No More Learning

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? THE
COLONIAL MERCHANTS
AND THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1763-1776
ARTHUR MEIER SCHLESINGER
FREDERICK UNGAR PUBLISHING CO.
NEW YORK
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? New Printing 1957
Published by arrangement with the author
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 57-6595
7 Third Printing, 1964
in the American Classics series
Printed in the United States of America
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? PREFACE
A greater number of investigations of the American
revolutionary epoch have been made in the last three or
four decades than in all the preceding years. This dili-
gence has been the outgrowth of the modern spirit of
historical research and has been productive of results
which completely discredit the simple formulae by which
the earlier historians explained the colonial revolt. In
the light of these studies it is now almost universally
agreed that the revolutionary movement was the product
of a complexity of forces, governmental and personal,
British and colonial, social, economic, geographical and
religious. No definitive history of the American Revol-
ution can be written until it becomes possible to appraise
each one of these factors at its true value.
In the present work attention is focused on the part
which the colonial merchants played--willingly and un-
willingly--in bringing about the separation of the thir-
teen colonies from the mother country. This has ren-
dered necessary some discussion of the evolution of the
radical party, with its shifting program, membership and
methods; but the latter theme, so fascinating in its pos-
sibilities, is entirely incidental to the main purpose of
the book.
The most distinctive activity undertaken by the mer-
chants was the formation of non-intercourse agreements.
These agreements, because of the peculiar part they
played in the development of revolutionary sentiment,
receive extended consideration in the present work. No
5
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? 6 PREFACE
reader will leave these pages without perceiving the
source of inspiration for the Jeffersonian policy of com-
mercial coercion adopted in the early nineteenth century.
If the latter years of the revolutionary movement be
taken for the purpose, the similarity will be seen to be
more than superficial. In each case the non-mercantile
elements holding the reins of power were driving a re-
luctant minority of merchants into a sacrifice of trading
interests for a good desired only by the former.
John Adams once wrote that the great problem of the
revolutionary movement was to get the thirteen clocks
to strike at the same time. My own belief is that in-
stead of thirteen revolutionary movements, as Adams
suggests, there were fundamentally only two, one func-
tioning along characteristic lines in the northern pro-
vinces, and the other developing in a characteristic way
in the southern provinces. This view of events has fur-
nished the mode of attack which has been utilized in
dealing with the multitudinous happenings of the indivi-
dual provinces.
This volume appears deep-freighted with my obliga-
tions to many fellow-workers in the field of history. In
particular I am greatly indebted to Professor Herbert L.
Osgood, of Columbia University, who first directed my
attention to the subject of colonial non-intercourse and
whose constructive criticism has improved my work in
content and form. To my colleague, Professor Henry
R. Spencer, I am deeply grateful for many helpful sug-
gestions made in the course of reading the manuscript.
Indirectly I owe much to the example of certain inspiring
teachers, particularly to that of Dean George Wells
Knight, of Ohio State University, who in my under-
graduate days first awakened in me a scholarly interest
in history. I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to
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? PREFACE 7
Mr. John Bennett, of Charleston, S. C. , for kindly gath-
ering material for me in the Loyalist Transcripts. I
desire also to say that Professor C. M. Andrews' splendid
essay on "The Boston Merchants and the Non-Importa-
tion Movement" (Col. Soc. Mass. Pubs. , vol. xix) did
not reach my hands in time to be of assistance to me:
but I have availed myself of the opportunity to make
footnote references to it from time to time. I could not
conclude these personal acknowledgments without reg-
istering the deep sense of my obligation to my wife,
Elizabeth Bancroft, who has been of great assistance to
me at every stage of my labors.
Through the generosity of the editors of the Political
Science Quarterly I have been enabled to make free use
of material which appeared in an article entitled "The
Uprising against the East India Company," in vol. xxxii,
no. 1. Finally, I take great pleasure in recording my
appreciation of the untiring courtesy and unfailing help-
fulness of the officers and assistants of the following
libraries: Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical
Society, Massachusetts State Library, Boston Public
Library, New York Public Library, Columbia University
Library, New York Historical Society, Historical Society
of Pennsylvania, Maryland Historical Society, Charleston
Library Society, Ohio State Archaeological and Histor-
ical Society, Greene County (Ohio) Library Association,
Ohio State University Library, and Ohio State Library,
A. M. S.
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY,
OCTOBER, 1917.
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? CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THB OLD ORDER CHANGETII
. / PAO<<
Effects of British commercial and financial supervision on the colonies . . . 15
Economy of commercial provinces , 22
Dominance of merchant class in commercial provinces z7
Economy of plantation provinces 32
Leadership of planting class in plantation provinces 34
Surrey of colonial smuggling to 1763 39
CHAPTER II
THE FIRST CONTEST FOR COMMERCIAL REFORM (1764-1766)
Restrictive acts of 1764 50
Sectionalization of discontent 54
First stage of industrial depression 56
Beginning of organized opposition on part of merchants 59
Broadening the basis of protest 62
Early movement for retrenchment in commercial provinces 63
-- Stamp Act (1765) and its economic burden 65
! Popular demonstrations in commercial provinces 71
>Contrast with plantation provinces 73
Union of commercial and plantation provinces in Stamp Act Congress . . . 75
Organized efforts for economic relief in commercial provinces 76
Remedial legislation of Parliament (1766) 82
CHAPTER III
THE SECOND MOVEMENT FOR COMMERCIAL REFORM (1767-1770)
Position of merchant class early in 1767 91
Townshe1ul legislation (1767) 93
General modes of opposition 96
Opposition to regulations against smuggling (1767-1770) 97
<-. General character of non-importation movement 105
9
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? I0 CONTENTS
PAGE
New England town movement for non-consumption (October, 1767--Feb-
ruary, 1768) 106
Efforts for a ui-city mercantile league of non-importation (March--June,
1768) 113
Independent boycott agreements in chief trading towns (August, 1768--
March, 1769) , 13o
Attempt to extend scope of mercantile agreements (October, 1769) . . . . 131
Non-importation movement in plantation provinces 134
In Virginia 135
In Maryland 138
In South Carolina 140
In Georgia 147
In North Carolina 148
Boycott agreements in minor northern provinces 149
In Delaware 149
In New Jersey 150
In Connecticut 150
In Rhode Island 152
In New Hampshire 155
CHAPTER IV
ENFORCEMENT AND BREAKDOWN OF NON-IMPORTATION (1768-1770)
Difficulties of judging execution of non-importation 156
Enforcement at Boston 156
Enforcement at New York 186
Enforcement at Philadelphia 191
Enforcement in other northern provinces 194
Accession of New Hampshire to non-importation 194
Uncandid course of Rhode Island 195
Enforcement in Delaware, New Jersey and Connecticut 196
CHAPTER V
ENFORCEMENT AND BREAKDOWN OF NON-IMPORTATION (Continued)
Operation of non-importation in plantation provinces 197
Situation in Virginia. 198
Situation in Maryland 199
Enforcement in South Carolina 202
Enforcement in North Carolina 208
Early defection of Georgia 309
'General trend toward relaxation of non importation 209
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? CONTENTS
'Movement of great trading towns to terminate non-importation (April--
October, 1770) 217
Collapse of non-importation in plantation provinces (October, 1770--July,
1770 z33
Coercive effects of non-importation in England 236
CHAPTER VI
COLONIAL PROSPERITY AND A NEW PERIL (1770-1773)
Alienation of merchant class from radicals. 240
Return of prosperity , 241
Widespread acquiescence in tea duty 244
Continuance of smuggling 246
Attempt of radicals to revive agitation (November, 1772--July, 1773). . . 253
Cause for renewal of opposition: tea act of 1773 262
Analysis of literature of protest 265
CHAPTER VII
THE STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY (1773-1774)
Inauguration of movement of opposition at Philadelphia 279
Development of Boston opposition to tea shipments 281
Course of opposition at Philadelphia 290
Course of opposition at New York 291
Course of opposition at Charleston 294
Effect of Boston Tea Party on colonial opinion 298
CHAPTER VIII
CONTEST OF MERCHANTS AND RADICALS FOR DOMINANCE IN -THE COMMER-
CIAL PROVINCES (MARCH--AUGUST, 1774)
Passage of coercive acts of 1774 305
Effect of coerc1ve acts on American opinion ? 306
Movement in commercial provinces for non-intercourse 311
In New England 311
In New York 327
In Pennsylvania 341
In New Jersey 356
In Delaware 357
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? 12 CONTENTS
PAOI
CHAPTER IX
CONTEST OF MERCHANTS AND RADICALS-TOR DOMINANCE IN THE PLANTA-
TION PROVINCES (MAY--OCTOBER, 1774)
Factors conditioning the non-intercourse movement in plantation provinces . 359
Action of Maryland 360
Measures of Virgin1a 362
Attitude of North Carolina 370
Course of South Carolina 373
Backwardness of Georgia 379
Indications of rising tide of radicalism in British America 386
Combination of workingmen at Boston and New York against Gage . 386
Destruction of the Piggy Stewart at Annapolis 388
CHAPTER X
THE ADOPTION or THE CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION
(SEPTEMBER--OCTOBER, 1774)
Genesis of First Continental Congress 393
Factors determining the policy of Congress 396
Proceedings of First Continental Congress 410
CHAPTER XI
RATIFICATION OF THE CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION
(NOVEMBER, 1774--JUNE, 1775)
Position of moderates after First Continental Congress . 432
Literature of protest 435
Establishment of Association in commercial provinces 440
In Massachusetts ? ? 440
In New Hampshire ? . . 442
In Rhode Island 444
In Connecticut 444
In New York 447
In New Jersey 455
In Pennsylvania 456
In Delaware 460
Establishment of Association in plantation provinces 460
In Maryland 461
In Virginia 461
In North Carolina 463
In South Carolina 464
Failure of Georgia to ratify 469
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? CONTENTS
13
CHAPTER XII
PAQX
FIVE MONTHS or THE ASSOCIATION IN THE COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
(DECEMBER, 1774--APRIL, 1775)
General conditions affecting operation of Association 473
Workings of Association in
Workings of Association in
Workings of Association in
Workings of Association in
Workings of Association in
Workings of Association in
Workings of Association in
Workings of Association in
CHAPTER XIII
Massachusetts 476
New Hampshire 483
Rhode Island 485
Connecticut 486
New York 489
New Jersey 493
Pennsylvania 495
Delaware ? 502
FIVE MONTHS OF THE ASSOCIATION IN THE PLANTATION PROVINCES
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
Contrast with commercial provinces 504
Workings of Association in Maryland 504
Workings of Association in Virginia 509
Workings of Association in North Carolina 519
Workings of Association in South Carolina 525
Employment of provincial boycott 529
Regulation of coastwise trade 534
General conclusions as to non-importation regulation in all provinces . . . 535
> Effects of Continental Association on Great Britain 536
CHAPTER XIV
TRANSFORMATION OF THE ASSOCIATION (APRIL, 1775--JULY, 1776)
Cause of transformation of Continental Association 541
Widespread adoption of defense associations 542
Belated accession of Georgia to Continental Association 546
Changing functions of committees of observation 552
Early adoption of non-exportation for military purposes 559
Modifications in Continental Association made by Second Continental Con-
gress 563
Advent of non-exportation 570
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? I4 CONTENTS
CHAPTER XV
TRANSFORMATION OF THE ASSOCIATION (Continued)
Nullification of acts of navigation and trade 576
Relaxation of tea non-consumption 581
Removal of restraint on prices 584
Merchant clan and the supreme decision 591
APMNDI x 607
BIBLIOGRAPHY 614
INDEX 631
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? CHAPTER I
THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH
THE century closing with the treaty of Paris of 1763
was the Golden Age of commerce for the merchants of
the thirteen continental English colonies.
The location
of these colonies in the temperate zone and the relative
newness of some of them had caused the mother country
to accord to them a treatment different from that ex-
tended to the tropical colonies. In particular they had
been enabled to escape most of the injurious restraints
which a thorough application of the mercantilist theory
would have involved--a theory dear to the economic
writers of the times and to the Board of Trade, and one
which would have converted the colonies into mere
sources of supply and markets for the English merchants
and manufacturers. Under these favoring circumstances,
the colonists acquiesced without serious complaint in the
British commercial system, and found the burdens which
it imposed counterbalanced by corresponding benefits. 1
The foundation stone of the commercial system was
1 The summary of the effects of the British commercial policy, which
follows, is based principally upon the anonymous pamphlet, The In-
terest of the Merchants and Manufacturers of Great Britain in the
Present Contest with the Colonies Stated and Considered (London,
1774); and upon the following monographic studies: Ashley, W. J. ,
"The Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies,
1660-1760," in Surveys Historic and Economic (New York, 1900), and
Beer, G. L. , The Commercial Policy of England toward the American
Colonies (Col. U. Studies, vol. iii, no. 2).
IS
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? Ig THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
the navigation act of 1660. which confined the colonial
carrying trade wholly to English and colonial shipping.
Under operation of this monopoly, ship building had
become a lucrative source of wealth for colonial capital-
ists and of employment for colonial artisans and sailors.
The most comprehensive regulation affecting the dis-
tribution of goods was the requirement that European
commodities imported into the colonies mus,t be laden and
shipped in England. 1 The hardship which this restric-
tion imposed on the colonies was theoretical rather than
actual. For one thing the Americans generally found
it more profitable to buy British manufactures than for-
eign wares because of the superior quality and lower
price of the former. This position of superiority, en-
joyed by the English merchant and manufacturer inde-
pendent of any legal advantage, made it possible for them
to retain their American market even after the colonies
had established independence. 2 Furthermore, England
1There were a few exceptions; e. g. , wines from Madeira and the
Azores; salt from any port of Europe for the New England fisheries,
and, at a later time, for Pennsylvania and New York; provisions,
horses and servants from Ireland and Scotland; and later, linen from
Ireland.
1 Lord Sheffield, by comparing the prices of standard British manu-
factures with foreign-made wares, made it apparent that "the pre-
ference formerly given [by the American colonists] was not the effect
of our restrictions . . . " Observations on the Commerce of the
American States (London, 1783), p. 234. So; also, a 'London merchant
in the American trade testified before the House of Commons in
1775 that printed calicoes and other colored and striped goods, and
probably also muslins and silk handerchiefs, could be procured on
better terms in England than. in Holland. All these were important
articles of American consumption. Stevens, B. F. , Facsimiles of Mss.
in European Archives etc. (London, 1889-98), vol. xxiv, no. 2037, p.
16. Madison wrote in 1785 that "our trade was never more compleatly
monopolized by G. B. , when it was under the direction of the British
Parliament than it is at this moment. " Madison, James, Writings,
(Hunt, G. , ed. ), vol. ii, p. 147-
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? THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH 1j
was, by virtue of her geographical position with refe-
rence to continental Europe, the natural entrepot for
most of the outgoing European trade to the colonies.
In the case of non-English manufactures, usually the
the greater portion of the English import duty was re-
funded, or "drawnback. " upon re-shipment of the goods
to America, with the result that certain goods, such as
German linens, sold more cheaply in the colonies than
in the home country. ' If the parliamentary regulations
did sometimes tend to cramp American commercial op-
portunities, the colonists were apt to ignore the restric-
tions and, as Lord Sheffield says with a large measure of
truth, "it is well known that from the first they uni-
formly did evade them whenever they found it to their
interest. "2
As for the colonial export commerce, little or no re-
straint was imposed on the trade of the northern col-
onies with foreign countries, except in so far as the law
governing imports compelled the colonial shipmasters
to take their return cargoes back to America by way
of England. They might send their articles of commerce
the world over, wherever a market could be found, with
the exception during the eighteenth century of naval
stores, which, being confined to the English market,
were favored with governmental bounties. Only on their
trade with the mother country were the restrictions on
exports of any apparent importance. By the terms of
the so-called corn laws, English ports were closed,
either absolutely or by heavy duties, to colonial cereals
and meats; and a discriminatory duty was laid on oil and
blubber imported in colonial vessels. This deprived the
1 The drawback amounted to all but one-half of the "Old Subsidy"
of 1660, or about 2l/2%. Vide Va. Mag. Hist, and Biog. , vol. xi, p. 142.
'Op. cit. , p. 234.
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? 1g THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
northern colonists of convenient articles of exchange for
British manufactures and would have proved a serious
restraint had they not been free to seek elsewhere com-
modities that could be marketed in England.
Like naval stores, the staple of Virginia and Maryland
was an "enumerated" article, and thus the tobacco of
these colonies could be exported only to the home coun-
try; but careful provision was made that colonial to-
bacco should enjoy a monopoly of the home market even
at the expense of English farmers and foreign importers.
In the case of South Carolinia and Georgia, the ex-
portation of rice was early in the eighteenth century
confined to Great Britain where it also was given a
monopoly of the market. After 1730 this staple, upon
payment of one-half of the British duties, was admitted
directly to the southern countries of Europe, whither
nearly one-fourth of the exported crop went. North
Carolina was affected by the regulations as to tobacco
and rice and, more largely, by the restraint on the ex-
portation of naval supplies; but, as has been noted, this
last industry was subsidized by the British government,
and without such help it could not have maintained it-
self against the competition of Sweden.
Notwithstanding that colonial tobacco and rice could
under most circumstances be sent only to the home
country, these products enjoyed fairly free access to the
continental European market, for on re-exportation from
England the whole or the greater part of the import
duty, as the law at any given time provided, was re-
mitted as a " drawback. " Thus, toward the end of the
colonial era four-fifths of the tobacco carried to England
was re-shipped by British merchants to the continent,
and nearly three-fourths of the American rice was re-ex-
ported to the North German and Dutch manufacturing
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? THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH 19
towns. As England was on the direct route between
the colonies and the European ports north of Cape Fin-
isterre, the additional freight charge was not high.
Even if colonial vessels had gone directly to the conti-
nental ports and thus deprived the British middlemen of
their profits, they would have found it difficult to secure
return cargoes.
So far as the regulations of exports and imports were
concerned, the colonies north of Maryland were not ser-
iously affected; and the restraints on the southern col-
onies were balanced by governmental subsidies and vested
privileges in the English market. But other features of
the commercial system bore a somewhat closer relation
to the industrial life of the northern colonies. Most
notable in this connection was the Molasses Act of 1ffi^.
which was designed by means of prohibitive duties to
compel the rum distillers and dealers of New England
and elsewhere to buy molasses, sugar and rum of British,
instead of foreign, colonies in the West Indies. But, as
we shall see, this law, oppressive in intent but not in
execution, had its chief effect in increasing the volume
of colonial smuggling.
Restraints were also placed upon the exportation of
certain manufactures. If the British merchants and the
Board of Trade could have had their way, these restric-
tions would have been sweeping and effectual; but as it
was, no earnest effort was made either to prevent manu-
factures generally or to prohibit any manufacturing for pri-
vate consumption within a colony. In 16qQ it was enacted
that no woolen manufactures should be exported from
the colonies, transported from one colony to another or
from one place to another in the same colony. In 1732
the exportation of locally-made hats from a colony was
forbidden. In the middle of the century n rhl'H hiv f"--
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? 20 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
bade the erection nf any new stye) furnaces or slitting
mills, although country forges where nails and farm im-
plements were wrought were not in any wise affected.
This last restriction worked some hardship on the col-
onies north of Maryland; but the ill wind blew favorably
for Virginia and Maryland, for these colonies profited
by the special encouragement which the act granted for
the American production of bar iron and pig iron.
The three laws against manufacturing may, in general,
be considered as having had little effect, for the reason
that even the northern colonies showed small promise
of developing important manufacturing interests. Causes
unconnected with the British commercial system oper-
ated against the establishment of manufacturing, except
for household purposes : the abundance of land in propor-
tion to the population; the resulting high price of labor;
and the want of sufficient capital. 1 The thousands of
British workingmen who migrated to America in the
last quarter-century of the colonial era found it more
profitable and congenial to become farmers or seafarers
than to labor at their old occupations. Colonial capital-
ists founH a hpf tpr investment for their capital in commerce
1 Gallatin assigned the same reasons for the natural industrial back-
wardness of the country in 1810 in his "Report on Manufactures. "
Am. St. Papers, Finance, vol. ii, pp. 425-426. Colonists' and Englishmen
at home widely appreciated that natural conditions in the colonies
were unfavorable to the development of manufacturing. E. g. , ride
"An Essay on the Trade of the Northern Colonies" in Bos. Eve. Post,
Jan. 30, Feb. 6, 1764; article by "A North American," copied into
N. Y. Merc. , June 10, 1765; article in Conn. Cour. , Aug. 17, 1767; the
pamphlet, The Int. of Merchants and Mfrs. , pp. 20-21; reports of
following governors to home government: Moore, of N. Y. , N. Y.
Col. Docs. , vol. vii, pp. 888-889; Wentworth, of N. H. , British Papers
("Sparks Mss. "), vol. i, p. 6; Sharpe, of Md. , Md. Arch. , vol. xiv, pp.
496-497; Franklin, of N. J. , / N. J. Arch. , vol. x, pp. 31-32; Macpherson,
D. , Annals of Commerce (London, 1805), vol. Hi, pp. 186-191; Franklin,
Benj. . Writings (Smyth, A. H. , ed. ), vol. v, p. 116.
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? THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH 2l
or agriculture and refused_tp_ hazard their resources in
manufactur1ng enterprises of any size, even in later times
when non-1mportat1on agreements were creating an arti-
ficial demand for colonial wares. 1
An act. of Parliament of 1732 sought to safeguard
British investments in colonial businesses by protecting
creditors at home against discriminatory colonial legis-
lation designed to impede the collection of their debts.
The act was passed upon petition of some London mer-
chants. It provided that the affidavit of a British sub-
ject at home should have the same force as evidence
given in open court in the colonies and that the lands,
tenements and negroes owned by the colonists should
be liable for the payment of debts in much the same
manner as real estate was in England. The undoubted
effect of the law was that colonial merchants and planters
of substance were enabled to secure a more generous
credit; the chief hardship of the regulation fell on the
unthrifty and unfortunate in the colonies.
Another regulation of Parliament, aimed solely at New
England, prohibited the issue of legal-tender paper
money after 1751. Beginning in 1090, Massachusetts
had been beguiled into the use of paper currency through
the heavy expenses entailed by the successive French
and Indian wars.