History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 35

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 35

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FRANKLIN AT THE AGE OF TWENTY.

1 Bancroft, vol. iii, p. 167.

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liberty and our country than wait until it is too late." Pontiac proposed the gigantic plan of uniting all the northwestern tribes in a simultaneous attack upon the whole frontier. The forts and garrisons were to be taken by force or artful stratagems by separate parties on the same day, the border settlements were to be attacked in the harvest season, and men, women and children were to be killed or carried into captiv- ity. The events which speedily followed crimson the annals of our early history. The forts of Presque Isle, Le Bœuf, Venango, St. Joseph and Michilimack- inae were taken with a general slaughter of their garrisons, while those of Bedford, Ligonier, and Pitt were preserved through great loss and privation.

The frontier settlements among and near the mountains were overrun with scalping-parties, mark- ing their track with blood and fire. Of one hundred and twenty English traders located on the line of operations, only three escaped the general massaere. Consternation spread throughout the colony, and thousands of settlers refuged from the Juniata and Susquehanna, fleeing with their families and flocks for shelter to Carlisle, Lancaster, and Reading.

John Penn, grandson of William Penn, was then Governor, and heartily seconded the efforts of General

John denn

Gage to repel the invasion. His conduct was in strange contrast with that of his great progenitor. He published his proclamation in July, 1764, offering the following bounties for the capture or scalps and death of Indians: "For every male above the age of ten years captured, one hundred and fifty dollars ; scalped, being killed, one hundred and thirty-four dollars; for every female Indian enemy, and every male under the age of ten years, captured, one hun- dred and thirty dollars ; for every female above the age of ten years, sealped, being killed, fifty dollars."

The military operations conducted by Colonel Bouquet in the autumn of 1764 were successful.

Henry Bouquet

The Indians were overawed and sued for peace. The Delawares, Shawnees and Senecas agreed to cease hostilities, and in token of their good faith sur- rendered a large number of prisoners, among them many women and children, whose safe return glad- dened many hearts and homes in Pennsylvania.

All wars are costly, and this last one had entailed large expenses that now must be met. Taxation was the basis of eredit, and a revival of the subject in the Assembly raised anew the controversy between the people and the proprietaries. The Governor used his influence in shielding his family estates from their equitable share of the public burden, debtors became clamorous, and finally the Assembly was compelled to provide for the necessities of the prov- ince, and the supplies were granted ; but the conduet of the executive so incensed the Assembly that they determined by a large majority to petition to the King to purchase the proprietary interests and vest them in the crown for the common welfare.

The taxable resources of the province and the ne- cessary consumption of two hundred thousand people now began to attraet the attention of the ministry, and the measures adopted by the British government to replenish its home treasury by a grievous system of taxation upon all the American colonies introduced a new and absorbing subject of great public interest. The policy of England was to secure the mo-

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nopoly of manufactured articles, to encourage her home population of artisans, to develop maritime enterprise, and by legislation perpetu- ate the dependency of her distant colonies. This policy involved the question of taxing a people with- out their consent and without allowing them a repre- sentation in the Parliament laying the tax. It was at this period in the colonial era, and in the well-con- certed but ill-advised efforts to enforce this policy, that those convictions of hostility that later developed in revolution were inspired. No period in the his- tory of our country can be studied with greater ad- vantage than that from 1765 to 1776. Colonies fringed the Atlantic from Massachusetts Bay to Florida. They emerged from a wilderness and were possessed by two millions of people, who were pressing west- ward to civilize a continent. The frontier line re- quired the presence of an army of ten thousand troops ; the cost of these required an annual expenditure of one million five hundred thousand dollars. Naturally the home government felt that the colonies should bear a part of this expense. On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act was passed. It consisted of fifty-five

AMERICA

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LIOS INCH

ENS

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BRITISH STAMP.

resolutions embracing all details, and making all ; propose an American representation in Parliament,

offenses against it cognizable in the Courts of Admi- ralty without any trial by jury.

To prove the fitness of the tax, George Grenville argued that the colonies had a right to demand pro- tection from Parliament, and Parliament, in return, had a right to enforce a revenue from the colonies; that protection implied an army, an army must re- ceive pay, and pay required taxes ; that, on the peace, it was found necessary to maintain a body of ten thousand men, at a cost of three hundred thousand pounds, most of which was a new expense ; that the duties and taxes already imposed or designed would not yield more than one hundred thousand pounds, so that England would still have to advance two- thirds of the new expense; that it was reasonable for the colonies to contribute this one-third part of the ex- pense necessary for their own security ; that the debt of England was one hundred and forty millions sterling, of America but eight hundred thousand pounds ; that the increase of annual taxes in England within ten years was three millions, while all the establishments

of America, according to accounts which were pro- duced, cost the Americans but seventy-five thousand pounds.

The charters of the colonies were referred to, and Grenville interpreted their meaning. The clause under which a special exemption was claimed for Maryland was read, and he argued that the province, upon a public emergency, is subject to taxation, in like manner with the rest of the colonies, or the sovereignty over it would cease; and if it were otherwise, why is there a duty on its staple of tobacco ? and why is it bound at present by several acts affecting all America, and passed since the grant of its charter ? Besides, all charters, he insisted, were under the control of the Legislature. "The colonies claim, it is true," he continued, "the privilege which is common to all British subjects, of being taxed only with their own consent, given by their representatives, and may they ever enjoy the privilege in all its extent ; may this sacred pledge of liberty be preserved inviolate to the utmost verge of our dominions, and to the latest pages of our history. 1 woukl never lend my hand towards forging chains for America, lest in so doing I should forge them for myself. But the re- monstrances of the Americans fail in the great point of the colonies not being represented in Parliament, which is the common council of the whole empire, and as such is as capable of imposing internal taxes as impost duties, or taxes on intercolonial trade, or laws of navigation."

The House was full, and all present seemed to acquiesce in silence. Beckford, a member for London, a friend of Pitt, and himself a large owner of West India estates, without disputing the supreme authority of Parliament, declared his opinion that "taxing America for the sake of raising a revenne would never do." Jackson, who had concerted with Grenville to spoke and voted against the resolutions. "The Par- liament," he argued, "may choose whether they will tax America or not; they have a right to tax Ireland, yet do not exercise that right. Still stronger objec- tions may be urged against their taxing America. Other ways of raising the moneys there requisite for the public service exist and have not yet failed ; but the colonies in general have with alacrity contrib- nted to the common cause. It is hard all should suffer for the fault of two or three. Parliament is, undoubtedly, the universal, unlimited legislature of the British dominions, but it should voluntarily set bounds to the exercise of its power ; and, if the ma- jority think they ought not to set these bounds, then they should give a share of the election of the legislature to the American colonies; otherwise the liberties of America I do not say will be lost, but will be in danger, and they cannot be injured without danger to the liberties of Great Britain."

Grenville had urged the House not to suffer them- selves to be moved by resentment. One member,

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however, referred, with asperity, to the votes of New York and Massachusetts; and it is generally held that America was as virtually represented in Parlia- ment as the great majority of the inhabitants of Great Britain.

Isaac Barre, the companion and friend of Wolfe, sharer of the dangers and glories of Louisburg and Quebec, seemed to admit the power of Parliament to tax America, yet derided the idea of virtual rep- resentation. "Who of you, reasoning upon this subject, feels warmly from the heart?" he cried, putting his hand to his breast. "Who of you feels for the Americans as you would for yourselves, or as you would for the people of your own native country ?" And he taunted the House with its ignorance of Americau affairs,

The charge of ignorance called upon his feet Charles Townshend, the professed master of them. He confirmed the equity of taxation, and insisted that the colonies had borne but a small proportion of the expense of the last war, and had yet obtained by it immense advantages at a vast expense to the mother- country. "And now," said he, " will these American children, plauted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence to a degree of strength and opulence, aud protected by our arms, grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy burden under which we lie ? "

As he sat down Barré rose, and, with eyes darting fire and outstretched arm, uttered an unpremeditated reply,-

" They planted by vorR care ! No; your oppression planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated, unhos- pitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost all the hard- ships 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 upon the face of God's earth; and yet, actuated 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 heen 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 persons 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 beliavior un many occasions have caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them ; men promoted to the highest seats of jus- tice, 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 yieldled all its little savings to your emolu- ment. 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 my heart. However superior to me in general kuowledge and experience the respectable body of this Honse may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of yon, having seen 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 this subject is too delicate ; I will say no more."

As Barré spoke, there sat in the gallery Ingersoll, of Connecticut, a semi-royalist, yet joint agent for

that province. Delighted with the speech, he made a report of it, which the next packet carried across the Atlantic. The lazy post of that day brought it in nearly three months to New London, in Connecticut, and it was printed in the newspaper of that vil- lage. May had not shed its blossoms before the words of Barré were as household words in every New England town. Midsummer saw them circulate through Canada in French, and the continent rung from end to end with the cheering name of the Sons of Liberty. But at St. Stephen's the members ouly observed that Townshend had received a heavy blow. The opponents of the measure dared not risk a division on the merits of the question, but abont midnight, after a languid debate of seven hours, Beckford moved an adjournment, which Sir William Meredith seconded; and, though they were aided by all those interested in West Indian estates, it was carried against America by two hundred and forty- five to forty nine. Conway and Beckford alone were said to have denied power of Parliament, and it is doubtful how far it was questioned even by them.

While this debate was proceeding, faith in Eng- lish liberty was conquering friends for England in new regions. The people of Louisiana, impatient of being transferred from France, would gla lly have exchanged the dominion of Spain for that of Eng- land. Officers from West Florida reached Fort Chartres, preparatory to taking possession of the country, which was still delayed by the discontent of the Indians. With the same object, Croghan and a party descended the Ohio from Pittsburg. A plan was formed to connect Mobile and Illinois. The Governor of North Carolina believed that by pushing trade up the Missouri, a way to the great western ocean would be discovered, and an open trade to it be established ; so wide was the territory, so vast the interests for which the British Parliament was legis- Iating.

On the 7th of February, Grenville, Lord North and Jenkinson, with others, were ordered to bring in a stamp bill for America, which, on the 13th, was introduced by Grenville himself, who read the first without a syllable of debate. Among the papers that were to be stamped, it enumerated the several instru- ments used in the courts of episcopal jurisdiction, for he reasoned that one day such courts might be es- tablished in America. On the 15th, merchants trading to Jamaica offered a petition against it, and prayed to be heard by counsel. "No counselor of this kingdom," said Fuller, formerly chief justice of Jamaica, " would come to the bar of this House and question its authority to tax America. Were he to do so, he would not remain there long." It was the rule of the House "to receive no petition against a money bill," and the petition was withdrawn.

Next, Sir William Meredith, in behalf of Virginia, presented a paper in which Montague, its agent, interweaving expressions from the votes of the As-

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sembly of the Old Dominion, prayed that its House of | Burgesses might be continued in the possesion of the rights and privileges they had so long and uninter- ruptedly enjoyed, and might be heard. Against this, too, the same objection existed. But Virginia found an advocate in Conway. Indignant at his recent dismissal from the army, as he rose in opposition to Grenville, his cheeks flushed, and he was tremulous from emotion.

"Shall we shut our ears," he argued, "against the representations which have come from the colonies, and for receiving which we, with an affectation of can- dor, allotted sufficient time? For my own part, I must declare myself just as much in the dark as I was the last year. My way of life does not engage me in intercourse with commercial gentlemen or those who have any knowledge of the colonies. I declare, upon my honor, I expected, as a member sitting in this House, in consequence of the notice given, to receive from the colonies information by which my judgment might be directed and my conduct regulated. The light which I desire the colonists alone can give. The practice of receiving no petitions against money bills is but one of con- venience, from which, in this instance, if in no other, we ought to vary ; for from whom, unless from them- selves, are we to learn the circumstances of the colonies, and the fatal consequences that may follow the imposing of this tax? The question regards two millions of people, none of whom are represented in Parliament. Gentlemen can not be serious when they insist even on their being virtually represented. Will any man in this House get up and say he is one of the representatives of the colonies ?"

" The commons," said Gilbert Elliot, "have main- tained against the crown and against the lords their right of solely voting money, without the control of either, any otherwise than by a negative; and will you suffer your colonies to impede the exercise of ; then be debated before the honor of the Legislature

those rights, untouched as they now are by the other branches of the Legislature?"

"Can there be a more declared avowal of your power," retorted Conway, "than a petition submitting this case to your wisdom, and praying to be heard before your tribunal against a tax that will affect them in their privileges, which you at least have suffered, and in their property, which they have ae- quired under your protection ? From a principle of lenity, ot policy and of justice, I am for receiving the petition of a people from whom this country derives its greatest commerce, wealth, and considera- tion."

In reply, Charles Yorke entered into a long and most elaborate defense of the bill, resting his argu- ment on the supreme and sovereign authority of parliament. With a vast display of legal erndition, he insisted that the colonies were but corporations, their power of legislation was but the power of mak- iug by-laws, subject to Parliamentary control. Their

charters could not convey the legislative power of Great Britain, because the prerogative could not grant that power. The charters of the proprietary governments were but his hereditary Governors. The people of America could not be taken ont of the general and supreme jurisdiction of Parliament. The authority of Yorke was decisive; less than forty were willing to receive this petition of Virginia. A third from South Carolina, a fourth from Connecti- cut, though expressed in the most moderate language, a fifth from Massachusetts, though silent about the question of "right," shared the same refusal. That from New York no one could be prevailed npon to present. That from Rhode Island, offered by Sher- wood, its faithful agent, claimed by the charter under a royal promise equal rights with their fellow-subjects in Great Britain, and insisted that the colony had faithfully kept their part of the compaet ; but it was as little heeded as the rest. The House of Commons would neither receive petitions nor hear counsel. All the efforts of the agents of the colonies were fruitless. "We might," said Franklin, "as well have hindered the sun's setting." The tide against the Americans was irresistible. "We have power to tax them," said one of the ministry, "and we will tax them. The nation was provoked by American claims of legislative independence, and all parties joined in resolving by this act to settle the point." Within doors less resistance was made to the act than to a common turnpike bill. "The affair passed with so very little noise that in the town they scarcely knew the nature of what was doing."

On the 27th the House of Commons sent up the Stamp Act to the House of Lords. In that body Rockingham was silent ; Temple and Lyttelton both approved the principle of the measure and the right asserted in it. Had there existed any doubt concerning that right, they were of opinion it should

was engaged to its support. On the 8th of March the bill was agreed to by the lords without having encountered an amendment, debate, protest, division or single dissentient vote.

The King was too ill to ratify the act in person. To a few only was the nature of his affliction known. At the moment of passing the Stamp Act, George INI. was crazed ; so on the 22d of March it received the royal assent by a commission. The sovereign of Great Britain, whose soul was wholly bent on exalt- ing the prerogative, taught the world that a bit of parchment bearing the sign of his hand, scrawled in the flickering light of clouded reason, could, under the British constitution, do the full legislative office of the King. Had he been a private man, his com- mission could have given validity to no instrument whatever. It was thought "prudent to begin with small duties and taxes, and to advance in proportion as it should be found the colonies would bear." For the present Grenville attempted nothing more than

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to increase the revenue from the colonial post-office by reducing the rate of postage in America.

His colleagues desired to extend the mutiny act to America, with power to billet troops on private honses. Clauses for that purpose had been strongly recom- mended by Gage. They had neither the entire convic- tion nor the cordial support of Grenville, so that they were introduced and carried through by the Secretary at War as a separate measure. In their progress, pro- vincial barracks, inns, ale-houses, barns and empty houses were substituted by the merchants and agents for private houses ; but there remained a elause to compel the colonies to furnish the troops with various articles, and the sums needed for the purpose were " required to be raised in such manner as the publie charges for the province are raised."

Thus the billeting aet contained what had never before been heard of,-a Parliamentary requisition on the colonies. Bounties were at the same time granted on the importation of deals, planks, boards and timber from the plantations. Coffee of their growth was exempted from an additional duty; their iron might be borne to Ireland, their lumber to Ireland, Madeira, the Azores and Europe south of Cape Finisterre; the prohibition on exporting their bar-iron from England was removed; the rice of North Carolina was as much liberated as that of South Carolina, and rice might be warehoused in England for re-exportation without advancing the duties. It was further pro- vided that the revenue to be derived from the Stamp Aet should not be remitted to England, but constitute a part of the sum to be expended in America. Gren- ville also resolved to select the stamp officers for America from among the Americans themselves. The friends and agents of the colonies were invited to make the nominations, and they did so. Franklin among the rest. "You tell me," said the minister, " you are poor and unable to bear the tax; others tell me you are able. Now, take the business in your own hands; you will see how and where it pinches and will certainly let us know it, in which case it shall be eased."

Not one of the American agents in England "im- agined the colonies would think of disputing the stamp tax with Parliament at the pointof the sword." " It is our duty to submit" had been the words of Otis. "We yield obedience to the aet granting duties" had been uttered by the Legislature of Massachusetts. " If Parliament, in their superior wisdom, shall pass the act, we must submit," wrote Fitch, the Governor of Connecticut, elected by the people, to Jackson. "It can be of no purpose to claim a right of exemption," thought Hutchinson. "It will fall particularly hard on us lawyers and printers," wrote Franklin to a friend in Philadelphia, never doubting it would go into effect and looking for relief to the rapid increase of the people of America. The agent for Massachusetts had recommended it. Knox, the agent for Georgia, wrote publicly in its favor.

Still less did the statesmen of England doubt the result. Thomas Pownall, who had been so much in the colonies and really had an affection for them, congratulated Grenville in advance "on the good effects he would see derived to Great Britain and to the colonies from his firmness and candor in conduct- ing the American business." No tax was ever laid with more general approbation. The act seemed sure to enforce itself. Unless stamps were used, marriages would be null, notes of hand valueless, ships of sea prizes to the first captors, suits at law impossible, transfers of real estate invalid, inheritances irreclaim- able. Of all who acted with Grenville in the govern- ment, he never heard one prophesy that the measure would be resisted. " He did not foresee the opposi- tion to it, and would have staked his life for obedi- ence."

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 35

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534