USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I > Part 98
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"There is no act in the reign of George III which is so difficult to excuse as the dis- missal of officers for their votes in Parliament. It clearly shows either that the King completely misunderstood the English Constitution, or that he deliberately intended to destroy it. Even in those days, when political purity was at its lowest ebb, when boronghs were put up for sale, and when the votes of Members were bought by scores, there was yet a certain veil drawn over the infamy of the corruption. The old theory of the Constitution was maintained. The constituencies were supposed to represent the people, the Members were supposed to represent the constituencies, and the House of Commons was supposed to be a disinterested body of gentlemen deliberating for the good of the nation. This was a fiction, no doubt, but it was a very useful one, and went far to attach the people to the forms of a Constitution in itself excellent. If a Frenchman had told an Englishman in 1763 that he was governed by a dozen great Lords and a few Court favorites, he would have considered his nation insulted and the Frenchman a fool. But in fact, though this was not generally admitted, it was very nearly the case. It was left for George III to say boldly what most Englishmen had shrunk from saying. He avowedly considered every Member of the House of Commons who drew a public salary his own particular representative. In his own words, those who voted against the Court had deserted him, and must be punished."
During the session of Parliament which followed the dismissal of Barré from the army his reputation as a speaker rose rapidly higher and higher. The times were such as to afford great opportunites for a bold and clever man to earn distinction. The question of the legality of General Warrants redivided parties, and offered opportunities for new alliances. Barré seized the occasion to evince his new attachment to Pitt and to excuse his past conduct, and a reconciliation having been effected between the two men in February, 1764, their political attach- inent only ceased with Pitt's death some fourteen years later. As Pitt gradually withdrew from public life his place, to a certain extent, was filled by Barré. The latter had all the bitterness of invective and a great deal of the fire and declamation of the older statesinan. He pos- sessed the power of making himself feared, and he was feared.
The treaty of peace between France and England, executed at Versailles in February, 1763, made a great change in the condition of England in America. The connection of the English Colonies in America with the inother country was very peculiar, and embraced many of those inconsistencies between law and practise which are the result of great individual independence and a general disposition to decentraliza- tion. The doctrine that Colonies, in matters of commerce, should be completely subordinate to the mother country, was in 1764 as generally accepted in England as in France. The Colonies of England were not to compete with English home industries. They were to buy nothing except in the English markets. They were to sell nothing except in the English markets. This was the theory of the commercial system which bound together England and its American Colonies at the begin- ning of the year 1764; and the law was in accordance with the theory. Customs were imposed at the American ports, Vice Admiralty Courts sat to try offenses against the custom-laws, and there was a nominal revenue collected as the fruits of the systemn. While high duties were imposed in the continental ports of America, a large part of them were never paid. By law 110 tea might be sold in America except what had been imported from England. In fact, however, the importation of English
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tea into America declined, while the consumption of tea by the Colonists rapidly increased. As previously mentioned, officers of customs were appointed ; "but," says an English writer, "everybody knew that what made the place of an officer of customs so lucrative to him was his con- nivance at its breach." Smuggling was openly maintained along the Atlantic coast by the Colonies, and it is stated that, to collect a revenue of £2,000 in America in 1764, it cost England the suin of £8,000.
The time had clearly come-in the judgment of the British Govern- ment-for some change in the laws of trade; but, unfortunately for those in authority, the change decided upon was connected with another and a fatal circumstance. It was determined to tax America for the purpose of raising funds to help pay the debt of the late war and to meet the expense of the military defense of the Colonies. In March, 1764, upon the introduction of his annual budget, Prime Minister Grenville brought forward certain "Declaratory Resolves" with reference to the more effective enforcement of the old laws governing the importation of sugar and inolasses into the Colonies, and to the tightening and extending of the old "Navigation Acts." At the same time he announced that he would, the next year, propose a direct tax upon the Colonies in the form of an Act requiring revenue stamps to be used on the principal sorts of documents employed in America in legal and mercantile business. "Loud and fierce was the indignation of New England over this revival of the 'Molasses Act.' Even without the 'Stamp Act' it might very likely have led that part of the country to make armed resistance."
In the beginning of February, 1765, the "Stamp Bill for the Ameri- can Colonies" was introduced in the House of Commons. It met with very little opposition. Shelburne was absent from the House of Lords, and Pitt from the House of Commons. Barré was the single champion of any considerable mark who did battle for the Colonies; and he was very active in his opposition to the Bill. In a speech, perhaps the best of his many fine speeches on America, he commenced a course of oppo- sition to the Administration which he consistently pursued to the term- ination of the Revolutionary War. Early in the debate on the Stamp Bill Charles Townshend,* after discussing the advantages which the American Colonies had derived from the late war, asked the question : "And now will these American children, planted by our care, nourished up to strength and opulence by our indulgence, and protected by our arms, grudge to contribute their inite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden under which we lie ?" This called to his feet Isaac Barré, who said t:
"They planted by your care! No, your oppressions planted them in America ! They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated, unhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost 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 formidable of any people on the face of God's earth ! And yet, actnated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country from the hands of those who should have been their friends. They nourished up by your indulgence ! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending per- sons to rule them in one department and another, who were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies to some Members of this House, sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions and to prey upon them-men whose behavior, on many occasions, has caused the blood of those Sons of Liberty to recoil within them-men promoted to the highest
* Younger brother of George Townshend (mentioned on page 578), and at this time Paymaster General of the British forces. From his political instability he was called "The Weathercock."
t See Gordon's "History of the United States."
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seats of justice, some who, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own.
"They protected by your arms ! They have nobly taken up arms in your defense ; have exerted a valor-amidst their constant and laborious industry-for the defense 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-the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still. But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat. What I deliver are the genuine sentiments of iny 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 see11, and been conversant in, that 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."
These sentiments were thrown out so entirely without premedita- tion-so forcibly and so firmly-that the whole House sat awhile amazed, intently looking without answering a word. The Stamp Bill was pend- ing in the House of Commons between three and four weeks, at the end of which time it was passed-the largest number of votes which had been given against it in any stage of its progress not having amounted to fifty. It was concurred in by the House of Lords, where it appears to have met no resistance, and March 22, 1765, it received the royal assent. Benjamin Franklin-then in London, where he had been for some five months as agent for Pennsylvania-wrote to Charles Thom- son (mentioned on page 354) at Philadelphia : "The sun of Liberty is set ; you must light up the candles of Industry and Economy." Mr. Thomson answered : "I was apprehensive that other lights would be the consequence, and I foresee the opposition that will be made !"
The Stamp Act* was not to go into operation until the first of the following November. Concerning it the editor of "The Public Papers of George Clinton," mentioned on page 30, ante, states in his "Intro- duction":
"It provided that all instruments in writing-including all commercial and legal documents, newspapers, etc .- were to bear stamps, ranging in price from three pence to £10, and were to be purchased from the agents of the British Government. Without these stamps notes of hand were valueless, suits at law out of the question, marriages nullified, transfers of real estate and inheritances invalid. No one in England foresaw the slightest opposition to the Act. Otis in Massachusetts, Franklin of Pennsylvania, Knox from Georgia and Fitch, Governor of Connecticut, were of opinion that the Col- onies would peaceably accept the situation. * x * The most prominent statesmen in Europe regarded the Americans as the best-natured and easiest-going people of the world. For years and years the Colonists had submitted to aggressions upon their rights and privileges and accepted rigorous taxation as a matter of course, and apparently seemed perfectly willing to receive nothing in return-not even protection."
The expression, "Sons of Liberty," made use of by Barré in his speech, fell flat and unnoticed in England ; but three months later it was established as a familiar phrase in every patriot home in America. Notes of Barré's speech were taken by Jared Ingersoll, t of Connecticut, who, during its delivery, sat in the gallery of the House. He immedi- ately sent home a report of the speech which was published in The New London Gazette and then reprinted in other newspapers, and thus the name of the "Sons of Liberty"-which the eloquent defender of the resisting Colonists had given to them-was soon on every lip. Men who had severed old established social relations and connections, abandoned the comfortable luxuries which they had grown to regard as part of their lives, and become settlers in a new country to battle with
* For the full text of the Stamp Act see Larned's "History for Ready Reference," V : 3183.
+ Mentioned on pages 395, 405 and 483. In October, 1764, Jared Ingersoll, Samuel Wyllys (mentioned on page 283) and other Connecticut citizens had sailed for England from New London. Ingersoll re- turned home in July, 1765, with the appointment of Stamp Distributer for Connecticut.
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internal discord and natural obstacles-which required iron courage, firmness and no little independence-were in no mood for unjust and tyrannical government. And so the alarm was sounded, and the people in various localities began to form secret societies-called the "Sons of Liberty" *- solemnly pledged to resist the obnoxious Stamp Act. Treasonable resolves were handed about with great privacy in the city of New York, but no one had the courage to print them. John McCurdy -a Scots-Irish gentleman of education and wealth, a shipping merchant, resident in Lyme, New London County, Connecticut-being in the city, asked for them, and with inuch precaution was permitted to take a copy. He carried it home to his intimate friend, the Rev. Stephen Johnson, pastor of the Congregational Church at Lyme. Johnson, indignant at the serene composure of Governor Fitch and his associates, and vexed and grieved with the temper of the people of Connecticut-who seemed quite indifferent and inattentive to the consequences that might arise from an enforcement of the Stamp Act-determined if possible to arouse them to a better way of thinking. He wrote a fiery article, designed to bring the community to a sense of the public danger. It was printed in The New London Gazette, and pointed toward unqualified rebellion in case an attempt should be made to enforce the Stamp Act. Other articles of a similar character soon followed, while pamphlets, no one knew whence, fell, no one knew how, into conspicuous places.
On the 14th of August, 1765, Boston witnessed an outbreak such as she had never experienced before. At daybreak the people saw suspended fromn the . STAMP ACT "Liberty Tree"t an effigy of Andrew Oliver, the Stamp Distributer for Mas- sachusetts, accompanied by emblems of Lord Bute and Prime Minister Gren- ville. That night an "amazing multi- tude," bearing these effigies on a bier, passed down the main street of Boston and tramped through the State House crying "Liberty ! Liberty !" "Prop- erty!" and "No Stamps !" The effigies were then burned ; the house in which it was thought the stamps were to be stored was torn down; the residence of Stamp Distributer Oliver was broken into and many of its furnishings were destroyed, while he was * See page 482. last paragraph, and pages 548 and 549.
t In many towns and villages at that period all notices, bulletins and other written or printed matter issued by the Sons of Liberty were posted on a particular tree, selected for the purpose and named the "Liberty Tree." Sometimes a tall pole, specially erected, took the place of a tree and was designated as the "Liberty Tree." There the citizens gathered, read the bulletins, discussed the latest public events, listened to political harangues and sang patriotic songs. The following is an authentic account of the dedication of an immense elm as a "Liberty Tree" by the Sons of Liberty in Providence, Rhode Island, July 25, 1768.
"A large concourse of people assembled, and an animated discourse was delivered, from the Summer- house which had been erected in the tree, by Silas Downer, a graduate of Harvard and a rising lawyer, after which the people in the Summer-house laid their hands on the tree, and the orator pronounced aloud these words : 'We do therefore, in the name and behalf of all the true Sons of Liberty in America, Great Britain, Ireland, Corsica, or wheresoever they are dispersed throughout the world, dedicate and solemnly devote this tree to be a Tree of Liberty ! May all our councils and deliberations under its venerable branches be guided by wisdom and directed to the support and maintenance of that liberty which our renowned forefathers sought out and found under trees and in the wilderness. May it long flourish, and may the Sons of Liberty often repair hither to confirm and strengthen each other. When they look to- ward this sacred elm may they be penetrated with a sense of their duty to themselves, their country and their posterity. And may they, like the house of David, grow stronger and stronger, while their enemies, like the house of Saul, grow weaker and weaker. Amen !' "
The following stanzas are from a poem entitled "Liberty Tree," written by the famous Thomas Paine and published in The Pennsylvania Magazine in 1775.
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forced to resign his office .* 'Twelve days later a crowd gathered around a bonfire in front of the State House ; the records of the Vice Admiralty Court were collected and tossed into the flames; the house of the Comptroller of Customs at the port of Boston was turned inside out. Thomas Hutchinson, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, found him- self obliged, on the night of August 26th, to flee for his life, and when he returned to the city-after order was restored-found his house had been pillaged of money, plate, valuable manuscripts and books.
In May information came from London to Philadelphia that, at the instance of Benjamin Franklin (still in London), John Hughes, t of Philadelphia, had been appointed Stamp Distributer for Pennsylvania. Early in September Mr. Hughes wrote to Dr. Franklin as follows :
"The flame of rebellion is got to a high pitch among the North Americans, and it seems to me that a sort of frenzy, or madness, has got such hold of the people of all ranks that some lives will be lost before this fire is put out. I am at present much perplexed what course to steer, for, as I have given you reason to expect I would put the [Stamp] Act in execution, I cannot, in point of honor, go back, until something or other is done by the people to render it impossible for me to proceed. * * When it is known I have received my commission I fancy I shall not escape the storm of Presbyterian rage. My doom will soon be known ; but whether I may live to inform you, is yet in the womb of Futurity. By Gov. [William] Franklin's letters, and by my last, you will see that Mr. Cox has resigned the Stamp Office for New Jersey. * * I shall be exceedingly obliged to you, if it is consistent with your judgment, to recommend ny son Hugh for Mr. Cox's successor. My son is married and settled in New Jersey, and has a good estate, both real and personal."
On September 11th the Pennsylvania Assembly appointed Joseph Fox, George Bryan, John Morton and John Dickinson§ delegates to at- tend the congress to be held in New York early in the following month (see page 589), and on September 21st the Assembly adopted a series of resolutions, including the following :
"Resolved, That it is the inherent birthright and indubitable privilege of every British subject to be taxed only by his own consent, or that of his legal representatives in conjunction with His Majesty, or his substitutes. That the only legal representatives of the inhabitants of this Province are the persons they annually elect to serve as Members of Assembly. That the vesting an authority in the Courts of Admiralty to decide in suits relating to the stamp duties, and other matters foreign to their proper jurisdiction, is highly dangerous to the liberties of His Majesty's American subjects, contrary to Magna Charta-the great charter and fountain of English liberty-and destructive of one of their most darling and acknowledged rights, that of trials by juries.
"Resolved, That this House think it their duty thus firmly to assert, with modesty and decency, their inherent rights, in order that their posterity may learn and know that it was not with their consent and acquiescence that any taxes should be levied on them by any persons but their own representatives ; and are desirous that these their resolves should remain on their minutes as a testimony of the zeal and ardent desire of the present House of Assembly to preserve their inestimable rights (which, as Englishmen, they have pos- sessed ever since this Province was settled ) and to transmit them to their latest posterity."
On Saturday, October 5th, the stamped paper for Pennsylvania arrived at the port of Philadelphia, the ship which brought it having
"In a chariot of light, from the regions of day, The Goddess of Liberty caine ;
Ten thousand celestials directed the way, And hither conducted the dame.
A fair, budding branch from the gardens above- Where millions with millions agree-
She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love, And the plant she named Liberty Tree ! * * *
*
"But hear, O ye swains ! 'tis a tale most profane, How all the tyrannical powers-
King, Commons and Lords-are uniting amain To cut down this guardian of ours.
From the East to the West blow the trumpet to arms, Through the land let the sound of it flee ;
Let the far and the near all unite with a cheer In defense of our Liberty Tree !"
* The following account of the celebration of the eleventh anniversary of this eventful day has been taken from "American Archives," Fifth Series, I: 972: "Boston, August 15, 1776. Yesterday being the anniversary of the 14th August, 1765, the Sons of Liberty, with a number of their friends, mnet at Liberty Hall and erected a pole on the stump of Liberty Tree (the body of which was cut down by our worse than savage myrmidons the last Winter), where they hoisted the red flag, or flag of defiance. At twelve o'clock a number of patriotic toasts were drunk. A select number likewise met at the 'Bunch of Grapes,' in King Street, where flags were also displayed, and at one o'clock a company of the Train was paraded in King Street, with two field-pieces, which were discharged thirteen times; after which a number of patriotic toasts were drunk and three cheers given.
+ Mentioned on pages 359-362 and 369-371.
# See Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, II : 249. § Later the author of the "Farmer's Letters" mentioned on page 548.
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been anchored for some time at Newcastle on the Delaware, under pro- tection of a man-of-war. When the two ships first appeared, coming round Gloucester Point, all the vessels in the harbor hoisted their colors to half-staff, the bells of the State House and Christ Church, muffled, were tolled until evening, and two negroes (one of whom belonged to Alderman Samuel Mifflin) beat muffled drums throughout all parts of the city during the day. All inquirers as to the why and wherefore of the bell-tolling and drum-beating were directed to repair to the State House for information ; in consequence whereof several thousand citizens had assembled there by four o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. Hughes, writing a few days later of the events of this day, said :
"Accordingly the mob collected, chiefly Presbyterians and Proprietary emissaries, with Chief Justice William Allen's son at their head, animating and encouraging the lower class. I am well informed that great numbers of the ringleaders and promoters of this meeting declared and vowed destruction to my person and property if I refused to gratify them in their demands."
A meeting having been formally organized, "to consult on proper measures to prevent the execution of the Stamp Act," it was resolved to send a committee to Stamp Distributer Hughes (who was ill in bed at his home) to request him to resign his office. This committee was com- posed of James Tilghinan, Esq., an attorney-at-law (mentioned in a note on page 489), Robert Morris, Charles Thomson (mentioned on page 354), Archibald McCall, John Cox and William Richards, merchants, and William Bradford, a printer and publisher. On the following Mon- day, at a large meeting of citizens held at Free Masons' Hall, the above- mentioned committee reported that Mr. Hughes had formally announced his resignation of the office to the Lieutenant Governor of the Province -John Penn. Some days later Mr. Hughes wrote to the Commissioners of the Stamp Office in London in part as follows* :
"I am extremely obnoxious to the Governor, and that for no other reason than that I have constantly, while I have been in the Assembly, endeavored to promote the King's interest. I am also unfortunate enough to be particularly hateful to the Chief Justice [William Allen], because I have charged him with being a rebel, upon his saying that if ever the government were changed we should find the King's little finger heavier than the Proprietors' loins. * * I also am particularly hateful to the Proprietary party be- cause it was my interest, assiduity and influence in the House of Assembly that enabled the Province to send home Doctor Franklin, to present our petitions for a change of government from Proprietary to Royal. It is my private opinion that if the Province of Pennsylvania were changed from Proprietary to a Royal government, and some person appointed to govern it that had both interest among the people and a perfect knowledge of them-so as to be able to displace the disloyal, and put in power and commission such only as could be depended on and have demonstrated their loyalty to their King-such a person, after the changes aforesaid, might easily govern this Province, preserve the peace of it and keep it in subjection to His Majesty-which I think we hardly are at this time. "Common justice calls upon me to say that the body of the people called Quakers seem disposed to pay obedience to the Stamp Act ; and so do that part of the Church of England, and Baptists, that are not some way under Proprietary influence. But Presby- terians and Proprietary minions spare no pains to engage the Dutch and lower class of people, and render the Royal government odious. If His Majesty and his Ministers knew the pains taken by the Proprietary partizans to give a wrong bias to the minds of His Majesty's subjects, I am confident they would not suffer the powers of government to remain six months in the hands of any Proprietor on the continent."
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