. one Shilling. For every Advertisement in any News Paper, or other Paper... two Shillings," and so on and so on. So that the law might be easily carried out, it was ordered that "the Colonies . . . be furnished with Vellum, Parchment, and Paper, stamped with the Duties," and plenty of officers were appointed to enforce this new law.118 Barre's Speech in Parliament. When Townshend, the king's prime minister, brought the Stamp Act into Parliament, and asked the members to make it a law, he made a speech in which he asked: Will these American children, planted by our care, nourished up to strength... by our indulgence, and protected by our arms, grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy burden under which we lie? 119 Barré, who had been the friend and companion of Wolfe at Quebec, sprang to his feet and replied: ... Children planted by your care! No! your oppression planted them in America; . . . 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 over them ... whose behaviour, on many occasions, has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them. They protected by your arms! they have nobly taken up arms in your defence. ... And the same spirit which actuated that people at first, will continue with them still.120 But in spite of Barré's gallant speech, the Parliament voted that the Stamp Act should become law. How the Colonists received the News of the Stamp Act. When the news of this came to the colonies, Mr. James Otis, who had made the speech about the Writs of Assistance, wrote: "If it is the opinion of the honorable House of Com mons, that they in fact represent the colonies, it is more than I know.... We are as perfect strangers to most of them, as the savages in California." 121 Samuel Adams, another rising young Boston lawyer, presented resolutions to the Massachusetts Legislature, which maintained, That his Majesty's subjects in America are, in reason and common sense, entitled to the same extent of liberty with his Majesty's subjects in Britain; [and since they are not represented in the English Parliament, they are represented by the Provincial Assemblies, and by them, and by them only, ought they to be taxed.]122 Patrick Henry, a young lawyer of Virginia, presented to the Virginia Assembly the following resolutions: Resolved, That the taxation of the people by themselves or by persons chosen by themselves to represent them, who can only know what taxes the peois the distinguishing characteristic of Resolved, therefore, That the General Assembly of this colony have the only and sole exclusive right and power to lay taxes... upon the inhabitants of this colony. . . . 123 Stamp Act Congress. It was James Otis of Massachusetts again who proposed that the colonists should have a common meeting or Congress, to which they should all send delegates, who might decide what to do about the Stamp Act. Repre ntatives from nine of the colonies met in such a congress in ew York City; they wrote a declaration of rights and grievaces, and petitions to Parliament, and sent them over to Engind; it was in this congress that Christopher Gadsden of South arolina said, "There ought to be no New England man, no [ew Yorker, known on the continent, but all of us Americans." How the Colonists received the Stamps. But in spite of etitions and all, the stamps and the stamped paper and parchent came over in the British ships; in Boston, there were egular mobs, that robbed the stamp officers and burned their property; in New York, even while the Stamp Congress was in ession, a ship came sailing in bringing stamps; and down went he flags of all the ships to half-mast, while the people seized he stamps and burned them. The British General Gage wrote of Rhode Island, that "that little turbulent colony raised their nob likewise" against the stamps. In Charleston, the stamp fficer resigned, and up went the flag of liberty wreathed in aurel. John Adams writes in his diary: [At Philadelphia,] the Heart-and-Hand Fire Company has exelled . . . the stamp man for that colony. The freemen of Talbot ounty, in Maryland, have erected a gibbet before the door of the ourt-house, twenty feet high, and have hanged on it the effigy of a tamp informer in chains . . . ; and have resolved, unanimously, to old in utter contempt and abhorrence every stamp officer, ... so riumphant is the spirit of liberty everywhere. Such a union was lever before known in America.124 The Repeal. The following extract from a Boston Extra tells us the rest of the story: GLORIOUS NEWS. BOSTON, Friday 11 o'Clock, 16th May 1766. THIS Instant ar rived here the Brig Harrison, belonging to John Hancock, Esq.; Captain Shubael Coffin, in 6 Weeks and 2 Days from LONDON, with important News, as follows. From the LONDON GAZETTE. Westminster, March 18th, 1766. THIS day his Majesty came to the [Houses of Parliament,] and being in his royal robes seated on the throne with the usual solemnity... his Majesty was pleased to give his royal assent to an ACT to REPEAL... certain Stamp-Duties . . . in the British Colonies and Plantations in America. . . . Immediately on His Majesty's signing the Royal Assent to the Repeal of Stamp-Act, the Merchants trading to America dispatched a Vessel which had been in waiting, to put into the first Port of the Continent with the Account. There were the greatest Rejoicings possible in the City of London by all Ranks of People, on the TOTAL Repeal of the Stamp-Act. The Ships in the River displayed all their Colours, Illuminations and Bonfires in many Parts. . . . It is impossible to express the Joy the Town is now in, on receiving the above, great, glorious, and important NEWS. The Bells in all the Churches were immediately set a Ringing, and we hear the Day for a general Rejoicing will be the beginning of next Week.125 STUDY ON 3. 1. Why did the king and minister of England want more money? 2. What excuse had they for making America pay part of the debts for the French wars? 3. Who voted to tax America? 4. Which colonies might Townshend have been thinking of when he spoke of these American children planted by our care? 5. Which might Barré have been thinking of when he said, Your oppressions planted them in America? 6. Why should the Americans be called the sons of liberty? 7. Why did the colonists think that the English Parliament did not represent them? 8. Who did represent them? 9. Why was it just for the colonists to be taxed by the assemblies which did represent them? 10. Why should it be of more use for a congress of the colonies to make a complaint to England than to have each colony complain separately? 11. What friends did the colonists have in England? 12. Who was to blame for the Stamp Act? 13. What does this mean, TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION? - Supplementary Reading. — Patrick Henry, in John Esten Cooke's Stories of the Old Dominion. New York, 1879. 4. FROM THE STAMP ACT TO THE BOSTON TEA PARTY. Come join hand in hand, brave Americans all, In Freedom we're born, and in Freedom we'll live, Not as Slaves, but as Freemen, our money we'll give. - Song of Time, by JOHN DICKINSON.126 Non-Importation Agreements. The next thing George III. and his ministers did was to lay a tax on all the glass, paper, painter's colors, and tea, that should be imported into the colonies; they also confirmed their Writs of Assistance and their laws of trade; and in that same year, the merchants of Boston, New York, and other places in the colonies, began to make non-importation agreements like the following, which was voted for unanimously "at a Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, legally assembled at Faneuil-Hall" in a great TOWN-MEETING. WE therefore the Suscribers, Do promise and engage.. that we will not. . . purchase any of the following Articles, imported from Abroad, viz. Loaf Sugar,... Coaches,... Mens and Womens Hatts, and Womens Apparel ready made, Houshold Furniture, Gloves, Mens and Womens Shoes,... Clocks and Watches, Silversmiths and Jewellers ware, Broad Cloths that cost above 10s. a Yard,... all Sorts of Millinery Ware,... Fire Engines, China Ware, Silk and Cotton velvets, . . . Lawns, Cambricks, Silks of all Kinds for Garments, Malt Liquors, and Cheese. Agreements like this were made throughout the colonies, one of the most famous being that signed by George Washington, |