The Birth of the Republic, chap 3&4 - Free Essays and Reports for Students and Teachers

Chap. 3 Peace without Honor 1766–1768

there was a back story to why the English Parliament repealed the act that taxed the American colonists
the English Parliament had two groups that favored the repeal of the tax
William Pitt a hero in England and in America had great influence with Parliament he favored repealing the stamp act he argued the distinction between legislation and taxation he told the English Parliament that taxation is no part of the governing or legislative power and he was happy that Americans resisted he said it was founded on an erroneous principle
Marquis of Rockingham was the head of the English statesmen that called themselves Old Whigs this group opposed the stamp act too. Rockingham had more followers than William Pitt and the King supported him
1765 the King withdrew his support from Grenville and gave it to Rockingham. The King withdrew his support had nothing to do with the stamp act he was mad at Grenville for introducing a bill that would not let the king’s mother joined the government encased the king became sick
The Old Whigs were allied with the British merchants and manufacturers and they were hurt because the Americans were boycotting English goods and factories were closing
Benjamin Franklin February 13 1766 spoke to the House of Commons in England and presented the Americans as devoted children of England oppressed by the stamp act. He made them seem less radical in their demands and he talked about internal and asked terminal taxes that some English thought was a valid explanation.
Benjamin Franklin said that they objected only to internal taxes not to taxes on trade and most members of Parliament believed him
Benjamin Franklin’s testimony was deception but it helps secure the immediate and and and the stamp taxes
Rockingham couldn’t get the Stamp Act repealed until he arranged for a Declaratory Act that affirmed the parliament right to tax America and assert its sovereignty over the colonies in every point of legislation whatsoever
Declaratory Act some Parliament members wanted the right to tax included in this but Rockingham did not so he and his friends voted against the declaration.
The repeal of the Stamp Act was because the British thought it included the right to tax even though it didn’t specifically stated in the Declaratory Act
Declaratory Act the Americans thought that this act said nothing about representation that talked about the authority of Parliament without offering any reason
John Adams in Boston said whether they will lay a tax in consequence of the resolution
billeting act required the colonial to furnish food and shelter to soldiers stationed within their boundaries it was passed during the Grenville administration
it was not a parliamentary tax but in order to the colonial assemblies requiring them to tax themselves the act could be regarded as a form of tax imposed without consent
the colonies did not extend the full amount of supplies demanded the worst offender was New York that had the largest number of troops to support
in 1766 when England heard that the Americans were not complying with this new law they lost many of the friends in Parliament and listed by them for the stamp act crisis
William Pitt Americans like him because his hand in repealing the Stamp Act that he was now sick so now they had Charles Townshend was the new Chancellor of the Exchequer
Townshend reduced English land taxes and told the House of Commons he could get it taking money out of America
May 13, 1767 Townshend said let them pay duties or taxes on the items they import from England glass lead paper paint T and let the duties be collected in America
if these new taxes are going to be collected in America the American custom service had to be reorganized not controlled from England but by the board of customs commissioners located in Boston
Townshend also said the New York assembly which wouldn’t enforce the billeting requirements told the governor to veto everything until it stopped
these proposals were in three bills which Parliament enacted into law
the people led by Boston went back to buying local goods particularly key and stores agreed not to import British goods until the taxes were taken away
there were no intra-colonial Congress to go against the parliamentary taxes but they didn’t need it everyone agreed that the taxes presented on figure
John Dickinson of Philadelphia was the new popular spokesman for American view against unfair taxes from England he wrote letters from a farmer he said that there is no distinction between internal and external taxes is big argument was the right to level taxes for the purpose of revenue that colonialists were against England’s right to raise money from taxes as opposed to tax to pay the bills.
Daniel Delaney’s considerations was written during the Stamp Act crisis
Board of Customs Commissioners America didn’t want the additional officers that they now had to pay for. They went to work in Boston they were supposed to enforce the navigation acts they were there to collect the taxes that Townshend had promised Parliament November 1767 these custom agents were bureaucrats greedy and mean
the tax on molasses had gone down from $.03-$.01 a gallon in 1766 because of Rockingham

board of custom commissioners could seize the vessel and the cargo of people who violated the sugar act and the boat and everything on it would be sold and divided three ways one third to the English treasury one third to the governor of the colony and one third to the custom official responsible for the seizure
these seizures made new opportunities for custom officials who are now seizing cargo and boats just to make money
the sugar act provided that the custom officials couldn’t be sued for mistaken seizure so they were free to go after everything to become rich
both big boat operators and small boat operators were hurt
the sugar act was not supposed to apply to movement of vessels within a colony but small boats that carried firewood were stopped and seized for not having proper papers the boat owners would have to go to the custom house for every small thing and pay a fee in the customs officers kept all the fees or the charges for making out documents themselves so they stopped every boat so they could make money from these small fees
if the customs agents got in trouble they could yell for help from the British troops stationed in America
John Hancock an American merchant didn’t like the customs officials because they tried to take his ship Lydia. Because they had no right to be on his ship his men picked them up and threw him on deck the customs agent tried to file criminal action against John Hancock but the attorney general of the colony refuse to bring suit because he said Hancock had acted within his rights
Tidesman were minor customs officials
May 9, 1768 John Hancock’s boat liberty entered Boston declared a cargo of 25 casks of wine and pay duty on it they went on board and nothing was wrong a month later on officer changed his story and said they had more wine and they seized the boat called liberty. It started a riot where customs agents were mobbed with rocks
the customs agents went to Castle William a fortress in the harbor and told England they were afraid to go ashore
Americans saw the power the British had were scared and English only sought an unruly crowd of smugglers fighting against law and order
in England Pitt was still a minister but he was sick and Charles Townshed died in 1767 and the new chancellor of the exchequer was Lord North.
In 1768 the King of England created the Secretariat of State to deal with colonial problems
Lord Hillsborough was the first Secretariat of State
Lord Hillsborough and Lord North thought England’s Parliament was supreme over the colonies and thought Americans wanted total independence from England and of Parliament didn’t bear down on America now they would lose the colonies forever
the customs agents in Boston wanted more troops
Massachusetts started problems they started writing against the Stamp Act, the Massachusetts assembly met, and a circular letter in 1768 was sent to other colonies that Hillsborough thought meant America was challenging England, Boston started the problems but all the other colonies agreed, the Massachusetts assembly didn’t take back the circular letter
Gov. Bernard of Massachusetts had orders from Lord Hillsborough to dissolve the assembly but the Massachusetts colony continued
September 1768 two regiments from England were on their way to Boston and two more were going to follow the members of Parliament wanted to teach America a lesson with the troops of the British Army

chapter 4 troops and tea 1768–1774

five years earlier England put 10,000 troops to protect the United States from foreign enemies that America thought that was a lot
William Pitt of England only person in Parliament in 1763 to talk about a distinction between taxation and legislation
Americans felt that Parliament felt legislation and taxation would stand or fall together
England wanted to teach America about the parliament had authority over the colonies
the people in the West have been left to defend themselves against the Indians the French and the Spanish and that English troops didn’t help them
the only thing the Bush troops defended was the French in Canada and after the seven-year war they didn’t need them anymore so why the weather Sony troops there
September 13, 1768 the troops were about to arrive the people in Boston had a town meeting saying to keep troops amongst them without consent in person or by representative of election would be an infringement of their constitutional rights
September 22, 1768 Austin wanted to send other towns delegates to the convention the people of Boston wanted to fight but the other colonies just put out a declaration that they agreed they should be taxed
the English troops landed and there was no disorder or resistance
the troops did not see any lawlessness or mobs it was an embarrassing calm time for England and there was no real use for the troops at all but no one sent them away
1769 England ordered two regiments back to Halifax England and left to regiments behind
corrupt officers of the customs kept plundering shipping
the soldiers and the custom commissioners allowed themselves to be provoked into a street brawl that became known as the Boston massacre
Boston Massacre March 5, 1770 a group of boys, Negroes and molattoes, Irish teagues, Jack Tars threw snowballs and trash at the soldiers and the soldiers opened fire some people say Capt. Preston gave orders to open fire three Boston citizens were dead eight were wounded to mortally wounded and no shots were fired at the soldiers
Henry VIII in the 16th century said a legal justification that you could have a trial of an American and send them to England to be tried most Englishmen thought you had to have a jury of people from your neighborhood that they passed anyway and Americans thought that anybody brought to England for trial would be just brought over to be murdered
America was starting to agree with Boston
Virginia passed resolutions against the Stamp Act the house of Burgesses said they have the sole authority to levy taxes governor Botetourt dissolve the assembly but the members continue to meet in the summer of 1769
Hillsborough decided they were going to repeal all the taxes except for the one on Tea to try to save face
New York decided to resume importing goods except for tea the other big cities had to follow are also lose other business to New York and the boycott had stopped
the following three years businesses made a lot of money
question about the American Revolution needed to ask where the colonists sincere in their declarations of principle or were they trying to avoid paying taxes
one people doubt that they were sincere is the fact that they pay taxes on tea and molasses from 1770- 1773
Edmund Burke opposed attempt to tax the colonies thought constitutional principles for the protection of the people who live under them
Gaspee commission 1772 British Navy warship called Gaspee taking taxes from small vessels carrying wood along the shores from lawless customs commissioners the boat ran aground off Pawtucket Rhode Island and a group of men and other leading merchant named John Brown and burned the boat
no one in Rhode Island said they knew anything about what happened that had a commission to ask people that no one said anything and they were worried about being sent to England for trial because of the statute of Henry VIII
June 13, 1772 Govenor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts told the assembly that he would not accept any salary from them because the King was going to pay him from customs revenue and after that Superior Court judges would also receive their pay from the King
the people of Massachusetts were unhappy cousin meant that they were no longer dependent on the assembly of Massachusetts they got there power from England
Thomas Hutchinson’s house was destroyed by a mob in 1765 because of the stamp act so in 1772 he was happy about his new independence
Samuel Adams politician Massachusetts he wanted independence
committee of correspondence November 2, 1772 Boston wanted statement of colonial rights of list of violations to communicate to other towns they wanted to start up something like the Sons of liberty that had organized in 1765
Daniel Adams wrote November 20, 1772 the first report from the Boston committee it talked about a dozen ways that England had violated colonial liberties and senates other towns
Benjamin Franklin 1772 in December sent back letters to his constituents in the United States that had been written in Massachusetts years before by officials where Thomas Hutchinson talked badly about the American colonies
these letters that Benjamin Franklin had republished in the newspaper and people hated Hutchinson even more
General Gage Commander-in-Chief of the British forces for North America was made governor of Massachusetts
England was punishing Massachusetts for starting trouble but America thought they picked Boston because it was in the forefront in defense of colonial rights and all the other colonies took up collections and sent them to the city of Boston
Québec Act June 22, 1774 England past and act establishing the Canadian province of Québec that was under military rule since 1763 a civil government with no representation or assemblies and gave special privileges for the Catholic Church. Extended the bound reason of the Providence into the Mississippi Valley as far south as the Ohio River New York Pennsylvania and Virginia would have at their borders of government conducted entirely without the consent of its people
the colonists felt that this is going to be their fate to
this scared the colonists so much September 1774 the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia all the colonies that together for the first time