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defense against the Indians who were friendly to the French interests.

And all the colonies chose deputies, who met at Albany for the purpose of devising some plan whereby such an object might be effected.

On the Fourth of July, 1754, this body of colonial deputies agreed (Connecticut dissenting) upon the conditions of such a league or union, and resolved that a petition should be presented to parliament, to obtain an act for the establishment of a general government in America.

The conditions of this colonial union were, that each colony should preserve its internal constitution and sovereignty-that the general government should be administered by a president-general appointed by the crown, and by a grand council, elected by the representatives of the people of the colonies.

But this proposition from the colonies did not suit the mind of England.

For the British court at once perceived how much such a union would impair the authority of the English government, and place the colonies on the road to independence.

By this union the colonies would have obtained a local power which would have exercised all the rights of sovereignty, however dependent it might appear to be on the mother-country."

Instead, therefore, of the plan proposed by the colonists, the British ministers drew up another, which they addressed to the governors of the colonies, to be offered by them to the colonial assemblies.

This ministerial plan for a colonial union possessed many features which were extremely repugnant to the colonies, every one of which was very jealous of losing its colonial sovereignty and independence.

The whole scheme of a union, therefore, fell through, and no further attempt was made to bring the colonies together until ten years afterwards, in 1765, when the arbitrary measure of the Stamp Act threw the whole country into alarm for their liberties.

That principle of Saxon independence which formed the basis of the colonial character, revolted at the very idea of submitting to a tax of any description, or for any purpose, which was not laid on by their own free and independent choice.

The first section of the famous, or, as our ancestors held it to be, infamous Stamp Act, read as follows: "For every kind of skin of vellum or parchment, or sheet or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any declaration, plea, rejoinder, demurrer, or other pleading, or any copy thereof, in any court of law within the British colonies and plantations in America, a stamp duty of three cents."

The whole act contained fifty-five sections, which placed a stamp duty upon everything for which paper or parchment was used.

There were many sagacious statesmen in the British Parliament who foresaw what a blaze this act would kindle on the North American continent, and who did their utmost in Parliament to defeat it.

Among these, the gallant and far-seeing Col. Barre, in reply to a remark of Lord George Granville that "the colonies were planted by the care of the British government," replied "No! your oppression planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny into a then uncultivated land, where they were exposed to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable. And yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all these hardships with pleasure, compared with

those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those that should have been their friends."

This whole speech was one of the most terrible, from its scathing denunciations of the government, that was ever delivered in the British Parliament, and when it was ended, the house sat petrified with surprise, without a single member uttering a word in reply.

But the pride of the ministers would not permit them to retreat, "and Parliament could not hear with pa tience its authority to tax the colonies called in question."

So the bill passed on the 7th of February, 1765, by a vote of two hundred and fifty, to fifty nays.

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The very night the act passed, Dr. Franklin, who was then in London, wrote to Charles Thompson, of Pennsylvania, who was afterwards Secretary of Congress, The sun of liberty is set; the Americans must light the lamps of industry and economy." To which Mr. Thompson answered: "Be sure we shall light torches of quite another sort."

And so they did.

A torch was lighted that filled the very heavens over this continent with the red light of rage, that flashed in the face of the British ministers three thousand miles over the water!

Again Virginia was the first to send out the shout of resistance, as it was at the time of the French war.

On the 29th of May, 1765, the House of Burgesses of that colony, upon the motion of Patrick Henry, passed a series of resolutions, of which the following is the closing paragraph:

"That His Majesty's liege people, the inhabitants of this colony, are not bound to yield obedience to any law or ordinance whatsoever, designed to impose any tax whatsoever upon them, other than the laws and ordi

nances of this general assembly. That any person who shall, by speaking or writing, maintain that any person or persons, other than the general assembly of this colony, have any power to impose or lay any taxation whatsoever upon this people, shall be deemed an enemy to His Majesty's colony."

You will notice that there is here no hint or intimation of declaring independence of Great Britain. They called themselves "His Majesty's liege people."

There was not, up to this time, a dream among any of the colonies of declaring colonial independence of the mother-country, and setting up a new government for themselves.

They were simply contending for the old Saxon principle of the right of local self-government, under the crown, and for nothing more.

But a series of riots, and the most destructive demonstrations followed the news of the passage of the obnoxious act, especially in Massachusetts.

The anti-stamp resolutions in the colony of Virginia, you will remember, were passed on the 29th of May, 1765.

On the morning of the 14th of August, of the same year, two effigies were discovered hanging on a branch of the old elm tree on Boston Common, one of which was labeled a stamp officer, the other a jack-boot, with two horns projecting from its head. This spectacle attracted an immense crowd, not only from the city, but from the whole country.

About dusk the images were cut down, placed on a bier, and carried in great mock solemnity through the streets. The people followed, stamping and shouting, from all quarters, "Liberty and property forever-no stamp! As this crowd of noisy sovereigns came in front of a house owned by a man of the name of Oliver,

defense against the Indians who were friendly to the French interests.

And all the colonies chose deputies, who met at Albany for the purpose of devising some plan whereby such an object might be effected.

On the Fourth of July, 1754, this body of colonial deputies agreed (Connecticut dissenting) upon the conditions of such a league or union, and resolved that a petition should be presented to parliament, to obtain an act for the establishment of a general government in America.

The conditions of this colonial union were, that each colony should preserve its internal constitution and sovereignty-that the general government should be administered by a president-general appointed by the crown, and by a grand council, elected by the representatives of the people of the colonies.

But this proposition from the colonies did not suit the mind of England.

For the British court at once perceived how much such a union would impair the authority of the English government, and place the colonies on the road to independence.

"By this union the colonies would have obtained a local power which would have exercised all the rights of sovereignty, however dependent it might appear to be on the mother-country."

Instead, therefore, of the plan proposed by the colonists, the British ministers drew up another, which they addressed to the governors of the colonies, to be offered by them to the colonial assemblies.

This ministerial plan for a colonial union possessed many features which were extremely repugnant to the colonies, every one of which was very jealous of losing its colonial sovereignty and independence.

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