extorted, without our free consent or controul. Pensioners and
Placemen are daily multiplying; and fleets and standing armies posted
in North America, for no other apparent or real purpose, than to
protect the exactors and collectors of the tribute; for which they are
to be maintained, & many of them in pomp & pride to triumph over and
insult an injured people, and suppress if possible, even their
murmurs. And there is reason to expect, that the continual increase of
their numbers will lead to a proportionable increase of a tribute to
support them. What would be the consequence? Either on the one hand,
an abject slavery in the people, which is ever to be deprecated; or, a
determined resolution, openly to assert and maintain their rights,
liberties and privileges. The effects of such a resolution may for
some time be retarded by flattering hopes and prospects; and while it
is the duty of all persons of influence here to inculcate the
sentiments of moderation, it will in our opinion, be equally the
wisdom of the British administration, to consider the danger of
forcing a free people by oppressive measures into a state of
desperation. We have reason to believe that the American Colonies,
however they may have disagreed among themselves in one mode of
opposition to arbitrary measures, are still united in the main
principles of constitutional & natural liberty; and that they will not
give up one single point in contest of any importance, tho' they may
take no violent measures to obtain them. - The taxing their property
without their consent, and thus appropriating it to the purposes of
their slavery and destruction, is justly considered, as contrary to
and subversive of their original social compact, and their intention
in uniting under it: They cannot therefore readily think themselves
obliged to renounce those forms of government, to which alone for the
advantages imply'd or resulting, they were willing to submit. We are
sensible, as you observe, that the design of our enemies in England,
as well as those who reside here, is to render us odious as well as
contemptible, and to prevent all concern for us in the friends of
liberty in England; and perhaps to detach our Sister Colonies from us,
and prevent their aid and influence in our behalf, when the projects
of oppressing us further and depriving us of our Rights by various
violent measures, should be carried into execution. In this however,
we flatter ourselves they have failed: But should all the other
Colonies become weary of their liberties, after the example of the
Hebrews, this Province we trust, will never submit to the authority of
an absolute government.
We are now led to take notice of another fatal consequence, which we
are under strong apprehensions will follow from these parliamentary
revenue laws; and that is, the making the governors of the colonies,
and other officers, independent of the people for their support. You
tell us there is no doubt of such intention, and that it will be
persisted in, if the American revenue is found sufficient. We are the
more inclin'd to believe it, not only because the governor of the
province of New-York has openly declared it with regard to himself, to
the assembly there; but because the present governor of this province
has repeatedly refused to accept of the usual grant for his support,
tho' he has not been so explicit as to assign a reason for it. The
charter of this province recognizes the natural Right of all men to
dispose of their property: And the governor here, like all other
governors, kings and potentates, is to be supported by the free grants
of the Representatives of the people. Every one sees the necessity of
this to preserve the balance of power and the freedom of any state: A
power without a check, is subversive of all freedom: If therefore the
governor, who is appointed by the crown, shall be totally independent
of the free grants of the people for his support, where is the check
upon his power? He becomes absolute and may act as he pleases: He may
make use of his power, not for the good of those who are under it, but
for his own private separate advantage, or any other purpose to which
he may be inclined, or instructed by him upon whom alone he depends.
Such an independency threatens the very being of a free constitution;
and if it takes effect, will produce and firmly establish a tyranny
upon its ruin. The act of parliament of the 7 Geo. 3.3 intitled, "An
act for granting certain duties in the Colonies, &c." declares That it
is expedient that a revenue should be raised in his Majesty's
dominions in America, for making more certain and adequate provision
for the defraying the charge of the administration of justice, and the
support of civil government in such colonies where it shall be found
necessary; and, towards further defreying the expences of defending,
protecting and securing the said dominions. - These are the very
purposes for which this government by the Charter is empowered to
grant taxes: So that by the act aforementioned, the Charter is in
effect made void. Agreeable to the design of that act, the governor it
seems is first to be made independent; and in pursuance of the plan of
despotism, the judges of the land, and all other important civil
officers, successively: Next follows an independent military power, to
compleat the ruin of our civil liberties. - Let us then consider the
power the Governor already has, and his Majesty's negative on all our
acts, and judge whether the purposes of tyranny will not be amply
answered! Can it be expected that any law will pass here, but such
as will promote the favourite design? And the laws already made, as
they will be executed by officers altogether dependent on the crown,
will undoubtedly be perverted to the worst purposes. The governor of
the province, and the principal fortress in it, are probably already
thus supported. These are the first fruits of the system: If the rest
should follow, it would be only in a greater degree, a violation of
our essential, natural rights. For what purpose then will it be to
preserve the old forms without the substance? In such a state, and
with such prospects, can Britain expect anything but a gloomy
discontent in the Colonies? Let our fellow-subjects there recollect,
what would have been their fate long ago, if their ancestors had
submitted to the unreasonable and uncharitable usurpations, exactions
and impositions of the See of Rome, in the reign of Henry the VIII.
Soon would they have sunk into a state of abject slavery to that
haughty power, which exalteth itself above all that is called God: But
they had the true spirit of liberty, and by exerting it, they saved
themselves and their posterity; The act of parliament passed in the
25th of that reign,4 is so much to our present purpose, that we cannot
omit transcribing a part of it, and refer you to the statute at large.
In the preamble it is declared, that "the realm of England hath been
and is free from subjection to any man's law but only to such as have
been devised, made and ordained within the realm for the wealth of the
same." And further, "it standeth therefore with natural equity and
good reason, that in every such law humane made within this realm by
the said sufferance, consents and customs, your Royal Majesty and your
Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons representing the whole state
of your realm in this your Majesty's high court of parliament, hath
full power and authority, not only to dispense, but also to authorize
some elect person or persons to be sent to dispense with those and all
other humane laws in this your realm, and with every one of them, as
the quality of the persons and matter may require. And also the said
laws and every one of them to abrogate, annul, amplify or diminish, as
it shall seem to your Majesty and the Nobles and Commons of your realm
present in parliament meet and convenient for the wealth of your
realm. And because that it is now in these days present seen, that the
state, dignity and superiority, reputation and authority of the said
imperial crown of this realm, by the long sufferance of the said
unreasonable and uncharitable usurpation and exaction is much and sore
decayed, and the people of this realm thereby much impoverished." It
is then enacted, that "no person or persons of the realm, or of any
other his Majesty's dominions, shall from henceforth pay any pensions,
censes, portions, peter pence, or any other impositions to the use of
the said Bishop of the See of Rome; but that all such pensions, &c.
which the said Bishop or Pope hath heretofore taken - shall clearly
surcease, and never more be levied or paid to any person or persons in
any manner or wise." - Nothing short of the slavery and ruin of the
nation would have been the consequence of their submitting to those
exactions: And the same will be the fate of America, if the present
revenue laws remain, and the natural effect of them, the making
governors independent, takes place.
It is therefore with entire approbation that we observe your purpose
freely to declare our Rights, and to remonstrate against the least
infringement of them. The capital complaint of all North-America, hath
been, is now and will be until relieved, a subjugation to as arbitrary
a tribute as ever the Romans laid upon the Jews, or their other
colonies: The repealing these duties in part is not considered by this
house as a renunciation of the measure: It has rather the appearance
of a design to sooth us into security in the midst of danger: Any
species of tribute unrepealed, will stand as a precedent, to be made
use of hereafter as circumstances and opportunity may admit: If the
Colonies acquiesce in a single instance, it will in effect be yielding
up the whole matter and controversy. We therefore desire it may be
universally understood, that altho' the tribute is paid, it is not
paid freely: It is extorted and torn from us against our will: We bear
the insult and the injury for the present, grievous as it is, with
great impatience; hoping that the wisdom and prudence of the nation
will at length dictate measures consistent with natural justice and
equity: For what shall happen in future, We are not answerable: Your
observation is just, that it was certainly as bad policy, when they
attempted to heal our differences, by repealing part of the duties
only, as it is bad Surgery to leave splinters in a wound which must
prevent its healing, or in time occasion it to open afresh.
The doctrine, that no agent ought to be received or attended to by
government, who is not appointed by an act of the general court, to
which the governor has given his assent, if established, must be
attended with very ill consequences; for, besides the just remarks you
made upon it, if whatever is to be transacted between the assemblies
of the Colonies and the government, is to be done by agents appointed
by and under the direction of the three branches, it will be utterly
impracticable for an assembly ever to lay before the Sovereign their
complaints of grievances occasioned by the corrupt and arbitrary
administration of a governor. This doctrine, we have reason to think,
was first advanced by governor Bernard, at a time when he became the
principal agent in involving the nation and the Colonies in
controversy and confusion: Very probably, it now becomes a subject of
instruction to governor Hutchinson5 who refuses to confirm the grants
of the Assembly to the Agents for the respective houses. In this he
carries the point beyond Governor Bernard who assented to grants made
in general terms for services performed, without holding up the name
of agent: But governor Hutchinson declines his assent even in that
form; so that we are reduced to a choice of difficulties, either to
have no agent at all, but such as shall be under the influence of the
minister; or to find some other way to support an agent than by grants
of the general assembly. - But we are fallen into times, when
governors of colonies seem to think themselves bound to conform to
instructions, without any regard to the civil constitution, or even
the public safety.
1 Page 46, note, applies also to the authorship of this letter.
2 J. Bigelow, Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin, vol. iv., p. 378.
3 Chap. 46.
4 Chap. 21. The quotation from the statute is inexact.
5 Since the writing of this letter an Instruction of this kind is
arrived, which has been communicated by the Governor to his Majesty's
Council; and is recorded in their Journal 1
ARTICLE SIGNED "CANDIDUS."
[Boston Gazette, July 1, 1771.]
MESSIEURS EDES & GILL,
The Layman, who again appeared in Mr. Draper's last Thursday's
Gazette, is sollicitous to know why Candidus "pitched upon the
specific Number seventeen, as present at the late Convention of the
Clergy, and voting for an Address to his Excellency the Governor; and
further, he asks, Whether "it was not purposely done to throw an
undeserved Reproach on that reverend Body." - I will endeavour to
answer the Layman in a Manner not "militating," as he charges me with
having done before, "with my assumed denomination." - I mentioned that
"specific number," because I was told by several reverend Gentlemen
who were present at the Convention, that the Address was bro't on
early, when only twenty-four had got together; and that of this
number, seventeen only voted in favor of it. I own I thought it
unlucky, that the precise Number seventeen should appear to
countenance the Address, because I agree with the Layman that it has
of late become an "obnoxious Number." I have Reason to think I was
truly informed; if it was a misrepresentation, the Reverend Doctor who
presided at the Meeting, may set us right, if he thinks it worth his
While. I am still of Opinion, that is immaterial to my Purpose,
whether twenty-four or thirty Gentlemen were present, when the Address
was carried through; either of those numbers being very
inconsiderable, when compared with the whole Number of Congregational
Ministers in the Province, which is said to be at least four Hundred.
Allowing that the Number, after the Address had passed, was augmented
to Sixty, and that Fifty of them were against reconsidering the
Matter, it is not certainly to be inferred from thence, that all those
Fifty would have voted for an Address, if they had been present when
it was first proposed. But however that might be, the Propriety (to
say the least) of calling it, An Address of the Congregational
Ministers of the Province, when not more than about One in Seven of
them were present, or in any Likelihood ever had heard that any
Address was intended, yet remains a Question: And I again say, I
should be glad to see it reconciled with that Simplicity and Godly
Sincerity which we often hear inculcated from the Pulpit. - The Layman
supposes, that it is with the Convention as "with other Corporate
Bodies, convened at stated Time and Place " - Now other corporate
Bodies are notified of the Matters to be transacted at Time & Place;
but no Notice was given to "the Congregational Ministers of the
Province" that an Address to his Excellency the Governor was to
be proposed; and as this is said to be the first Instance of an
Address to a Governor ever made by the Convention, it is not
likely that seven-eighths of them, who were absent, ever had it in
contemplation. But after all, I would ask, "with Modesty, Decency,
and Charity," and with Humility too, all which I take to be
excellent Christian Graces, as well as Sincerity; by what
Authority is the Convention of the Clergy, as it is called,
constituted "a corporate Body"? I am nevertheless, with all due
Respect to the Ministers of the Congregational Churches,
Your's,
CANDIDUS.
P.S. Perhaps an Address of Thanks from the Convention of the
Reverend & very venerable Dr. Chauncy, for his excellent Defence
of their ecclesiastic Constitution, at a Time when they stood in
need of so able a Defender, may be judg'd by some to be rather
more in Character than a political Address to the Man in Power
C.
Postscript the 2d. I am inform'd that it was first propos'd to
address his Excellency at Cambridge, after Dinner on the Day of
Election, and that the Reason assign'd for it was, because it had
been unjustly asserted that his had stood Sponsor at a Christening
- The Truth of which Assertion, however, it is also said, might
have been made evident by enquiring of a worthy Clergyman of the
Church of England in that Town,
C.
TO ARTHUR LEE.
[R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp. 173-577.]
BOSTON, July 31st, 1771.
SIR,-
Since I received your favour of the 28th of March, I have observed
by the London papers that the lord-mayor and alderman are
liberated. From the wisdom and firmness which formerly
distinguished that opulent and independent city, we expected that
when they had so fair an occasion for exerting themselves, the
power which has too long oppressed and insulted the nation and the
colonies, would have been made to bend. But we have seen
complimentary letters and addresses to the imprisoned gentlemen,
and their answers; while by a stretch of arbitrary power they have
been kept in confinement, till by a prorogation instead of a
dissolution, they have been discharged of course. Is this my
friend a matter of such triumph? Does it not show that Britons are
unfeeling to their condition? Or has brutal force at length become
so formidable, that after having in vain petitioned those whose
duty it is to redress their grievances, they are afraid to imitate
the virtue of their ancestors in similar cases, and redress their
grievances themselves?
Mr. Hume, if I mistake not, somewhere says, that if James the
Second had had the benefit of the riot-act, and such a standing
army as has been granted since his time, it would have been
impracticable for the nation to have wrought its own delivery, and
establish the constitution of '88. If the people have put it in
the power of a wicked and corrupt ministry to make themselves
absolute lords and tyrants over them by means of a standing army,
we may at present pity them under the misfortune; but future
historians will record the story with astonishment and
indignation, and posterity, who will share in the fatal effects of
their folly and treachery, will accuse them. Has there not for a
long time past been reason to apprehend the designs of a restless
faction to oppress the nation; and the more easily to affect their
purposes, to render the king's government obnoxious, and if
possible put an end to a family which has heretofore supported the
rights of the nation, its happiness and grandeur?
In this colony we are every day experiencing the miserable effects
of arbitrary power. The people are paying the unrighteous tribute,
(I wish I could say they were groaning under it, for that would
seem as if they felt they are submitting to it,) in hopes that the
nation will at length revert to justice. But before that time
comes, it is to be feared they will be so accustomed to bondage,
as to forget they were ever free. Swarms of locusts and
caterpillars are maintained by this tribute in luxury and
splendour, and a standing army, (not in the city thank God, since
the 5th March 1770, but within call upon occasion). While our
independent governor is found to crouch to his superiors, and to
look down upon and sneer at those below him, he is from time to
time receiving instructions how to govern this people, to govern!
rather to harass and insult his country in distress. . .where his
adulating priestlings are reminding him he was born and educated,
forgetting perhaps if they ever knew, that the tyrants of Rome
were the natives of Rome. Among other edicts which have been
lately sent to this governor, there is one which prohibits his
assenting to any tax-bill, unless the commissioners and other
officers, whose salaries are not paid out of moneys granted by
this government, are exempted from a tax on the profits of their
commissions. Nothing that I can say will heighten the resentment
of a man of sense and virtue against such a mandate; and yet our
governor would have us think it is a mark of his paternal
goodness. Another instruction forbids the governor to give his
assent to grants to any agent, unless he is appointed by a law of
the province, or a resolve of the assembly, to which his
excellency consents. And a third requires him to refuse his assent
to a future election of such councillors as shall presume to meet
together as a council, without being summoned by him into his
presence. These instructions, so humiliating to the council, the
secretary by the governor's order has entered on their journals
It has been observed that the nearer any man approaches to an
absolute independence, the more he will be flattered; and flattery
is always great in proportion as the motives of flatterers are
bad. These observations are so disgraceful to human nature that I
wish I could say they were not founded in experience. Perhaps
there never was a man in this province more flattered, or who bore
it better, I mean who was better pleased with it, than Governor
Hutchinson. You have seen Miss in her teens, surrounded with dying
lovers, praising her gay ribbons, the dimples in her cheeks or the
tip of her ear! In imitation of the mother country, whom we are
too apt to imitate in fopperies, addresses have been procured and
presented to his excellency, chiefly from dependants and
expectants. Indeed some of the clergy have run into the stream of
civility, which is the more astonishing, when it is considered
that they altogether depend upon the ability and good disposition
of their parishes for their support. But it is certain that not a
fifth part, some say not an eighth part of the clergy, were
present. It cannot, therefore, be said to be the language of the
body of the clergy, and all ages have seen that some of that order
have ever been ready to sacrifice the rights as well as the
honoured religion of their country, to the smiles of the great. It
is a sore mortification that the independent house of
representatives, and the town of Boston have refused to make their
compliments to a man, whose administration since the departure of
the Nettleham Baronet, they can by no means approve of. From hence
you will judge whether these addresses speak the sentiments of the
people in general, or are any more than the foul breath of
sycophants and hirelings.
The province of North Carolina, by accounts from thence, appears
to have been involved in a civil war. It is the general opinion
here that the people in the back parts of that province have been
greatly oppressed, and that the governor, instead of hearkening to
their complaints and redressing their grievances, has raised an
army and spilt their blood. This it must be confessed, is treating
the people under his government much in the same manner as his
superiors have treated the nation and the colonies. But their
example may prove dangerous to be followed by a plantation
governor. At this distance from Carolina we have not yet received
a perfect account from thence. I hope your friends in the adjacent
colony of Virginia have wrote you particularly of this important
matter. Tryon has arrived at New York, where he is appointed
governor. He has already been addressed with all the expressions
of court sincerity, and perhaps he may hereafter receive the
reward of a baronet for his fidelity and courage. 'When vice
prevails and impious men bear sway, the post of honour is the
private station.'
ARTICLE SIGNED "CANDIDUS."
[Boston Gazette, August 5, 1771.j
Messieurs EDES & GILL,