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related, by the peace of 1763. By this peace Great Britain had become mistress of the seas, and arbiter of the world. The colonies had triumphed over the French in the war, and laid the foundation of a lasting Indian peace.* When this war was closed, the British ministry, sensible that a people possessing the energies, and resources of the American colonies, supported by such a system of wise and virtuous institutions, whose hearts glowed with the purest principles of civil and religious liberty, and whose rich, and extensive country opened a vast theatre, upon which these principles combined, would soon display the character of a great, powerful, and independent nation. A question at once arose in the councils of England, what measures will become most effectual, to secure to Britain, a permanent sovereignty over these rising colonies? In this momentous question, her councils were divided. The one part were in favour of mild, and gentle measures, and at the head of these, stood the illustrious Earl of Chatham. The other part were for bold and energetic measures, and at the head of these, stood a North, and a Bute. The measures of the latter, comported well with the elevated pride, with which the successes, and triumphs of the last war, had inspired the haughty councils of Britain; and her evil genius, set at defiance the wise counsels of a Pitt t; and these were the measures she pursued, to feed the malice, and jealousy of her enemies, as well as to ruin her own best interest. Her avarice led her to commence a system of taxation, on her colonies, under the pretext of a just remuneration of her expenses in the war; and to effect this, she commenced with a regular system of duties on merchandize. At this time, the navigation act of Great-Britain, was rigidly enforced, by which she engrossed the whole commerce of the colonies, excepting such

For the particulars of this war, see the history of New-England in the first volume of this work..

VOL. III.

as was carried on in a clandestine manner, with the colo nies of France, and Spain, and even this was directly to the advantage of Britain, for this commerce furnished the colonies with gold and silver, that enabled them to make regular remittances, in their regular trade with the mother country. From the regular trade of the colonies, under this navigation act, Great-Britain derived a revenue from her American colonies, first by her profits on her extensive manufactures, and next by the duties drawn from this commerce, both which ought to have shewn her, where her true interest lay, and have led her to rest contented, with such a permanent revenue. This was a degree of wisdom she did not possess; but her jealously of her colonies, under such a flourishing commerce; and her avarice, as well as haughty imperious lust of domination, led her to check this free commerce, by a system of duties, that should amount to a general prohibition, sanctioned by the following act of Parliament." Whereas it is just, and necessary that a revenue be raised in America, for defraying the expenses of defending, securing, and protecting the same. We the commons, &c. towards raising the same, give, and grant unto your majesty, the sum of" to be levied upon the following articles, and at the ratio therein specified. Viz. Upon all foreign clayed sugars, indigo and coffee, all foreign produce, upon all wines, except French, upon all wrought silks, and all callicoes, and upon molasses, and syrups, being the produce of a colony not under the dominion of Great Britain. All which duties were ordered by the said act to be paid into his majesty's exchequer, and there specially appro. priated for the protection, and benefit of the American colonies. All this was plausible; but the colonies, who had held the purse strings in their own councils, against their own governors, with such a jealous eye, saw, or fancied they saw, the evils that lay concealed behind this

thin covering; took the alarm, and were determined to resist the usurpation at the threshold.

The act went on to enforce the collection of these duties, in the courts of admiralty, which increased the alarm in the colonies, because it deprived them of the right of trial by jury, which in that land of liberty, was an inestimable privilege, and not to be violated with impunity. The act also declared, that all duties aforesaid, should be paid in specie, which was a severe blow to their paper currency; and the more so, as these duties were designed to destroy that commerce, from which alone, the colonies derived their specie, to carry on their regular commerce with Britain. Added to all this, the admiralty judge, must of course be an officer of the crown, and bis pay was to be derived from the penalties, and forfeitures, arising from his adjudications; and these were to follow the complaint, unless the defendant could prove his innocence.

This was the closing scene of the whole matter; here was despotism in the abstract, here was usurpation, and tryranny without a covering. Here was a bounty on informers, the worst of knaves; here was a graud commercial inquisition, caculated to fill the colonies with spies; and the reputation, as well as the peace, and interest of every honest man, was at stake, unless he was always prepared to prove his innocence, against the charges of a set of venal spies, informers, and cut-throats; or in other words, unless he could always prove a negative, which to say the least of it, is perhaps of all other things the most difficult. Well might the colonies take an alarm, at such a bold stretch of power, and well might they sound the alarm through the country.

The sons of those sires, who had fled from the cruel persecutions of the mother country, to seek an asylum in the wilds of America, did sound the alarm, and the whole country took the alarm, as if by the voice of inspiration,

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and rallied round the standard of liberty, to protect their rights. The restrictions on trade, under the navigation act of 1660, were borne with patience, because they were considered as of national utility, and neither expressed, or implied a grant to the crown, by the way of raising a revenue, and the period of one whole century had elapsed, without producing one serious complaint from the colonies, against that act; but in this revenue act, the sagacious politicians of America saw a cloud arising, that would obscure their dearest rights, as well as the purest principles of liberty, forever. It had been a maxim, interwoven with the principles of liberty, in the fundamental principles of the colonial governments, "that taxation and representation were, and ought to be, inseparably connected." From this principle, they discovered, that if Britain could claim and exercise the right of raising a revenue upon the colonies, by the way of duties, in one instance, she could, by the same right, impose on the colonies, that whole sys-tem of oppressive duties, under which her own subjects then groaned, and have continued to groan, to this day; together with a direct tax on their lands. Impressed with the reality and importance of these truths, they demanded, by way of petition to the crown, that the taxes might be removed, and the colonies left to tax themselves, or be admitted to an equal representation in the government. During these struggles of liberty, the duties were rigidly enforced, and the naval commanders, stationed upon the American coast to prevent smuggling, were compelled to act in the capacity of the meanest revenue officers, under the usual custom-house oaths. These duties were not familiar to men of their elevated stations and feelings, and great irregularities ensued, and no redress could be obtained, short of the admiralty courts of Great-Britain, which were distant, difficult, and expensive. Stung with the keenest sensibilities at this cruel injustice, at the moment

when the united efforts of the colonies had given those energies to the military operations of Britain, that had, under God, crowned her arms with victory, conquest and glory, they resolved to make a dignified resistance against the usurpations of Britain, and seek an honorable redress: of their wrongs.

The general court of Massachusetts, in June, 1764, ap" pointed a committee of correspondence, for the express purpose of inviting the legislatures of the other colonies, to co-operate in one bond of general union, in resisting the. oppressive measures of Britain, and in seeking relief by the way of petition to the crown. Committees were generally appointed by the legislatures of the other colonies, at the same time, and for the same purpose, and a general correspondence was opened throughout the colonies," which called up the general attention of the people, and led to a general enquiry, which also promoted a general union of sentiment and interest. In October following, the Massachusetts general court, by their special committee, drew up a petition to his majesty, in which they did not deny the right of parliament to tax the colonies; but in the most dutiful and loyal manner, urged their grief and oppressions, under this vexatious mode of collecting a revenue, by the way of duties, and prayed that their burthens' might be removed, and that the indulgence which they had ever enjoyed, in the exclusive right of taxing themselves, might again be restored. This petition was forwarded by his excellency Governor Bernard, accompanied with a letter to Lord Halifax, stating "that the colony of Massachusetts was the only colony that did busines upon a specie. currency." [See the History of New-England in the first volume of this work.] In which letter the writer goes on to state-"But I fear, that if the great sums which are expected to be raised in America, are to be transmitted to England, there will soon be an end of the specie currency

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