Stumbling Policy and Disparate Responses

Townshend to North, 1767-1770

Colonial Factions

• Pennsylvania—Assembly Party (Franklin and Galloway) versus Proprietary Party (John Dickinson)

• Massachusetts—Oliver/Hutchinson versus Anti-Stamp Act Party (S. Adams/Ebenezer McIntosh)

• Virginia—Tidewater Elite versus Young Men on the Make (Patrick Henry)

Charles Townshend (1725-1767)

• Champagne Speech illustrated both his wit and recklessness.

• Chancellor of Exchequer in 1766• Townshend Revenue Acts—external

duties on glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea.

• Some revenue used to pay governors that used to come from colonial assemblies.

• 3 new Vice-Admiralty Courts to try offenders

Massachusetts Circular Letter

• Townshend Acts are unconstitutional.• Massachusetts not represented in Parliament• “that the acts made there, imposing duties on the people

of this province, with the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, are infringements of their natural and constitutional rights; because, as they are not represented in the British Parliament”

• Consequences in Massachusetts: Assembly dissolved after it refused to rescind the letter; troops sent in 1768; long-term origin of Boston Massacre.

• Boycotts in New York and Boston.• Seizure of the Liberty (1768) and riots in Boston• Dickinson—Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania

Letters from a Farmer in Penn.• Parliament sovereign in Imperial Affairs. (tax to regulate

trade—dissolved distinction between internal and external taxes.)

• Colonists loyal.• Colonial Assemblies sovereign in local affairs. (tax to raise

revenue.)• Townshend Duties usurp authority of Colonial

Assemblies.• “If at length it becomes undoubted that an inveterate

resolution is formed to annihilate the liberties of the governed, the English history affords frequent examples of resistance by force. What particular circumstances will in any future case justify such resistance can never be ascertained till they happen. Perhaps it may be allowable to say generally, that it never can be justifiable until the people are fully convinced that any further submission will be destructive to their happiness.”— -Letter III (Ominous reference to English History)

Boston Massacre

• 4,000 British troops arrive in Boston in Oct. 1768—Billeted at Boston Commons

• Townshend Acts, save that on Tea, repealed in 1770.

• Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770.• 5 colonials killed• Soldiers defended by John Adams—6

acquitted, 2 convicted of manslaughter. Capt. Thomas Preston was also acquitted.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Boston_massacre2.gif

"The Part I took in Defence of Cptn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country. Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches, anciently. As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly right.

"This however is no Reason why the Town should not call the Action of that Night a Massacre, nor is it any Argument in favour of the Governor or Minister, who caused them to be sent here. But it is the strongest Proofs of the Danger of Standing Armies."

John Adams diary entry, 1773

Frederick, Lord North (1732-1792)

• Chancellor of Exchequer (1767-1770)

• Formed government on January 28, 1770.