pockets without their consent."
While the important debate was going on, early in the month of February, Benjamin Franklin was summoned to give his evi- dence before the house of commons.
The fame of this great man brought together a large attend- ance in the galleries, and replies to the questions propounded, had a strong influence in settling the question in the minds of the members.
He was asked, whether in his opinion, the people of America would submit to the stamp duty if it was moderated; he answered emphatically-" No, never, unless compelled by force of arms." To the question-" What was the temper of Ameri- ca towards Great Britain before the year 1763?" he replied- "The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the crown, and paid, in their courts, obedience to acts 'of parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or armies to keep them in subjection. They were governed by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink and paper ; they were lead by a thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection for Great Britain-for its laws, its customs and man- ners-and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Great Britain were always treated with particular regard ; to be an old England man was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us." "And what is their temper now?" it was asked. "O, very much altered," he replied. " Did you ever hear the authority of parliament to make laws for America questioned till lately ?" " The authority of parliament," said he, " was allowed to be valid in all laws, except such as should lay internal taxes: It was never disputed in laying duties to regulate commerce." To the question-" Can you name any act of assembly, or public act of your government, that made such distinctions ?" he re- plied-" I do not know that there was any ; I think there never was an occasion to make such an act, till now that you have attempted to tax us ; that has occasioned resolutions of assembly,
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declaring the distinction, in which I think every assembly on the continent, and every member in every assembly, have been unanimous."*
The sentiments of Washington were in accordance with those expressed by Franklin. He spoke of the stamp act as "uncon- stitutional, and a direful attack on the liberties of the colonists." And not long after, when the obnoxious act had been repealed, he thus wrote in a letter to a friend : "The repeal of the stamp act, to whatever cause owing, ought much to be rejoiced at ; for had the parliament of Great Britain resolved upon enforcing it, the consequences, I conceive, would have been more direful than is generally apprehended, both to the mother country and her colonies. All, therefore, who were instrumental in procur- ing the repeal, are entitled to the thanks of every British subject, and have mine cordially."t
On the 22d of February, General Conway, who had opposed from the first, the attempt to enforce the stamp act, now brought in a bill for its total repeal. The debate upon it was long and interesting ; but, as Burke said afterwards, " the house by an independent, noble spirited and unexpected majority, in the teeth of all the old mercenary Swiss of the state, in despite of all the speculators and augurs of political events, in defiance of the whole embattled legions of veteran pensioners and practised instruments of court, gave a total repeal to the stamp act, and if the scheme of taxing the colonies had been totally abandoned, there would have been a lasting peace to the whole empire."
The repeal in the house of commons passed by a vote of two hundred and seventy-five against one hundred and sixty- seven, and in the house of lords, by a vote of one hundred and five against seventy-one.
Upon the facts of its repeal being made known, the ships which lay in the Thames, displayed their colors in token of . appreciation, and the houses were illuminated in all parts of the city of London ; salutes were heard, and bonfires kindled in all quarters, and all usual demonstrations on such occasions were manifested.
* Franklin's works, vol. 4, p. 106.
t Spark's " Life of Washington," p. 107.
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CHAPTER XVII.
1760-1775.
Disgust excited by the restrictions on trade-The colonies opposed the right of parliament taxing them in any way-Petitions and remonstrances-The colonists refuse to purchase imported goods from England-Angry discussion between the governor and as- sembly-Destruction of tea-Battle of Lexington-Washington appointed commander-in-chief-" Minute men" raised in New Jersey.
A LTHOUGH the joy produced by the repeal of the stamp act, was common to all the colonies, the same temper did not prevail in all. In the commercial cities, the restrictions on trade, excited scarce less disgust than had been created by the stamp act itself; and in the north, political bodies had been formed, which betrayed excessive bitterness in opposition to each other.
The first measures of Massachusetts and New York, demon- strated that the reconciliation with the colonies was not cordial.
In New York, where general Gage was expected with a consid- erable body of troops, the governor required from the legislature, compliance with the act of parliament, called the "Military Act," which directed the colony, in which any of His Majesty's forces . might be stationed, to provide barracks for them and certain necessaries in their quarters. The legislature reluctantly and partially complied with the requisition ; but at a subsequent ses- sion, when the matter was again brought before them, they determined that the act of parliament could only be construed to require necessaries for troops on a march, and not while per- manently stationed in the country ; on a contrary construction,
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they said the colony might be grievously burdened by marching into it, several regiments. They considered these requirements as a tax, and would not admit the power of parliament to levy money by its own authority, and compulsorily, through the colonial legislatures. In April, 1768, Governor Franklin, of New Jersey, made a similar requisition on the legislature, which was- fulfilled with alacrity.
The repeal of the stamp act, however grateful to the friends of liberty, to the colonists and to the English merchants trading with them, was not popular with the nation at large. The su- premacy of the parliament was maintained by the mass of the people ; the hope of revenue from America was too fascinating to be surrendered without further exertion ; and the king beheld, with high indignation, the resistance to his authority, and the political principles which his American subjects had displayed. Moved by these considerations, Mr. Charles Townsend, chancel- lor of the exchequer, in an administration formed by Lord Chatham, a man of splendid and versatile talents, invited the at- tention of parliament, again to the subject of American taxation. He boasted, " that he knew how to draw a revenue from the colonies without giving them offence," and animated by the challenge of Mr. Grenville, to make his vaunting true, he pro- posed and carried almost unanimously, a bill imposing certain duties on tea, glass, paper, and painter's colors, imported into the colonies from Great Britain ; the proceeds of which were to be appropriated to the support of government in Amer- ica, so far as should be necessary, and the balance to be paid into the British treasury.
This measure was founded on the erroneous belief, that the colonists objected rather to the mode than to the right of taxation. But though there had been some inaccuracies in expressing their views on the statute regulating trade, there should have been no misapprehension of their determination to resist every attempt to tax them without their consent. The bill of Mr. Townsend had the unequivocal character of a revenue law, and as such, was avowedly enacted ; nor were the provincialists slow to declare their sense of its true character.
Petition and remonstrance were again resorted to by the colo-
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nial legislatures. The tone, generally taken, was not so high as in the case of the stamp act, but the conviction that the one was as great a violation of public liberty as the other, soon became universal.
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