force of these examples in the acts of Parliament, avail anything, what
can be said against applying them with regard to America? Are not the
people of America as much Englishmen as the Welsh? The preamble of the
act of Henry the Eighth says, the Welsh speak a language no way
resembling that of his Majesty's English subjects. Are the Americana not
as numerous? If we may trust the learned and accurate Judge Barrington's
account of North Wales, and take that as a standard to measure the
rest, there is no comparison. The people cannot amount to above 200,000:
not a tenth part of the number in the colonies. Is America in rebellion?
Wales was hardly ever free from it. Have you attempted to govern America
by penal statutes? You made fifteen for Wales. But your legislative
authority is perfect with regard to America: was it less perfect in
Wales, Chester, and Durham? But America is virtually represented. What!
does the electric force of virtual representation more easily pass over
the Atlantic than pervade Wales, which lies in your neighborhood? or
than Chester and Durham, surrounded by abundance of representation that
is actual and palpable? But, Sir, your ancestors thought this sort of
virtual representation, however ample, to be totally insufficient for
the freedom of the inhabitants of territories that are so near, and
comparatively so inconsiderable. How, then, can I think it sufficient
for those which are infinitely greater, and infinitely more remote?
You will now, Sir, perhaps imagine that I am on the point of proposing
to you a scheme for a representation of the colonies in Parliament.
Perhaps I might be inclined to entertain some such thought; but a great
flood stops me in my course. _Opposuit Natura._ I cannot remove the
eternal barriers of the creation. The thing, in that mode, I do not know
to be possible. As I meddle with no theory, I do not absolutely assert
the impracticability of such a representation; but I do not see my way
to it; and those who have been more confident have not been more
successful. However, the arm of public benevolence is not shortened; and
there are often several means to the same end. What Nature has
disjoined in one way wisdom may unite in another. When we cannot give
the benefit as we would wish, let us not refuse it altogether. If we
cannot give the principal, let us find a substitute. But how? where?
what substitute?
Fortunately, I am not obliged, for the ways and means of this
substitute, to tax my own unproductive invention. I am not even obliged
to go to the rich treasury of the fertile framers of imaginary
commonwealths: not to the Republic of Plato, not to the Utopia of More,
not to the Oceana of Harrington. It is before me,--it is at my feet,--
"And the rude swain
Treads daily on it with his clouted shoon."
I only wish you to recognize, for the theory, the ancient constitutional
policy of this kingdom with regard to representation, as that policy has
been declared in acts of Parliament,--and as to the practice, to return
to that mode which an uniform experience has marked out to you as best,
and in which you walked with security, advantage, and honor, until the
year 1763.
My resolutions, therefore, mean to establish the equity and justice of a
taxation of America by _grant_, and not by _imposition_; to mark the
_legal competency_ of the colony assemblies for the support of their
government in peace, and for public aids in time of war; to acknowledge
that this legal competency has had a _dutiful and beneficial exercise_,
and that experience has shown _the benefit of their grants_, and _the
futility of Parliamentary taxation, as a method of supply_.
These solid truths compose six fundamental propositions. There are three
more resolutions corollary to these. If you admit the first set, you can
hardly reject the others. But if you admit the first, I shall be far
from solicitous whether you accept or refuse the last. I think these six
massive pillars will be of strength sufficient to support the temple of
British concord. I have no more doubt than I entertain of my existence,
that, if you admitted these, you would command an immediate peace, and,
with but tolerable future management, a lasting obedience in America. I
am not arrogant in this confident assurance. The propositions are all
mere matters of fact; and if they are such facts as draw irresistible
conclusions even in the stating, this is the power of truth, and not any
management of mine.
Sir, I shall open the whole plan to you together, with such observations
on the motions as may tend to illustrate them, where they may want
explanation.
The first is a resolution,--"That the colonies and plantations of Great
Britain in North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments,
and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, have not
had the liberty and privilege of electing and sending any knights and
burgesses, or others, to represent them in the high court of
Parliament."
This is a plain matter of fact, necessary to be laid down, and
(excepting the description) it is laid down in the language of the
Constitution; it is taken nearly _verbatim_ from acts of Parliament.
The second is like unto the first,--"That the said colonies and
plantations have been made liable to, and bounden by, several subsidies,
payments, rates, and taxes, given and granted by Parliament, though the
said colonies and plantations have not their knights and burgesses in
the said high court of Parliament, of their own election, to represent
the condition of their country; by lack whereof they have been
oftentimes touched and grieved by subsidies, given, granted, and
assented to, in the said court, in a manner prejudicial to the common
wealth, quietness, rest, and peace of the subjects inhabiting within the
same."
Is this description too hot or too cold, too strong or too weak? Does it
arrogate too much to the supreme legislature? Does it lean too much to
the claims of the people? If it runs into any of these errors, the fault
is not mine. It is the language of your own ancient acts of Parliament.
Non meus hic sermo, sed quæ præcepit Ofellus
Rusticus, abnormis sapiens.
It is the genuine produce of the ancient, rustic, manly, home-bred sense
of this country. I did not dare to rub off a particle of the venerable
rust that rather adorns and preserves than destroys the metal. It would
be a profanation to touch with a tool the stones which construct the
sacred altar of peace. I would not violate with modern polish the
ingenuous and noble roughness of these truly constitutional materials.
Above all things, I was resolved not to be guilty of tampering,--the
odious vice of restless and unstable minds. I put my foot in the tracks
of our forefathers, where I can neither wander nor stumble. Determining
to fix articles of peace, I was resolved not to be wise beyond what was
written; I was resolved to use nothing else than the form of sound
words, to let others abound in their own sense, and carefully to abstain
from all expressions of my own. What the law has said, I say. In all
things else I am silent. I have no organ but for her words. This, if it
be not ingenious, I am sure is safe.
There are, indeed, words expressive of grievance in this second
resolution, which those who are resolved always to be in the right will
deny to contain matter of fact, as applied to the present case; although
Parliament thought them true with regard to the Counties of Chester and
Durham. They will deny that the Americans were ever "touched and
grieved" with the taxes. If they consider nothing in taxes but their
weight as pecuniary impositions, there might be some pretence for this
denial. But men may be sorely touched and deeply grieved in their
privileges, as well as in their purses. Men may lose little in property
by the act which takes away all their freedom. When a man is robbed of a
trifle on the highway, it is not the twopence lost that constitutes the
capital outrage. This is not confined to privileges. Even ancient
indulgences withdrawn, without offence on the part of those who enjoyed
such favors, operate as grievances. But were the Americans, then, not
touched and grieved by the taxes, in some measure, merely as taxes? If
so, why were they almost all either wholly repealed or exceedingly
reduced? Were they not touched and grieved even by the regulating duties
of the sixth of George the Second? Else why were the duties first
reduced to one third in 1764, and afterwards to a third of that third in
the year 1766? Were they not touched and grieved by the Stamp Act? I
shall say they were, until that tax is revived. Were they not touched
and grieved by the duties of 1767, which were likewise repealed, and
which Lord Hillsborough tells you (for the ministry) were laid contrary
to the true principle of commerce? Is not the assurance given by that
noble person to the colonies of a resolution to lay no more taxes on
them an admission that taxes would touch and grieve them? Is not the
resolution of the noble lord in the blue riband, now standing on your
journals, the strongest of all proofs that Parliamentary subsidies
really touched and grieved them? Else why all these changes,
modifications, repeals, assurances, and resolutions?
The next proposition is,--"That, from the distance of the said colonies,
and from other circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised for
procuring a representation in Parliament for the said colonies."
This is an assertion of a fact. I go no further on the paper; though, in
my private judgment, an useful representation is impossible; I am sure
it is not desired by them, nor ought it, perhaps, by us: but I abstain
from opinions.
The fourth resolution is,--"That each of the said colonies hath within
itself a body, chosen, in part or in the whole, by the freemen,
freeholders, or other free inhabitants thereof, commonly called the
General Assembly, or General Court, with powers legally to raise, levy,
and assess, according to the several usages of such colonies, duties and
taxes towards defraying all sorts of public services."
This competence in the colony assemblies is certain. It is proved by the
whole tenor of their acts of supply in all the assemblies, in which the
constant style of granting is, "An aid to his Majesty"; and acts
granting to the crown have regularly, for near a century, passed the
public offices without dispute. Those who have been pleased
paradoxically to deny this right, holding that none but the British
Parliament can grant to the crown, are wished to look to what is done,
not only in the colonies, but in Ireland, in one uniform, unbroken
tenor, every session. Sir, I am surprised that this doctrine should come
from Rome of the law servants of the crown. I say, that, if the crown
could be responsible, his Majesty,--but certainly the ministers, and
even these law officers themselves, through whose hands the acts pass
biennially in Ireland, or annually in the colonies, are in an habitual
course of committing impeachable offences. What habitual offenders have
been all Presidents of the Council, all Secretaries of State, all First
Lords of Trade, all Attorneys and all Solicitors General! However, they
are safe, as no one impeaches them; and there is no ground of charge
against them, except in their own unfounded theories.
The fifth resolution is also a resolution of fact,--"That the said
general assemblies, general courts, or other bodies legally qualified as
aforesaid, have at sundry times freely granted several large subsidies
and public aids for his Majesty's service, according to their abilities,
when required thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's principal
Secretaries of State; and that their right to grant the same, and their
cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said grants, have been at sundry
times acknowledged by Parliament."
To say nothing of their great expenses in the Indian wars, and not to
take their exertion in foreign ones, so high as the supplies in the year
1695, not to go back to their public contributions in the year 1710, I
shall begin to travel only where the journals give me light,--resolving
to deal in nothing but fact authenticated by Parliamentary record, and
to build myself wholly on that solid basis.
On the 4th of April, 1748,[25] a committee of this House came to the
following resolution:--
"_Resolved_, That it is the opinion of this committee, _that it is just
and reasonable_, that the several provinces and colonies of
Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island be
reimbursed the expenses they have been at in taking and securing to the
crown of Great Britain the island of Caps Breton and its dependencies."
These expenses were immense for such colonies. They were above
200,000_l._ sterling: money first raised and advanced on their public
credit.
On the 28th of January, 1756,[26] a message from the king came to us, to
this effect:--"His Majesty, being sensible of the zeal and vigor with
which his faithful subjects of certain colonies in North America have
exerted themselves in defence of his Majesty's just rights and
possessions, recommends it to this House to take the same into their
consideration, and to enable his Majesty to give them such assistance as
may be _proper reward and encouragement_."
On the 3d of February, 1756,[27] the House came to a suitable
resolution, expressed in words nearly the same as those of the message;
but with the further addition, that the money then voted was as an
_encouragement_ to the colonies to exert themselves with vigor. It will
not be necessary to go through all the testimonies which your own
records have given to the truth of my resolutions. I will only refer you
to the places in the journals:--
Vol. XXVII--16th and 19th May, 1757.
Vol. XXVIII.--June 1st, 1758,--April 26th and 30th, 1759,--March
26th and 31st, and April 28th, 1760,--Jan. 9th and 20th, 1761.
Vol. XXIX.--Jan. 22d and 26th, 1762,--March 14th and 17th, 1763.
Sir, here is the repeated acknowledgment of Parliament, that the
colonies not only gave, but gave to satiety. This nation has formally
acknowledged two things: first, that the colonies had gone beyond their
abilities, Parliament having thought it necessary to reimburse them;
secondly, that they had acted legally and laudably in their grants of
money, and their maintenance of troops, since the compensation is
expressly given as reward and encouragement. Reward is not bestowed for
acts that are unlawful; and encouragement is not held out to things that
deserve reprehension. My resolution, therefore, does nothing more than
collect into one proposition what is scattered through your journals. I
give you nothing but your own; and you cannot refuse in the gross what
you have so often acknowledged in detail. The admission of this, which
will be so honorable to them and to you, will, indeed, be mortal to all
the miserable stories by which the passions of the misguided people have
been engaged in an unhappy system. The people heard, indeed, from the
beginning of these disputes, one thing continually dinned in their ears:
that reason and justice demanded, that the Americans, who paid no taxes,
should be compelled to contribute. How did that fact, of their paying
nothing, stand, when the taxing system began? When Mr. Grenville began
to form his system of American revenue, he stated in this House that the
colonies were then in debt two million six hundred thousand pounds
sterling money, and was of opinion they would discharge that debt in
four years. On this state, those untaxed people were actually subject to
the payment of taxes to the amount of six hundred and fifty thousand a
year. In fact, however, Mr. Grenville was mistaken. The funds given for
sinking the debt did not prove quite so ample as both the colonies and
he expected. The calculation was too sanguine: the reduction was not
completed till some years after, and at different times in different
colonies. However, the taxes after the war continued too great to bear
any addition, with prudence or propriety; and when the burdens imposed
in consequence of former requisitions were discharged, our tone became
too high to resort again to requisition. No colony, since that time,
ever has had any requisition whatsoever made to it.
We see the sense of the crown, and the sense of Parliament, on the
productive nature of a _revenue by grant_. Now search the same journals
for the produce of the _revenue by imposition_. Where is it?--let us
know the volume and the page. What is the gross, what is the net
produce? To what service is it applied? How have you appropriated its
surplus?--What! can none of the many skilful index-makers that we are
now employing find any trace of it?--Well, let them and that rest
together.--But are the journals, which say nothing of the revenue, as
silent on the discontent?--Oh, no! a child may find it. It is the
melancholy burden and blot of every page.
I think, then, I am, from those journals, justified in the sixth and
last resolution, which is,--"That it hath been found by experience, that
the manner of granting the said supplies and aids by the said general
assemblies hath been more agreeable to the inhabitants of the said
colonies, and more beneficial and conducive to the public service, than
the mode of giving and granting aids and subsidies in Parliament, to be
raised and paid in the said colonies."
This makes the whole of the fundamental part of the plan. The conclusion
is irresistible. You cannot say that you were driven by any necessity to
an exercise of the utmost rights of legislature. You cannot assert that
you took on yourselves the task of imposing colony taxes, from the want
of another legal body that is competent to the purpose of supplying the
exigencies of the state without wounding the prejudices of the people.
Neither is it true, that the body so qualified, and having that
competence, had neglected the duty.
The question now, on all this accumulated matter, is,--Whether you will
choose to abide by a profitable experience or a mischievous theory?
whether you choose to build on imagination or fact? whether you prefer
enjoyment or hope? satisfaction in your subjects, or discontent?
If these propositions are accepted, everything which has been made to
enforce a contrary system must, I take it for granted, fall along with
it. On that ground, I have drawn the following resolution, which, when
it comes to be moved, will naturally be divided in a proper
manner:--"That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the seventh
year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act for
granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in
America; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs, upon the
exportation from this kingdom, of coffee and cocoa-nuts, of the produce
of the said colonies or plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks
payable on China earthen ware exported to America; and for more
effectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in the said
colonies and plantations.'--And also, that it may be proper to repeal an
act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty,
intituled, 'An act to discontinue, in such manner and for such time as
are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or shipping,
of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town and within the harbor of
Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America.'--And
also, that it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth
year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act for the
impartial administration of justice, in the cases of persons questioned
for any acts done by them, in the execution of the law, or for the
suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts
Bay, in New England.'--And also, that it may be proper to repeal an act,
made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty,
intituled,' An act for the better regulating the government of the
province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England.'--And also, that it
may be proper to explain and amend an act, made in the thirty-fifth year
of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, intituled, 'An act for the trial
of treasons committed out of the king's dominions.'"
I wish, Sir, to repeal the Boston Port Bill, because (independently of
the dangerous precedent of suspending the rights of the subject during
the king's pleasure) it was passed, as I apprehend, with less
regularity, and on more partial principles, than it ought. The
corporation of Boston was not heard before it was condemned. Other
towns, full as guilty as she was, have not had their ports blocked up.
Even the Restraining Bill of the present session does not go to the
length of the Boston Port Act. The same ideas of prudence, which induced
you not to extend equal punishment to equal guilt, even when you were
punishing, induce me, who mean not to chastise, but to reconcile, to be
satisfied with the punishment already partially inflicted.
Ideas of prudence and accommodation to circumstances prevent you from
taking away the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, as you have
taken away that of Massachusetts Colony, though the crown has far less
power in the two former provinces than it enjoyed in the latter, and
though the abuses have bean full as great and as flagrant in the
exempted as in the punished. The same reasons of prudence and
accommodation have weight with me in restoring the charter of
Massachusetts Bay. Besides, Sir, the act which changes the charter of
Massachusetts is in many particulars so exceptionable, that, if I did
not wish absolutely to repeal, I would by all means desire to alter it;
as several of its provisions tend to the subversion of all public and
private justice. Such, among others, is the power in the governor to
change the sheriff at his pleasure, and to make a new returning officer
for every special cause. It is shameful to behold such a regulation
standing among English laws.
The act for bringing persons accused of committing murder under the
orders of government to England for trial is but temporary. That act has
calculated the probable duration of our quarrel with the colonies, and
is accommodated to that supposed duration. I would hasten the happy
moment of reconciliation, and therefore must, on my principle, get rid
of that most justly obnoxious act.
The act of Henry the Eighth for the trial of treasons I do not mean to
take away, but to confine it to its proper bounds and original
intention: to make it expressly for trial of treasons (and the greatest
treasons may be committed) in places where the jurisdiction of the crown
does not extend.
Having guarded the privileges of local legislature, I would next secure
to the colonies a fair and unbiased judicature; for which purpose, Sir,
I propose the following resolution:--"That, from the time when the
general assembly, or general court, of any colony or plantation in North
America shall have appointed, by act of assembly duly confirmed, a
settled salary to the offices of the chief justice and other judges of
the superior courts, it may be proper that the said chief justice and
other judges of the superior courts of such colony shall hold his and
their office and offices during their good behavior, and shall not be
removed therefrom, but when the said removal shall be adjudged by his
Majesty in council, upon a hearing on complaint from the general
assembly, or on a complaint from the governor, or the council, or the
house of representatives, severally, of the colony in which the said
chief justice and other judges have exercised the said offices."
The next resolution relates to the courts of admiralty. It is
this:--"That it may be proper to regulate the courts of admiralty or
vice-admiralty, authorized by the 15th chapter of the 4th George the
Third, in such a manner as to make the same more commodious to those who
sue or are sued in the said courts, and to provide for the more decent
maintenance of the judges of the same."
These courts I do not wish to take away: they are in themselves proper
establishments. This court is one of the capital securities of the Act
of Navigation. The extent of its jurisdiction, indeed, has been
increased; but this is altogether as proper, and is, indeed, on many
accounts, more eligible, where new powers were wanted, than a court
absolutely new. But courts incommodiously situated, in effect, deny
justice; and a court partaking in the fruits of its own condemnation is
a robber. The Congress complain, and complain justly, of this
grievance.[28]