| OCR Text |
Show llf ' I " II ' ! III I II ! VltfJ Y,,.'' Ill II I Installment 8 It would, in any event, be wholesome, whole-some, now the colonies were likely to grow lusty as kingdoms in their roomy continent, to assert a mother's power to use and restrain a power by no means lost because too long unexercised un-exercised and neglected. It was with such wisdom the first step was taken. In March, 1764, parliament par-liament voted it "just and necessary that .revenue be raised in America," passed an act meant to secure duties on wines and sugars, and took measures meas-ures to increase the efficiency of the revenue service in America. George Grenville was prime minister. minis-ter. He lacked neither official capacity nor acquaintance with affairs. He thought it just the colonists should pay their quota into the national treasury, seeing they were so served by the national power; and he declared de-clared that in the next session of parliament par-liament he should p-opose certain direct di-rect taxes in addition to the indirect already in force. He saw no sufflci it reason, to doubt that the colonies would acquiesce, ac-quiesce, if not without protest, at least without tumult or dangerous resistance. re-sistance. A Serious Blunder. It was a sad blunder. Virginia resented re-sented threat and execution alike in s ch a matter as deeply as did litigious litigi-ous Massachusetts. A long generation ago, in the quiet year 1732, when bluff Sir Robert was prime minister, there had been an incident in-cident which Governor Keith, maybe, had forgotten. The ministry had demanded de-manded of Massachusetts that she should establish a fixed salary for her governors by a standing grant; but she had refused, and the ministers had receded. The affair had not been lost upon the other colonies. That sturdy onetime one-time royal governor, Alexander Spots-wood, Spots-wood, in Virginia, had noted it very particularly, and spoken of it very bluntly, diligent servant of the crown as he was, to Col, William Byrd, when he came his way on his "progress to the mines." He declared "that if the assembly in New England would stand bluff, he did not see how they could be forced , to raise money against their will, for if they should direct it to be done b;- act of parliament, which they have threatened to do (though it be against the right of Englishmen to be taxed but- by their representatives), yet they would find it no easy matter to put such an act in execution." No observing man could so much as travel in Virginia without finding very promptly what it was that gave point and poignancy to such an opinion. A Level-Headed Parson. That quiet gentleman, Rev. Andrew Burnaby, vicar of Greenwich, was in Virginia in 1759, and saw plainly enough how matters stood. "The public pub-lic or political character of the Virginians," Vir-ginians," he said, "corresponds with their private one; they are haughty and jealous of the liberties, 'impatient 'impa-tient of restraint, and can scarcely bear the thought of being controlled by any superior power. Many of them consider the colonies as independent inde-pendent states, not connected with Great Britain otherwise than by having hav-ing the same common king and being bound to her with natural affection." Not only so, but "they think It a hardship hard-ship not to have an unlimited trade to every part of the world." All this, and more, Grenvills might have learned by the simple pains of Inquiry. One had but to open his eyes and look to se hov imperious a race had been bred In the almost feudal south; and, for all they had never heard revolutionary talk thence, ministers ought to have dreaded the leisure men had there to think, the provocation to be proud, the necessity neces-sity to. be masterful and individual, quite as "much as they had ever dreaded the stubborn temper and the quick capacity for united action they had once and again seen excited in New England. Law a Dead Letter. It war not necessary to try new la-s to see what the colonies would do if provoked. The difficulty already encountered In enforcing the laws of trade was object-lesson enough; and the trouble in that matter had grown acute but yesterday. Fo- long, indeed, no one in the colonies questioned the right o parliament to regulate their trade; but it was notorious that the laws actually enacted in that matter had gone smoothly off in America only because they were not seriously enforced. en-forced. "The trade hither is engrossed by tho Saints of New England," laughed Colone Byrd, "who carry if a great d-" of tobacco without troubling themselves with paying that impertinent imperti-nent duty of a penny a pound." The acts of trade practically forbade for-bade direct commerce with foreign countries for their dependencies, (specially in foreign bottoms; but ships from France, Spain, and the Canary Isles came and went very freely, notwithstanding, in colonial ports; for royal officials liked to enjoy a comfortable peace and the esteem of their neighbors, and very genially winked at such transgressions. Cargoes without number were sent to the Dutch and Spanish West Indies every year, and as many brought thence, which were undoubtedly forfeit for-feit under the navigation laws parliament parlia-ment had been at such pains to elaborate elabor-ate and enforce; and privateering as well as smuggling had for long afforded af-forded the doughty seamen of Boston, Salem, Charleston, and New York a genteel career of profit. Indulge in Illegal Trade. Things had come to such a pass that where business went briskly the people of the colonial ports demanded as of right "a full freedom of illegal trade," and broke sometimes into riot when it was denied them. The Boston Bos-ton News Letter had been known very courteously to mout'n the death of a worthy collector of his majesty's customs cus-toms because, "with much humanity," he had been used to take "pleasure in directing masters of vessels how they ought to avoid the breach of th. acts of trade." Sea captains grew accustomed to very confidential relations with owners own-ers and consignees, and knew very well, without official counsel, how to take the advice "not to declare at the customhouse;" and things went very easily and cordially with all parties to the understanding. In 1761 that understanding was of a sudden rudely broken and the trouble trou-ble began, which Grenville had the folly to add to. The board of trade determined to collect the duties on sugar, molasses and rum, so long and so systematically evaded in the trade between New England and the West Indies, at whatever cost of suit and scrutiny, and directed their agents in Boston to demand "writs of assistance" assist-ance" from the courts, giving them leave to enter what premises they would in search of smuggled goods. Colonists Resist Search Warrants. Thre were instant exasperation and resistance. General search warrants, war-rants, opening every man's door to the officers of the law, with or without just and explicit ground of suspicion against him, no English subject any- I where would submit to; and yet these writs authorized nothing less. Issued under a questionable extension exten-sion to America of an exceptional power of the court of exchequer, they violated every precedent of the common law, no less than every principle prin-ciple of prudent administration; and the excitement whih they provoked was at once deep and ominous. Sharp resistance was made in the courts, and no officer ever ventured to serve one of the obnoxious writs. Such challenge of the roccss was uttered I by colonial counsel upon trial of the 1 righ' moreover, that ministers would ' be without excuse should they ignore the warning, so exp"cit and so eloquent of revolutionary purpose. It was James Otis who utterd it. He had but the other day carried the royal commission in his pocket as advocate ad-vocate general in his majesty's court of admiralty; but he would not have s-rupled, even as his majesty's servant, ser-vant, he said, to oppose the exercise of a power which had already cost one king his head ana another his throne. To oppose in such a case was to defend the very constitution under un-der which the king wore his crown. That constitution secured to Englishmen English-men everywhere the rights of freemen; free-men; the colonists had, besides, the plan guarantees of their own charters; chart-ers; if constitution and charters failed, or were gainsaid, the principles prin-ciples of natural reason sufficed for defense against measures so arrogant and so futile. No lawyer could justify these extraordinary writs; no king with an army at .lis back could ever force them to execution. Protest not only, but defiance, rang very clear In these fearless words; and ministers must avow themselves very ignorant, should they pretend . they did not know how Mr. Otis had kindled fire from one end of the colonies to the other. But Grenville was resolute to take all risks and pus! this policy. The Obnoxious Stamp Act. He did not flinch "rom the enforcement enforce-ment of the measures of 1764, and In the session of 1765 calmly fulfilled his promise of further taxation. Ha pro- t posed that the colonists Lhould be required re-quired tq use revenue stamps upon all their commercial paper, legal documents, docu-ments, pamphlets, p.nd newspapers, and that, at once as a general measure meas-ure of convenience nnd a salutary ex-h.oition ex-h.oition of authority, his majesty's troops stationed in the plantations should be billeted on the people. Parliament readily a-quieseed. It was thu Grenville --.rposed "defraying "defray-ing the expenses of defending, protecting, protec-ting, and securing" the colonies; but he can near losing them instead. T'-e act was passed in March; it was not to go iitr effect until November; Novem-ber; but the colonists did not keep him waiting until November tor their protests. It was the voice of a veritable verita-ble tempest that presently came over sea to the ear of the startled minister. min-ister. And it was not the general court of turbulent Massachusetts, but the house .of burgesses of loyal Virginia Vir-ginia that first spoke the general indignation. in-dignation. A Polite Protest. Already in the autumn cf 1764, upon up-on the mere threat of what was to come, that house had spoken very urgently ur-gently against the measures proposed, in a memorial to king and parliament, which, amidst every proper phrase of loyalty and affection, had plainly declared it the opinion of his majesty's ma-jesty's subjects in Virginia that such acts would be in flat violation of their undoubted rights and liberties; and th2 committee by which that memorial mem-orial was drawn up had contained almost al-most every man of chief consequence in the counsels of the colony, the king's attorney general himself not excepted. ex-cepted. But it was one thing to protest against measures to come and quite another to oppose their execution when enacted into laws. The one was constitutional agitation-; the other, fiat rebellion--little less. It was very ominous to read the words of the extraordinary resolutions passed by the burgesses on the 30th of May, 1765, after the stamp act had become law, and note the tone of restrained re-strained passion that ran through them. Plain Speech From the Burgesses. They declared that from the first the settlers of "his majesty's colony and domain" of Virginia had possessed pos-sessed and enjoyed all the privileges, franchises, and immunities at any time enjoyed by the people of Great Britain itself; and that this their freedom, free-dom, had been explicitly secured to them by their charters, "to all intents and purposes as if they had been abiding abid-ing and born within the realm of England;" Eng-land;" "that the taxation of the people peo-ple by themselves or by persons chosen by themselves toi represent them" was "a distinguishing characteristic char-acteristic of British freedom without which the ancient constitution" of the realm itself could not subsist; "and that his majesty's liege people of this most ancient colony" had "uninterruptedly "uninterrup-tedly enjoyed the right of being thus governed by their assemblies In the article of their taxes and internal police," had never forfeited or relinquished relin-quished if, and had seen it "constantly recognized by the kings and people of Great Britain." An Uncompromising Conclusion. Spoken as it was in protest against actual legislation already adopted by parliament in direct despite of all such privileges and immunities, this declaration of rights seemed to lack its conclusion. The constitutional rights of Virginians had been invaded. in-vaded. What then? Resolved, therefore, there-fore, "that his majesty's liege people, the inhabitants of this colony, are not bound to yield obedience to any law or ordinance whatever designed to impose im-pose any taxation whatsoever upon tl em, other than the laws or ordinances ordi-nances of the general assembly aforesaid," afore-said," and "that any person who shall, by speaking or writing, assert or maintain" tie contrary "shall be deemed an enemy of his majesty's colony." col-ony." Such had been the uncompromising uncompromis-ing conclusion drawn by the mover of the resolutions. What other conclusion could any man draw if he deemed the colonists m i, and proud men at that? The Burgesses feared to speak treason; they were content to protest pro-test of their rights, and let the issue bring conclusions to light. It had been hot fighting to get even that much said. The men hitherto accepted always as leaders in the house had wished to hold it back from rash and heated action, and there had been bitter debates before even those significant premises for a revolutionary revolution-ary conclusion had been forced to adoption. Old leaders and new, young men and old alike, had willingly united in the memorial of 1764; but now that the Stamp Act was law, conservative members shrank from doing what must look so like a flat defiance of parliament. Only young men would have had the audacity to urge such action; only very extraordinary young men would have had the capacity to induce the house to take it. But such young men were at hand, their leader as veritable a Democrat as had ever taken the floor in that assembly. Patrick Henry was not of the aris tocracy of the colony. Good Scots blood ran in his veins, quickened by the lively strain of an old Welsh stock. His father came of a race of scholars, and, good churchman though he was, knew his Livy and his Horace better than his Bible. His mother came of a vivacious line of easy-going wits and talkers, which had a touch more of steadiness and energy might any day have made famous. His father had served his county of Hanover very capably and acceptably as surveyor, colonel, magistrate, and his uncle had been beloved as the faithful pastor of quiet parishes. But they had been no long time in the colony; col-ony; they lived back from the tidewater tide-water counties where the real aristocracy aristoc-racy had its strength and supremacy; they were of that middle class of yeomen-gentlemen who love liberty, but do not affect rank. "A vigorous aristocracy favors the growth of personal eminence even in those who are not of it, but only near it," and these plain men of the middle mid-dle counties were the more excellent and Individual in the cultivation of their powers by reason of the contact. But there was a touch of rusticity, a neglect of polish, a rough candor of speech about them w;hich set them apart and distinguished them sharply enough when they came into the presence pres-ence of the courtly and formal gentlemen gentle-men who practiced the manners of London in the river counties. A RUjStic Figure in the Home. Patrick Henry, at any rate, must have seemed a very rustic figure to the Burgesses when he first came to take his seat amongst them on a .May day in 1765. He was known, indeed, to many. This was the man, they must have known, who had won so strange a ver- .. rr.vV.-.-'Mi i' " , iJSPi tit twwtite Carpenter's Hall. diet from a jury two years ago in the celebrated parsons' case at Hanover court house, against the law and the evidence. But his careless dress and manner, his loose, ungainly -figure, his listless, absent bearing, must have set many a courtly member staring. For such men as Washington, indeed, in-deed, there can have been nothing either strange or unattractive in the rough exterior and unstudied ways of the new member. Punctilious though he was himself in every point of dress and bearing, Washington's life had most of it been spent with men who looked thus, and yet were stuff of true courage and rich capacity within. The manner of a man could count as no test of quality with him. His experience had covered trie whole variety of Virginian life. He was an aristocrat by taste, not by principle. prin-ciple. And Patrick Henry had, in fact, come to the same growth as he in essential quality and principle, though by another way. Henry's life had been, wilful, capricipus, a bit haphazard, hap-hazard, Washington's all the while subject to discipline; but both men had touched and seen the whole energy en-ergy of the commonwealth, knew its hope, could divine its destiny. There was but one Virginia, and they were her children. It cpuld not take long to bring them to an understanding under-standing and comradeship in affairs. A Winner in Debate. It was characteristic of the new member that he should step at once and unhesitatingly to a place of leadership lead-ership when debate of the Stamp Act stirred the house, and that he should instantly sweep the majority into his following with a charm and dash of eloquence that came like a revelation upon the quiet assembly. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |
