Hammer and Slit-Iron Act, and numberless others restraining our trade, obstructing our manufactures, and forbidding us the use of the gifts of God and nature. Hopeful guardians, truly! Can it be imagined, that, if we had a reasonable share in electing them, from time to time, they would thus have used us! "And must have seen abundant reason before this time to have altered your former hasty and rash opinion." We We see in you abundance of self-conceit, but no convincing argument. "Have you no concerts or assemblies, no play-houses or gaming-houses, now subsisting? Have you put down your horse-races and other such like sports and diversions? And is the luxury of your tables, and the variety and profusion of your wines and liquors, quite banished from among you?" luxuries. of you should pay the sum of one shilling! Blush, blush, for shame at your perverse and scandalous behaviour!" Blush for shame at your own ignorance, Mr. Dean, who do not know, that the colonies have taxes, and heavy ones of their own to pay, to support their own civil and military establishments; and that the shillings should not be reckoned upon heads, but upon pounds. There never was a sillier argument. “ Witness our county taxes, militia taxes, poor taxes, vagrant taxes, bridge taxes, high-road and turnpike taxes, watch taxes, lamp and scavenger taxes, &c. &c. &c." And have we not all these taxes too, as well as you, and our provincial or public taxes besides? And over and above, have we not new roads to make, new bridges to build, churches and colleges to found, and a number of other things to do, that your fathers have done for you, and which you inherit from them, but which we are obliged for out of our present labour? to pay by This should be a caution to Americans, how they indulge for the future in British See here British generosity! The people, who have made you poor their worthless, I mean useless, commodities, would now make you poorer by taxing you; and from the very inability you have brought on yourselves, by a partiality for their fashions and modes of living, of which they have had the whole profit, would now urge your ability to pay the taxes they are pleased to impose. Reject, then, their commerce as well as their pretended power of taxing. Be frugal and industrious, and you | will be free. The luxury of your tables, which could be known to the English only by your hospitably entertaining them, is by these grateful guests now made a charge against you, and given as a reason for taxing you. "Be it also allowed, as it is commonly asserted, that the public debt of the several provinces amounts to eight hundred thousand pounds sterling." I have heard, Mr. Dean, that you have studied political arithmetic more than divinity, but, by this sample of it, I fear to very little purpose. If personal service were the matter in question, out of so many millions of souls, so many men might be expected, whether here or in America. But when raising money is the question, it is not the number of souls, but the wealth in possession, that shows the ability. If we were twice as numerous as the people of England, it would not follow that we are half as able. There are numbers of single estates in England, each worth a hundred of the best of ours in North America. The city of London alone is worth all the provinces of North America. "When each of us pays, one with another, twenty shillings per head, we expect that each "We require of you to contribute only one shilling to every twenty from each of us. Yes, and this shilling too to be spent in your own country, for the support of your own civil and military establishments." How fond he is of this one shilling and twenty. Who has desired this of you, and who can trust you to lay it out? If you are thus to provide for our civil and military establishments, what use will there afterwards be for our assemblies ? "And yet, small and inconsiderable as this share is, you will not pay it. No, you will not! and it is at our peril if we demand it! No! we will pay nothing on compulsion. "For how, and in what manner, do you prove your allegations? Why truly by breaking forth into riots and insurrections, and by committing every kind of violence that can cause trade to stagnate, and industry to cease.' The Americans never brought riots as arguments. It is unjust to charge two or three riots in particular places upon all America. Look for arguments in the petitions and remonstrances of the assemblies, who detest riots, of which there are ten in England for one in America. 66 Perhaps you meant to insinuate (though it was prudence in you not to speak out), that the late act was ill-contrived and ill-timed, because it was made at a juncture when neither the French were in your rear to frighten, nor the English fleets and armies on your front to force you to a compliance." It seems a prevailing opinion in England, that fear of their French neighbours would have kept the colonies in obedience to the they have for it from us a penny's worth. The manufactures they buy are brought from you; the provisions we could, as we always did, sell elsewhere for as much money. Holland, France, and Spain would all be glad of our custom, and pleased to see the separation. Parliament, and that if the French power | thousand pounds, which you seem to think had not been subdued, no opposition would so much clear profit to us, when, in fact, have been made to the Stamp Act. A very they never spend a penny among us, but groundless notion. On the contrary, had the French power continued, to which the Americans might have had recourse in the case of oppression from Parliament, Parliament would not have dared to oppose them. It was the employment of fifty thousand men by land and a fleet on the coast, for five years, to subdue the French only. Half the land army were provincials. Suppose the British twenty-five thousand had acted by themselves, with all the colonies against them; what time would it have taken to subdue the whole? "Or shall we give you entirely up, unless you will submit to be governed by the same laws as we are, and pay something towards maintaining yourselves?" The impudence of this language to colonies, who have ever maintained themselves, is astonishing! Except the late attempted colonies of Nova Scotia and Georgia, no colony ever received maintenance in any shape from Britain; and the grants to those colonies were mere jobs for the benefit of ministerial favourites, English or Scotchmen. "Whether we are to give you entirely up, and, after having obliged you to pay your debts, whether we are to have no further connexion with you as a dependent state or colony" Throughout all America English debts are more easily recovered than in England, the process being shorter and less expensive, and land subject to execution for the payment of debts. Evidence, taken ex parte in England, to prove a debt, is allowed in their courts, and during the whole dispute there was not one single instance of any English merchant's meeting with the least obstruction in any process or suit commenced there for that purpose. Externally, by being severed from the British empire, you will be excluded from cutting logwood in the bays of Campeachy and Honduras, from fishing on the banks of Newfoundland, on the coast of Labrador, or in the bay of St. Lawrence, &c." We have no use for logwood, but to remit it for your fineries. We joined in conquering the Bay of St. Lawrence and its dependencies. As to the Sugar Islands, if you won't allow us to trade with them, perhaps you will allow them to trade with us; or do you intend to starve them? Pray keep your bounties, and let us hear no more of them; and your troops, who never protected us against the savages, nor are fit for such a service; and the three hundred 43* "And after all, and in spite of any thing you can do, we in Britain shall still retain the we shall give a better price for many of your greatest part of your European trade, because commodities, than you can have any where else, and we shall sell to you several of our manufactures, especially in the woollen-stuff and metal way, on cheaper terms." Oho! Then you will still trade with us! But can that be without our trading with you? And how can you buy our oil, if we catch no whales? "The leaders of your parties will then be setting all their engines to work, to make fools become the dupes of fools." Just as they do in England. "And instead of having troops to defend them, and those troops paid by Great Britain, they must defend themselves, and pay them selves." To defend them!-To oppress, insult, and murder them, as at Boston! "Not to mention that the expenses of your civil governments will be necessarily increased; and that a fleet more or less must belong to each province for guarding their coasts, insuring the payment of duties, and the like." author. The same were predicted to the These evils are all imaginations of the Netherlands, but have never yet happened. But suppose all of them together, and many more, it would be better to bear them than submit to parliamentary taxation. We might still have something we could call our own. But, under the power claimed by Parliament, we have not a single sixpence. The author of this pamphlet, Dean Tucker, has always been haunted with the fear of the seat of government being soon to be removed to America. He has, in his Tracts on Commerce, some just notions in matters of trade and police, mixed with many wild and chimerical fancies totally impracticable. He once proposed, as a defence of the colonies, to clear the woods for the width of a mile all along behind them, that the Indians might not be able to cross the cleared part without being seen; forgetting that there is a night in every twenty-four hours. OBSERVATIONS ON PASSAGES IN "AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE DISPUTES BETWEEN THE BRITISH COLONIES IN AMERICA AND THEIR MOTHER COUNTRY.-LONDON, 1769." remotest parts of a great empire may be as Ame "SUPREME power and authority must not, | dependent legislatures. By this means, the cannot, reside equally every where throughout an empire." Writers on this subject often confuse themselves with the idea, that all the king's dominions make one state, which they do not, nor ever did since the conquest. Our kings have ever had dominions not subject to the English parliament. At first the provinces of France, of which Jersey and Guernsey remain, always governed by their own laws, appealing to the king in Council only, and not to our courts or the House of Lords. Scotland was in the same situation before the union. It had the same king, but a separate Parliament, and the Parliament of England had no jurisdiction over it. Ireland the same in truth, though the British Parliament has usurped a dominion over it. The colonies were originally settled in the idea of such extrinsic dominions of the king, and of the king only. Hanover is now such a dominion. "Should we carry our supposition much farther, the inconveniences attending such long journeys would be very great, although not in. terrupted by water." Water, so far from being an obstruction, is a means of facilitating such assemblies from distant countries. A voyage of three thousand miles by sea is more easily performed than a journey of one thousand by "If each Assembly, in this case, were abso-land. lute, they would, it is evident, form not one only, but so many different governments per fectly independent of one another." This is the only clear idea of their real present condition. Their only bond of union is the king. "Now that of Great Britain being exactly the kind of government I have been speaking of, the absolute impossibility of vesting the American Assemblies with an authority in all respects equal to that of the mother country, without actually dismembering the British empire, must naturally occur to every one." It would not be dismembering it, if it never was united, as in truth, it never yet has been. Breaking the present union between England and Scotland would be dismembering the empire; but no such union has yet been formed between Britain and the colonies. "Where divers remote and distant countries are united under one government, an equal and fair representation becomes almost impracticable, or, at least, extremely inconvenient." Here appears the excellency of the invention of colony government, by separate, in It is, in my opinion, by no means imprac ticable to bring representatives conveniently from America to Britain; but I think the present mode of letting them govern themselves by their own Assemblies much preferable. They will always be better governed; and the Parliament has business enough here with its own internal concerns. "Whether they should not be allowed such a form of government, as will best secure to them their just rights and natural liberties!" They have it already. All the difficulties have arisen from the British Parliament attempting to deprive them of it. "Is it not, let me ask, most egregious folly, so loudly to condemn the Stuart family, who would have governed England without a Parliament, when at the same time we would, almost all of us, govern America upon principles not at all more justifiable ?” Very just. Only that the arbitrary government of a single person is more eligible, than the arbitrary government of a body of men. A single man may be afraid or ashamed of doing injustice; a body is never either one or the other, if it is strong enough. It cannot apprehend assassination, and by dividing the shame among them, it is so little apiece that no one minds it. "And consistently with our rights of sovereignty over them." Parliament grant but three. But Parliaments and provincial Assemblies may always be safely trusted with this power of refusing or granting in part. Ministers will often demand too much. But Assemblies, being acquainted properly with the occasion, will always grant what is necessary. As pro I am surprised, that a writer, who, in other respects, appears often very reasonable, should talk of our sovereignty over the colo-tection is, as I said before, mutual and equal nies! As if every individual in England colonies have been drawn into all British in proportion to every man's property, the was a part of a sovereign over America! The king is the sovereign of all. wars, and have annoyed the enemies of Britain as much in proportion as any other subjects of the king, equal in numbers and property. Therefore, this account has always balanced itself. The Americans think, that, while they can retain the right of disposing of their own money, they shall thereby secure all their other rights. They have, therefore, not yet disputed your other pretensions. “That England has an undeniable right to consider America as a part of her dominions is a fact, I presume, which can never be ques tioned." You do, indeed, presume too much. America is not part of the dominions of England, but of the king's dominion. England is a dominion itself, and has no dominions. I will only observe at present, that it was England, in some sense, which at first gave them being." In some sense! In what sense? They were not planted at her expense. As to defence, all parts of the king's dominion have mutually always contributed to the defence one of the other. The man in America, who contributes sixpence towards an armament against the common enemy, contributes as much to the common protection as if he lived in England. They have always been ready to contribute, but by voluntary grants according to their rights; nor has any Englishman yet had the effrontery to deny this truth. "If they are at liberty to choose what sums to raise, as well as the manner of raising them, it is scarcely to be doubted, that their allowance will be found extremely short. And it is evident they may, upon this footing, absolutely refuse to pay any taxes at all. And if so, it would be much better for England, if it were consistent with her safety, to disclaim all further connexion with them, than to continue her tection to them wholly at her own expense." proWhy is it to be doubted, that they will not grant what they ought to grant? No complaint was ever yet made of their refusal or deficiency. He says, if they are not without reserve obliged to comply with the requisitions of the ministry, they may absolutely refuse to pay any taxes at all. Let him apply this to the British Parliament, and the reasoning will equally prove, that the Commons ought likewise to comply absolutely with the requisitions of the ministry. Yet I have seen lately the ministry demand four shillings in the pound, and the "It may further be observed, that their proceedings are not quite so rapid and precipitate as those of the Privy Council; so that, should time to petition or make remonstrances. For it be found unnecessary, they will have more this privilege, the least which a subject can enjoy, is not to be denied them." Late experience has fully shown, that American petitions and remonstrances are of petitioning has been attempted to be little regarded in Britain. The privilege wrested from them. The Assemblies uniting tempt in the ministers' letters; and such to petition has been called a flagitious atAssemblies as would persist in it have there fore been dissolved. It is a joke to talk thus to us, when we know that Parliament, so far from solemnly ceive or read them. canvassing our petitions, has refused to re "Our right of legislation over the Americans, unrepresented as they are, is the point in question. This right is asserted by most, doubted of by some, and wholly disclaimed by a few." I am one of those few; but am persuaded the time is not far distant, when the few will become the many; for, Magna est veritas et prevalebit. the question, I think, should be whether we "But, to put the matter in a stronger light, have a general right of making slaves, or not." A very proper state of the question. "And the Americans may be treated with as much equity, and even tenderness, by the Parliament of Great Britain, as by their own Assemblies. This, at least, is possible, though perhaps not very probable." How can we Americans believe this, when we see almost half the nation paying but one shilling and sixpence in the pound, while others pay full four shillings; and that there is not virtue and honesty enough in Parliament to rectify this iniquity? How can we suppose they will be just to us at such a distance, when they are not just to one another? It is not, indeed, as the author says, very probable. The unequal representa tion, too, that prevails in this kingdom, they are so far from having virtue enough to attempt to remedy, that they make use of it as an argument why we should have no representation at all. "To the equity of this measure [an American representation in Parliament] the Americans themselves, I presume, could have nothing fairly to object." Provided they had an equitable number of representatives allowed them. "As to those, indeed, which attend only the choosing a new Parliament, they may, perhaps, by proper means, be considerably lessened, though not wholly removed." Let the old members continue till superseded by new ones from America. “But should the king at any time be disposed to dissolve his Parliament, and convene a new one, as hath been often done, only at a few weeks' notice, this, upon the same footing, could not be effected." By the above it might. "The method, however, of examining and deciding contested elections, when necessary, must undoubtedly with respect to America be set, in a great measure, upon a different footing from that at present practised in this kingdom." Let the members be chosen by the American Assemblies, and disputed elections settled there, if any; but there would be none. "It is not in the least, at this time, probable, that an American representation will ever be convened in England." I think so too; where neither side approve a match, it is not likely to be made. Then leave it as it is. It was very well, till you attempted alterations and novelties. "In respect to the article of levying taxes, it should be deemed only a matter of grace, to be resumed at pleasure." Your humble servant! We thank you for nothing. Keep up your claim, and make the most of it. "To be placed upon a level with the rest of the subjects of the British crown, is the utmost the colonies can challenge!" No. They may challenge all that was promised them by charters to encourage them to settle there. They have performed their part of the contract, and therefore have a right to expect a performance of the other part. They have, by the risks and expenses they have incurred, additional merit, and are therefore to be considered as above the level of other subjects. "We cannot otherwise maintain our sovereignty over it, unless our safety were actually at stake and absolutely required it." I am quite sick of our sovereignty. Your safety is only endangered by quarrelling with the colonies; not by leaving them to the free enjoyment of their own liberties. 66 "They, who first migrated from England to settle in America, well knew, I presume, they were still to continue the subjects of the same government." They They well knew the contrary. would never have gone, if that had been the case. They fled from your government, which oppressed them. If they carried your government with them, and of course your laws, they had better have stayed and endured the oppression at home, and not have added to it all the hardships of making a new settlement. They carried not your laws; but, had they carried your governThey may make them at home. The ex-ment and laws, they would now have been pense of private acts in England is shamefully great. "They will be almost wholly excluded the benefit of private acts, by reason of the immoderate expense.” "The repairing of highways, making rivers navigable, and cutting canals, with a variety of other things of the like kind, wherein recourse must be had to Parliament, and yet the expense be supplied chiefly, if not wholly, by private persons." All this may be done by their own laws at home. "This mode of compromise may as well be waived, as it cannot be effected, it is evident, without immense trouble." subject to spiritual courts, tythes, church acts of parliament, game acts, &c. &c., which they are not, and never were since their being out of the realm. 66 They knew they were not to be independ ent." They were to depend on the king only. "For no one, I imagine, would doubt, if their charters granted, them an inconsistent power, but that they might be justly cancelled; as no government can be supposed to alienate prerogatives necessary to its safe existence." Every government is supposed to be compos mentis when it grants charters, and shall not be allowed to plead insanity. If you break the charters, or violate them, you dissolve all ties between us. However, a right of sovereignty in this case |