SI-EECH ON
AMERICAN
TAXATION.
Edmund Burke
In
thile: House of Lords I do not recollect that there was
any debate or division at all. I am sure there was
no protest. In fact, the affair passed with: so very,
very little noise, that in town they scarcely knew the
nature:-of what you were doing. -The opposition to
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the'bill in England never could have done this mis
chief, because there scarcely' ever. was less of oppositfion to a bill of consequence.
Sir, the agents and distributors of falsehoods have,
with their usual industry, circulated another lie, of. . the same nature with the former. It is this: that the disturbances arose from the account which had been
received in America of the- change in the ministry.
No longer awed, it seems, with the spirit of the former
rulers, they thought themselves a match for what our
calumniators choose to qualify by the name of so
feeble a ministry as succeeded. Feeble in one sense
these men certainly may be called: for, with all their
efforts, and they have made many, they have not been
able to resist the distempered vigor and insane alacrity with which you are rushing to your ruin. But
it does so happen, that the falsity of this circulation
is (like the rest) demonstrated by indisputable dates
and records.
So little was the change known in America, that.
the letters of your governors, giving an account of
these disturbances long after they had arrived at
their highest pitch, were all directed to the old minzistry, and particularly to the Earl of Halifax, the Secretary of State corresponding with the colonies,
without once in the smallest degree intimating the
slightest suspicion of any ministerial revolution whatsoever. The ministry was not changed in England until the 10th day-of July, 1765. On the 14t1h of the
preceding June, Governor Fauquier, from Virginia,
writes thus, - and writes thus to the Earl of Halifax:
-" Government is set at defiance, not having strength
enough in her hands to enforce obedience to the laws
of the community. -The private distress, which every
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man feels, increases the general dissatisfaction at the
duties laid by the Stamp Act, which breaks out and
shows itself upon every triflingoccasion. " The general dissatisfaction had produced some time before,
that is, on the 29th of May,. several strong public resolves against the Stamp Act; and those resolves are
assigned by Governor Bernard as the cause of the insurrections in Massachusetts Bay, in his letter of the
15th of August, still addressed to the Earl of Halifax;
and he continued to address such accounts to that minister quite to the 7th of September of the same year.
Similar accounts, and of as late a date, were sent from
other governors, and all directed to Lord Halifax. ,Not one of these letters indicates the slightest idea of
a change, either known or even apprehended.
Thus are blown away the insect race of courtly
falsehoods! - Thus perish the miserable inventions
of the wretched runners for a wretched cause, which
they have fly-blown into every weak and. rotten part
of the country, in vain hopes, that, when their maggots had taken wing, their importunate buzzing might:sound something like the public voice! Sir, I have troubled you sufficiently. with the state
of America before the repeal. Now I turn to the
honorable gentleman who so stoutly challenges us
to tell whether, after the repeal, the provinces were
quiet. This is coming home to the point. Here I
meet him directly, and answer most readily, They
were quiet. And I, in my turn, challenge him to
prove when, and where, and by whom, and in what
numbers, and with what violence, the other laws of
trade, as gentlemen assert, were violated in consequence of your concession, or. that even your other
revenue laws were attacked. 'But I quit the vantage
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ground' on which I' stand, and where I might leavc
the burden: of the proof upon him: I walk down upon
the open plain, and undertake to show that they were
not only quiet, but showed' many unequivocal marks
of acknowledgment- and gratitude. And to give him
e6very advantage; I select the obnoxious colony of
Massachusetts Bay, which at this time (but without
hearing her) is so heavily a:culprit- before Parliament-: I, will select their proceedings even under circumstances of no small irritation. For, a little
-imprudently, I must:say, Governor Bernard mixed
in the administration of the lenitive of the repeal
no small acrimony arising from matters of a separate nature. Yet see, Sir, the effect' of that lenitive, though mixed with these bitter ingredients, -- and
how this rugged people can express themselves on a
measure of concession.
" If it is not frow in our power," (say they, in their
address to Governor Bernard,) " in so full a manner
as will be expected, to show our respectful gratitude
to the mother country, or to make a dutiful, affectionate return to the indulgence of the King and Parliament, it shall be no fault of ours; for this we
intend, and hope shall be able fully to effect. "
Would to God that this temper had been cultivated, managed, and set in action! Other effects than
those which we have since felt would have resulted
from it. On the requisition for compensation to those
who had suffered from the violence of the populace, in
the same address they say, -" The recommendation
enjoined by Mr. Secretary Conway's letter, and in consequence thereof made to us, we shall embrace the first convenient opportunity to consider and act upon. "
They did: considers; they did act upon it. They obeyed
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the requisition. I know the mode has been chicaned
upon; but it was substantially obeyed, and much better obeyed than I fear the Parliamentary requisition of
this session will, be, though enforced by all your rigor and backed with all your power. In a word, the
damages of popular fury were compensated by legislative gravity. - Almost every other part of America
in various ways demonstrated their gratitude. I am
bold to say, that so sudden a calm recovered after so
violent a storm is without parallel. in history. To say
that no: other disturbance should happen from any
other cause is folly. But. as far as appearances. went,
by the judicious. sacrifice of one law, you: procured
an acquiescence in all that remained. After this experience, nobody shall persuade me, when an whole
people. are concerned, that acts. of lenity are not
means of conciliation.
I. hope. the honorable gentleman has received a. fair
and full answer to his question. . . I have done with the third period of your policy,that of your repeal, and the return of your ancient
system, and your'. ancient tranquillity and concord.
Sir, this period was not as long as it was happy. Another scene was'opened, and other actors. appeared'
on the stage. The state, in the condition I have described it, was delivered into the hands of Lord: Chatham, a great and celebrated name,. -a-name that keeps the name of'this country respectable in every
other on the globe. It may be truly called
Clarum et venerabile nomen
Gentibus, et multum nostria quod Iproderat urbi. . Sir,. the venerable age of this great man, his merited. rank, his superior- eloquence, his splendid quali
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ties, his eminent services, the vast space he fills in
the eye of mankind, and, more than all the rest, his
fall from power, which, like death, canonizes and sane
tifies a great character, will not suffer me to censure
any part of his conduct. I am afraid to flatter him;
I am sure I am not disposed to blame him. Let those
who have betrayed him by their adulation insult him
with their malevolence. But what I do not presume
to. censure I may have leave to lament. ). For a wise
man, he seemed to me at that time'to be governed
too much by general maxims. . L\I speak with the freedom. of. history, and I hope without offence. 1 One or two of these. maxims, flowing from an opinion not.
the most indulgent to our unhappy species, and surely a little too general, led him into measures that were greatly nmischievous to himself, and for that reason, among others, perhaps fatal to his country, -- measures, the efflcts of which, I am afraid, are forever incurable. He made an administration so check: ered and speckled, he put together a piece of joinery
so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed, a cabinet so variously inlaid, such a piece of diversified mosaic, such a tessellated pavement without cement,
-- here a bit of black stone and there a bit of white,
patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republicans,
Whigs and Tories, treacherous friends and open enemies, -that it was, indeed, a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch and unsure to stand on. The
colleagues whom he had assorted at the same -boards
stared at each other, and were obliged to ask,-" Sir,
your name? "-" Sir, you have the advantage of me. "
-" Mr. Such-a-one. " - " I beg a thousand pardons. "
-I venture to say, it did so happen that persons
had a single office divided between them, who had
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never spoke to each other in their lives, until they
found themselves, they knew not how, pigging together, heads: and points, in the same truckle-bed. *
Sir, in consequence of this arrangement, having
put so much the larger part of his enemies and opposers into power, the confusion was such that his own
principles could not possibly have any effect or influence in the conduct of affairs. If. ever he fell into a
fit of the gout, or if any other cause withdrew him
from public cares, principles- directly the contrary
were sure to predominate. jWhen he had executed
his plan, he had not an inch of ground to stand upon. i
When he had accomplished his scheme of administration, he was no longer a minister.
When his face was hid' but for a moment, his whole
system was on a wide sea without chart or compass.
The gentlemen, his particular friends, who, with the
names of various departments of ministry, were admitted to seem as if they acted a part under him,
with a modesty that becomes all men, and with a confidence in him which was justified even in its extravagance by his superior abilities, had never in any instance presumed upon any opinion of their own.
Deprived of his guiding influence, they were whirled
about, the sport of every gust, and easily driven into
any port; and as those who joined with them in manning the vessel were the most directly opposite to his
*opinions, measures, and character, and far the most
artful and most powerful of the set, they easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the vacant, unoccupied,
and derelict minds of his friends, and instantly they
* Supposed to allude to the Right Honorable Lord North, and
George Cooke, Esq. , who were made joint paymasters in the summer
of 1766, on the removal of the Rockingham administration.
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turned: the vessel wholly out of;the course of his pol
icy. As if it were to insult as well as to betray him,
even. long before the close of the first session of his
administration, when everything was publicly transacted, and with great parade, in his name, they made
an. act declaring it highly just and expedient to raise
a revenue in America. l For even then, Sir, even be*fore,this splendid orb was entirely set, and while the
western horizon was in a blaze with his descending
glory, on the opposite quarter of the heavens arose
another luminary, and for his hour became lord of
the ascendant.
This light, too, is passed and set forever. You understand, to be sure, that I. speak of Charles Townshend, officially the reproducer of this fatal scheme, whom I cannot even now remember. without some. degree of sensibility. In truth, Sir, he was the delight
and ornament of this House, and the charm of every
private society which he honored with his presence.
Perhaps there never arose in this country, nor in any
country, a man of a-more pointed and. finished wit,
and (where his passions were not concerned) of a
more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment.
If he had not so great a stock as some have had,who
flourished formerly, of knowledge long treasured up,
he knew, better by far tlian any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring together within a short
time all that. was necessary to establish, to illustrate,
and to decorate that side of the question he supported.
He stated his matter skilfully and powerfully. He
particularly excelled in a most luminous explanation
and display of. his subject. His style of argument
was neither trite and vulgar, nor subtle and abstruse.
He hit the House just between wind and water. And
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not being troubled with too anxious a zeal for any
matter in question,. he was never more tedious or
more earnest than the preconceived opinions and present temper of his hearers required, to whom he was
always in perfect unison. He conformed exactly to
the temper of the House; and he seemed to guide,
because he was always sure to follow it.
I beg pardoh, Sir, if, when I speak of this and of
other great men, I appear to digress in saying something of their characters. In this eventful history of
the revolutions of America, the characters of such
men are of much importance. (Great men are the
guideposts and landmarks in the state) The credit
of such men at court or in the nation is the sole
cause of all the public measures. It would be an invidious' thing (most foreign, I trust, to what you think
my disposition) to remark the errors into which the
authority of great names has brought the nation, without'doing justice at the same time to the great qualities whence that authority arose. The subject is instructive to those who wish to form themselves on
whatever of excellence has gone before them. There
are many young members in the House (such of late
has been the rapid succession of public men) who
never saw that prodigy, Charles Townshend, nor of
course know what a ferment he was able to excite in
everything by the violent ebullition of his mixed vir
tues and failings. For failings he had undoubtedly,
-- many of us remember them; we are this day considering the effect of them. . But he had no failings
which were not owing to a noble cause, - to an ardent,
generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame:
a passion which is the instinct of all great soulSl. He
worshipped that goddess, wheresoever she appeared;
VOL. II. 5
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but he paid- his particular devotions to her in her favorite habitation, in her chosen temple, the House of
Commons. Besides the characters of the individuals
that compose our body, it is impossible, Mr. Speaker,
not to observe that this House has a collective character of its own. That character, too, however imperfect, is not unamiable. Like all great public colleetions of men, you possess a marked love of virtue and' an abhorrence of vice. But among vices there
is none which the House abhois in the same degree
with obstinacy. Obstinacy, Sir, is certainly a great
vice; and in the changeful state of political affairs it
is frequently the cause of great mischief. It happens,
however, very unfortunately, that almost- the whole
line of the great and masculine virtues, constancy,
gravity, magnanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmness,
are closely allied to this disagreeable quality, of which
you have so just an abhorrence; and, in their excess,
all these virtues very easily fall into it. He who
paid such a punctilious attention to all your feelings
certainly took care not to shock them by that vice
which is the most disgustful to you.
That fear of displeasing those who ought most to
be pleased betrayed him sometimes into the other extreme. He had voted, and, in the year 1765, had
been an advocate for the Stamp Act. Things and
the disposition of men's minds were changed. In
short, the Stamp Act began to be no favorite in this
House. He therefore attended at the private meeting in which the resolutions moved by a right honorable gentleman were settled: resolutions leading to
the repeal. The next day he voted for that repeal;
and he would. have spoken for it, too, if an illness
(not, as was then given out, a political, but, to my
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SI-EECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 67
knowledge, a very. real illness) had' not prevented
it. 'The very next session, as the fashion of this world
passeth away, the'repeal began to be inll as bad an
odor in this. House as the Stamp Act had been -in the
session before. To conform to the temper which
began to prevail, and to prevail mostly amongst those
most in powxer, he declared,"very early in the. winter,
that a revenue must be had out of America. Instantly he was tied down to his engagements by
some, who had no objection. to such experiments,
when made at the cost of persons for whom they had
no particular regard. The whole body of courtiers
drove him onward. They always talked as if the king
stood in a sort of humiliated state, until something
of the kind should be done.
Here this extraordinary man, then Chancellor of
the. Exchequer, found himself in great straits. To
please universally was the'object of his life; but to
tax and to please, no more than to love and to' be wise,
is not given to men. However, he attempted it. To
render the tax palatable to the partisans of American
revenue, he made a preamble stating the necessity
of such a revenue. To close with the American distinction, this revenue was external or port-duty; but again, to soften it to the other party, it was a duty of
supply. To gratify the colonists, it was laid on British manufactures; to satisfy the merchbnts of Britain, the duty was trivial, and (except that on tea, which
touched only the devoted East India Company) on
none of the grand objects of commerce. To counterwork the American contraband, the duty on tea was reduced from a shilling to three-pence; but to secure the favor of those who would tax Ameri6a, the
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scene of Collection was& change:,, and, with the rest, it
was levied in the colonies. wV-hat need I say more?
This fine-spun scheme had the usual fate of all exquisite policy.
the mode of executing that plan, both arose singly
and solely from a love of our applause. He was
truly the child of the House. He never thought,
did, or said anything, but with a view to you. He
every day adapted himself to your disposition, and
adjusted himself before it as at a looking-glass.
/He had observed (indeed, it could not escape him
that several persons, infinitely his inferiors in all respects, had formerly rendered themselves considerable in this House by one method alone. They were a race of men (I hope in: God the species is extinct)
who, when they rose in their place, no man living
could divine, from:any known adherence to parties,
to opinions, or to principles, from any order or system in their politics, or from any sequel or connection in their ideas, what part they were going to take in any debate. It is astonishing how much this
uncertainty, especially at critical times, called the
attention of all parties on such men. All eyes were
fixed on them, all ears open to hear them; each party gaped, and looked alternately for their vote, almost
to the end of their speeches. While the House hung
in this uncertainty, now the hear-hims rose from this
side, now they rebellowed from the other; and that
party to whom they fell at length from their tremulous and dancing balance' always received them in
a tempest of applause. The fortune of such men was
a- temptation too great to be resisted by one to whom
a single whiff of incense withheld gave much greater
pain than he received delight in-the clouds of it
But. the original plan of the duties, and
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which daily:rose about him from the prodigal superstition of innumerable admirers. . -He was a candidate for contradictory. honors; and his great aim was, tommake those agree in admiration of him who
never agreed in anything else.
Hence arose this unfortunate act, the subject of
this day's debate: from a disposition which, after
making an American revenue to please one, repealed
it to please others, and again revived it in hopes of
pleasing a third, and of catching something in the
ideas of all.
This revenue act of 1767' formed the fourth period
of American policy. How we have fared since then:
what woful variety of schemes have been adopted;
what enforcing, and what repealing; what bullying,
and what'submitting; what doing, and undoing;
what straining, and what relaxing; what assemblies
dissolved for not obeying, and called again without
obedience; what troops sent out to quell resistance,
and, on meeting that resistance, recalled; what shiftings, and changes, and jumblings of all kinds of men
at. home, which left no possibility of order, consistency, vigor, or even so much as a decent unity of color,
in any one - public measure - It is a tedious, irksome task. My duty may call me to open it out some
other time; on a former occasion * I tried your temper on a part of it; for the present I shall forbear.
After all these changes and agitations, your immediate situation upon the question on your paper is at
length brought to this. You have an act of Parliament stating that " it is expedient to raise a revenue'
in America. " By a partial repeal you annihilated
the greatest part of that revenue which this preamble
* Resolutions in May, 1770.
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declares to be so expedient. You have substituted
no other in the place of it. A Secretary of State has
disclaimed, in the king's name, all thoughts of such
a substitution in future. The principle of this disclaimer goes to what has been left, as well as what
has been repealed. The tax which lingers after its
companions (under a preamble declaring an American revenue expedient, and for the sole purpose of
supporting the theory of that preamble) militates with
the assurance authentically conveyed to the colonies,
and is an exhaustless source of jealousy and animosity. On this state, which I take to be a fair one,not being able to discern any grounds of honor, advantage, peace, or power, for adhering, either to the act or to the preamble, I shall vote for the question
which leads to the repeal of both.
If you do not fall in with this motion, then secure&
something to fight for, consistent in theory and valuable in practice. If you must employ your strength,
employ it to uphold you in some honorable right or
some profitable wrong. If you are apprehensive that
the concession recommended to you, though proper,
should be a means of drawing on you further, but unreasonable claims,- why, then employ your force in
supporting that reasonable concession against those
unreasonable demands. You will employ it with
more grace, with better effect, and with great probable concurrence of all the quiet and rational people
in the provinces, who are now united with and hurried away by the violent, - having, indeed, different
dispositions, but a common interest. If you apprehend that on a concession you shall be pushed by
metaphysical process to the extreme lines, and argued out of your whole authority, my advice is this:
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 71
when you have recovered your old, your strong, your
tenable position, then face about, - stop short, -do
nothing more, - reason not at all, oppose the ancient policy and-practice of the empire as a rampart
against the speculations of innovators on both sides
of the question, - and you will stand on great, manly,
and sure ground. On this solid basis fix your machines, and they will draw worlds towards you.
Your ministers, in their own and his Majesty's
name, have already adopted the American distinction
of internal and external duties. It is a distinction,
whatever merit it may have, that was originally
moved by the Americans themselves; and I think
they will acquiesce in it, if they are not pushed with
too much logic and too little sense, in all the consequences: that is, if external taxation be understood, as they and you understand it, when you please, to be not a distinction of geography, but of
policy; that it is a power for regulating trade, and
not for supporting establishments. . The distinction,
which is as nothing with regard to right, is of most
weighty consideration in practice. Recover your old
ground, and your old tranquillity; try it; I am
persuaded the Americans will compromise with you.
When confidence is once restored, the odious and
suspicious summum jus will perish of course. The
spirit of practicability, of moderation, and mutual
convenience will never call in geometrical exactness
as the arbitrator of an amicable settlement. Consult
and follow your experience. Let not the long story
with which I have exercised your patience. prove
fruitless to your interests. . For my part, I should choose (if I could have my
wish) that the proposition of the honorable gentle
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man * for the repeal could go to- America without the
attendance of the penal bills. Alone I could aIlost
answer for its success. I cannot be certain of its reception in the bad company it may keep. In such
heterogeneous assortments, the most innocent person
will lose the effect of his innocency. Though you
-'should send out this angel of peace, yet you are seinding out a destroying angel too;' and what would be
the effect of the conflict of these two adverse spirits,
or which would predominate in the end, is what I
dare not say: whether the lenient measures would
cause American passion to subside, or the severe
would increase its fury, - all this is in the hand of
Providence. Yet now, even now, I should confide in
the prevailing virtue and efficacious operation of lenity, though working in darkness and in chaos, in the
midst of all this unnatural and turbid combination:
I should hope it might produce order and beauty in
the end.
Let us, Sir, embrace some system or other before
we end this session. Do you mean to tax America,
and to draw a productive revenue from thence? If
you do, speak out: name, fix, ascertain this revenue;
settle its quantity; define its objects; provide for its
collection;, and then fight, when you have something
to fight for. 'If you murder, rob; if you kill, take
possession; and do not appear in the character of madmen as well as assassins, violent, vindictive, bloody,
and tyrannical, without an object. But may better
counsels guide you! 'Again, and again, revert to your old principles,seek peace and ensue it, - leave America, if she has taxable matter in her, to tax herself. I am not here
* Mr. Fuller.
? ? ? ? . SPEECH ON- AMERICAN TAXATION, 73
going into- the distinctions of rights, nor attempting
to mark. their boundaries. I do not enter into these
metaphysical distinctions; I hate the very sound of
them. Leave the Americans. -as tley anciently stood,
and. these, distinctions, born of our unhappy contest,
will die. along with it. They and we,. and their and
our ancestors, have been happy under that system.
Let the memory of all actions in contradiction to that
good old mode, on both sides, be extinguished forever.
Be content to bind America by laws of trade: you
have always done it. Let this be your reason for
binding their trade. Do not burden them by taxes:
you were not used to do so from the beginning. Let
this be your reason for not taxing. These are the
arguments of states and kingdoms. Leave the rest to
the schools; for there only they may be discussed with
safety. But if, intemperately, unwisely,: fatally, you
sophisticate and poison the very source of government,
by urging subtle deductions, and consequences odious to those you govern, from the unlimited and
illimitable nature of supreme sovereignty, you will
teach them by these means to call -that sovereignty
itself in question. When you drive him hard, the
boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If that
sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled,
which will they take? They will cast your sovereignty in your face. Nobody will be argued into slavery. Sir, let the gentlemen on the other side call
forth all their ability; let the best of. them get up
and tell me what one character of liberty the Americans have, and what one brand of slavery they are
* free from, if they are bound in their property and industry by all the restraints you can imagine on commerce, and at the same time are made pack-horses of
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every tax you choose to impose, without the least
share in granting them. When they bear the burdens of unlimited monopoly, will you bring them to
bear' the burdens- of unlimited. revenue. too? The
Englishman in America will feel that this is slavery:
that it is legal slavery will be no compensation either
to':his feelings or his understanding.
" A noble lord-,* who spoke some time ago, is full of
the fire of ingenuous youth; and when he has modelled the ideas of a lively imagination by further experience, he will be an ornament to his country in either'House. He has said that the Americans are'our children, and how can they revolt against their
parent? Hie says, that, if they are not free in their
present state, England is not free; because Manches.
ter, and other considerable places, are not represented. So, then, because some towns in England
are not represented, America is to have no representative at all. They are "-our children";' but when
children ask for bread, we are not to give, a stone. Is
it because the natural resistance of things, and thes
various mutations of time, hinders our government,
or any scheme of government, from being any more
than a sort of approximation to the right, is it therefore that the colonies are to recede from it infinitely?
When this child of ours wishes to assimilate to its
parent, and oto reJectlt atuiie filial resemblance the
beauteous countenance of British liberty, are' we to
turn to them the shameful parts of our constitution?
are we to give them our weakness for their strength,
our opprobrium for their glory, and the. -slough of
slavery, which we are not able to work off,'to serve
them for their freedom?
* Lord Carmarthen.
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 75
If'this be the case,'ask yourselves this question:
Will they be content in such a state of slavery? If
not, look to the consequences. Reflect how you are
to govern a people who think they ought to be free,
and think they are not. . Your scheme yields no revenue; it' yields nothing but discontent, disorder, disobedience:' and such is the state of America,: that, after wading up to your eyes in blood, -you could
only end just where you begun, - that is, to tax
where no' revenue- is to be found, to My voice
fails. . me: -my inclination, indeed, carries me no fur-. ther; all is confusion beyond it.
Well, Sir, I have recovered a little, and: before I
sit down I must say something to another point with
which gentlemen urge us. What is to become of the
Declaratory Act, asserting the entireness of British
legislative authority, if we abandon the practice of
taxation?
For my part, I look upon the rights stated in that
act exactly in the manner in which -I viewed them
on its very first proposition, and which I have often
taken the liberty, with great humility, to lay before
you. I look, I say, on the imperial rights of Great
Britain, and the privileges which the colonists ought
to enjoy under these rights, to be just the most reconcilable things in the world. The Parliament of Great
Britain sits at the head of her extensive empire in two
capacities. One as the local legislature of'this island,
providing for all things at home, immediately, and
by no other instrument than the executive power.
The: other, and' I think her nobler capacity, is what
I call her imperial character; in which, as from the
throne of heaven, she superintends all the several inferior legislatures, and guides and controls them all
? ? ? ? 76 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION.
without: annihilating any. As all these provincial
legislatures are only coordinate to each other, they
ought all to be subordinate to her; else they can neither preserve mutual peace, nor hope for mutual justice, nor effectually afford mutual assistance. ItZ is necessary to:coerce the negligent, to restrain: the
violent, and to aid the weak and deficient, by the
overruling plenitude of her power. She is never to
intrude into the place of the: others, whilst they are
equal to the common ends of their institution. . But
in order to enable Parliament to answer all these
ends of provident and beneficent superintendence, her
powers must be. boundless. The gentlemen who
think the powers of. Parliament limited may please
themselves to talk of requisitions. But suppose the
requisitions are not obeyed? What! shall there be
no reserved power-in the empire, to supply a deficiency which may weaken, divide, and dissipate the
whole? We are engaged in war, - the Secretary of
State calls upon the colonies to contribute, --some
would do it, I think most would cheerfully? furnish
whatever is demanded, - one or two, suppose, hang
back, and, easing themselves, let the stress of the
draft lie on the: others, - surely it is proper that some
authority might legally say, "Tax -yourselves for
the common supply, or Parliament will do it for you. "
This backwardness was, as I am told, actually the
case of Pennsylvania for some short time towards the:
beginning of the last war, owing to some internal dissensions in the colony. But whether the fact were
so or otherwise, the case is equally to be provided for
by a competent sovereign power. But then this
ought to be no ordinary power, nor everused in the
first instance. This is what I meant, when I have
? ? ?
thile: House of Lords I do not recollect that there was
any debate or division at all. I am sure there was
no protest. In fact, the affair passed with: so very,
very little noise, that in town they scarcely knew the
nature:-of what you were doing. -The opposition to
? ? ? ? 58 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION.
the'bill in England never could have done this mis
chief, because there scarcely' ever. was less of oppositfion to a bill of consequence.
Sir, the agents and distributors of falsehoods have,
with their usual industry, circulated another lie, of. . the same nature with the former. It is this: that the disturbances arose from the account which had been
received in America of the- change in the ministry.
No longer awed, it seems, with the spirit of the former
rulers, they thought themselves a match for what our
calumniators choose to qualify by the name of so
feeble a ministry as succeeded. Feeble in one sense
these men certainly may be called: for, with all their
efforts, and they have made many, they have not been
able to resist the distempered vigor and insane alacrity with which you are rushing to your ruin. But
it does so happen, that the falsity of this circulation
is (like the rest) demonstrated by indisputable dates
and records.
So little was the change known in America, that.
the letters of your governors, giving an account of
these disturbances long after they had arrived at
their highest pitch, were all directed to the old minzistry, and particularly to the Earl of Halifax, the Secretary of State corresponding with the colonies,
without once in the smallest degree intimating the
slightest suspicion of any ministerial revolution whatsoever. The ministry was not changed in England until the 10th day-of July, 1765. On the 14t1h of the
preceding June, Governor Fauquier, from Virginia,
writes thus, - and writes thus to the Earl of Halifax:
-" Government is set at defiance, not having strength
enough in her hands to enforce obedience to the laws
of the community. -The private distress, which every
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION, 59
man feels, increases the general dissatisfaction at the
duties laid by the Stamp Act, which breaks out and
shows itself upon every triflingoccasion. " The general dissatisfaction had produced some time before,
that is, on the 29th of May,. several strong public resolves against the Stamp Act; and those resolves are
assigned by Governor Bernard as the cause of the insurrections in Massachusetts Bay, in his letter of the
15th of August, still addressed to the Earl of Halifax;
and he continued to address such accounts to that minister quite to the 7th of September of the same year.
Similar accounts, and of as late a date, were sent from
other governors, and all directed to Lord Halifax. ,Not one of these letters indicates the slightest idea of
a change, either known or even apprehended.
Thus are blown away the insect race of courtly
falsehoods! - Thus perish the miserable inventions
of the wretched runners for a wretched cause, which
they have fly-blown into every weak and. rotten part
of the country, in vain hopes, that, when their maggots had taken wing, their importunate buzzing might:sound something like the public voice! Sir, I have troubled you sufficiently. with the state
of America before the repeal. Now I turn to the
honorable gentleman who so stoutly challenges us
to tell whether, after the repeal, the provinces were
quiet. This is coming home to the point. Here I
meet him directly, and answer most readily, They
were quiet. And I, in my turn, challenge him to
prove when, and where, and by whom, and in what
numbers, and with what violence, the other laws of
trade, as gentlemen assert, were violated in consequence of your concession, or. that even your other
revenue laws were attacked. 'But I quit the vantage
? ? ? ? 60 SPEECH~ ON -AMERICAN -TAXATION.
ground' on which I' stand, and where I might leavc
the burden: of the proof upon him: I walk down upon
the open plain, and undertake to show that they were
not only quiet, but showed' many unequivocal marks
of acknowledgment- and gratitude. And to give him
e6very advantage; I select the obnoxious colony of
Massachusetts Bay, which at this time (but without
hearing her) is so heavily a:culprit- before Parliament-: I, will select their proceedings even under circumstances of no small irritation. For, a little
-imprudently, I must:say, Governor Bernard mixed
in the administration of the lenitive of the repeal
no small acrimony arising from matters of a separate nature. Yet see, Sir, the effect' of that lenitive, though mixed with these bitter ingredients, -- and
how this rugged people can express themselves on a
measure of concession.
" If it is not frow in our power," (say they, in their
address to Governor Bernard,) " in so full a manner
as will be expected, to show our respectful gratitude
to the mother country, or to make a dutiful, affectionate return to the indulgence of the King and Parliament, it shall be no fault of ours; for this we
intend, and hope shall be able fully to effect. "
Would to God that this temper had been cultivated, managed, and set in action! Other effects than
those which we have since felt would have resulted
from it. On the requisition for compensation to those
who had suffered from the violence of the populace, in
the same address they say, -" The recommendation
enjoined by Mr. Secretary Conway's letter, and in consequence thereof made to us, we shall embrace the first convenient opportunity to consider and act upon. "
They did: considers; they did act upon it. They obeyed
? ? ? ? SPEECHE ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 61
the requisition. I know the mode has been chicaned
upon; but it was substantially obeyed, and much better obeyed than I fear the Parliamentary requisition of
this session will, be, though enforced by all your rigor and backed with all your power. In a word, the
damages of popular fury were compensated by legislative gravity. - Almost every other part of America
in various ways demonstrated their gratitude. I am
bold to say, that so sudden a calm recovered after so
violent a storm is without parallel. in history. To say
that no: other disturbance should happen from any
other cause is folly. But. as far as appearances. went,
by the judicious. sacrifice of one law, you: procured
an acquiescence in all that remained. After this experience, nobody shall persuade me, when an whole
people. are concerned, that acts. of lenity are not
means of conciliation.
I. hope. the honorable gentleman has received a. fair
and full answer to his question. . . I have done with the third period of your policy,that of your repeal, and the return of your ancient
system, and your'. ancient tranquillity and concord.
Sir, this period was not as long as it was happy. Another scene was'opened, and other actors. appeared'
on the stage. The state, in the condition I have described it, was delivered into the hands of Lord: Chatham, a great and celebrated name,. -a-name that keeps the name of'this country respectable in every
other on the globe. It may be truly called
Clarum et venerabile nomen
Gentibus, et multum nostria quod Iproderat urbi. . Sir,. the venerable age of this great man, his merited. rank, his superior- eloquence, his splendid quali
? ? ? ? 62 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION,
ties, his eminent services, the vast space he fills in
the eye of mankind, and, more than all the rest, his
fall from power, which, like death, canonizes and sane
tifies a great character, will not suffer me to censure
any part of his conduct. I am afraid to flatter him;
I am sure I am not disposed to blame him. Let those
who have betrayed him by their adulation insult him
with their malevolence. But what I do not presume
to. censure I may have leave to lament. ). For a wise
man, he seemed to me at that time'to be governed
too much by general maxims. . L\I speak with the freedom. of. history, and I hope without offence. 1 One or two of these. maxims, flowing from an opinion not.
the most indulgent to our unhappy species, and surely a little too general, led him into measures that were greatly nmischievous to himself, and for that reason, among others, perhaps fatal to his country, -- measures, the efflcts of which, I am afraid, are forever incurable. He made an administration so check: ered and speckled, he put together a piece of joinery
so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed, a cabinet so variously inlaid, such a piece of diversified mosaic, such a tessellated pavement without cement,
-- here a bit of black stone and there a bit of white,
patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republicans,
Whigs and Tories, treacherous friends and open enemies, -that it was, indeed, a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch and unsure to stand on. The
colleagues whom he had assorted at the same -boards
stared at each other, and were obliged to ask,-" Sir,
your name? "-" Sir, you have the advantage of me. "
-" Mr. Such-a-one. " - " I beg a thousand pardons. "
-I venture to say, it did so happen that persons
had a single office divided between them, who had
? ? ? ? SPEECH -ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 63
never spoke to each other in their lives, until they
found themselves, they knew not how, pigging together, heads: and points, in the same truckle-bed. *
Sir, in consequence of this arrangement, having
put so much the larger part of his enemies and opposers into power, the confusion was such that his own
principles could not possibly have any effect or influence in the conduct of affairs. If. ever he fell into a
fit of the gout, or if any other cause withdrew him
from public cares, principles- directly the contrary
were sure to predominate. jWhen he had executed
his plan, he had not an inch of ground to stand upon. i
When he had accomplished his scheme of administration, he was no longer a minister.
When his face was hid' but for a moment, his whole
system was on a wide sea without chart or compass.
The gentlemen, his particular friends, who, with the
names of various departments of ministry, were admitted to seem as if they acted a part under him,
with a modesty that becomes all men, and with a confidence in him which was justified even in its extravagance by his superior abilities, had never in any instance presumed upon any opinion of their own.
Deprived of his guiding influence, they were whirled
about, the sport of every gust, and easily driven into
any port; and as those who joined with them in manning the vessel were the most directly opposite to his
*opinions, measures, and character, and far the most
artful and most powerful of the set, they easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the vacant, unoccupied,
and derelict minds of his friends, and instantly they
* Supposed to allude to the Right Honorable Lord North, and
George Cooke, Esq. , who were made joint paymasters in the summer
of 1766, on the removal of the Rockingham administration.
? ? ? ? 64. SPEECH'. ON AMERICAN TAXATION'.
turned: the vessel wholly out of;the course of his pol
icy. As if it were to insult as well as to betray him,
even. long before the close of the first session of his
administration, when everything was publicly transacted, and with great parade, in his name, they made
an. act declaring it highly just and expedient to raise
a revenue in America. l For even then, Sir, even be*fore,this splendid orb was entirely set, and while the
western horizon was in a blaze with his descending
glory, on the opposite quarter of the heavens arose
another luminary, and for his hour became lord of
the ascendant.
This light, too, is passed and set forever. You understand, to be sure, that I. speak of Charles Townshend, officially the reproducer of this fatal scheme, whom I cannot even now remember. without some. degree of sensibility. In truth, Sir, he was the delight
and ornament of this House, and the charm of every
private society which he honored with his presence.
Perhaps there never arose in this country, nor in any
country, a man of a-more pointed and. finished wit,
and (where his passions were not concerned) of a
more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment.
If he had not so great a stock as some have had,who
flourished formerly, of knowledge long treasured up,
he knew, better by far tlian any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring together within a short
time all that. was necessary to establish, to illustrate,
and to decorate that side of the question he supported.
He stated his matter skilfully and powerfully. He
particularly excelled in a most luminous explanation
and display of. his subject. His style of argument
was neither trite and vulgar, nor subtle and abstruse.
He hit the House just between wind and water. And
? ? ? ? SPEECH: ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 65
not being troubled with too anxious a zeal for any
matter in question,. he was never more tedious or
more earnest than the preconceived opinions and present temper of his hearers required, to whom he was
always in perfect unison. He conformed exactly to
the temper of the House; and he seemed to guide,
because he was always sure to follow it.
I beg pardoh, Sir, if, when I speak of this and of
other great men, I appear to digress in saying something of their characters. In this eventful history of
the revolutions of America, the characters of such
men are of much importance. (Great men are the
guideposts and landmarks in the state) The credit
of such men at court or in the nation is the sole
cause of all the public measures. It would be an invidious' thing (most foreign, I trust, to what you think
my disposition) to remark the errors into which the
authority of great names has brought the nation, without'doing justice at the same time to the great qualities whence that authority arose. The subject is instructive to those who wish to form themselves on
whatever of excellence has gone before them. There
are many young members in the House (such of late
has been the rapid succession of public men) who
never saw that prodigy, Charles Townshend, nor of
course know what a ferment he was able to excite in
everything by the violent ebullition of his mixed vir
tues and failings. For failings he had undoubtedly,
-- many of us remember them; we are this day considering the effect of them. . But he had no failings
which were not owing to a noble cause, - to an ardent,
generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame:
a passion which is the instinct of all great soulSl. He
worshipped that goddess, wheresoever she appeared;
VOL. II. 5
? ? ? ? :66 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION.
but he paid- his particular devotions to her in her favorite habitation, in her chosen temple, the House of
Commons. Besides the characters of the individuals
that compose our body, it is impossible, Mr. Speaker,
not to observe that this House has a collective character of its own. That character, too, however imperfect, is not unamiable. Like all great public colleetions of men, you possess a marked love of virtue and' an abhorrence of vice. But among vices there
is none which the House abhois in the same degree
with obstinacy. Obstinacy, Sir, is certainly a great
vice; and in the changeful state of political affairs it
is frequently the cause of great mischief. It happens,
however, very unfortunately, that almost- the whole
line of the great and masculine virtues, constancy,
gravity, magnanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmness,
are closely allied to this disagreeable quality, of which
you have so just an abhorrence; and, in their excess,
all these virtues very easily fall into it. He who
paid such a punctilious attention to all your feelings
certainly took care not to shock them by that vice
which is the most disgustful to you.
That fear of displeasing those who ought most to
be pleased betrayed him sometimes into the other extreme. He had voted, and, in the year 1765, had
been an advocate for the Stamp Act. Things and
the disposition of men's minds were changed. In
short, the Stamp Act began to be no favorite in this
House. He therefore attended at the private meeting in which the resolutions moved by a right honorable gentleman were settled: resolutions leading to
the repeal. The next day he voted for that repeal;
and he would. have spoken for it, too, if an illness
(not, as was then given out, a political, but, to my
? ? ? ?
SI-EECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 67
knowledge, a very. real illness) had' not prevented
it. 'The very next session, as the fashion of this world
passeth away, the'repeal began to be inll as bad an
odor in this. House as the Stamp Act had been -in the
session before. To conform to the temper which
began to prevail, and to prevail mostly amongst those
most in powxer, he declared,"very early in the. winter,
that a revenue must be had out of America. Instantly he was tied down to his engagements by
some, who had no objection. to such experiments,
when made at the cost of persons for whom they had
no particular regard. The whole body of courtiers
drove him onward. They always talked as if the king
stood in a sort of humiliated state, until something
of the kind should be done.
Here this extraordinary man, then Chancellor of
the. Exchequer, found himself in great straits. To
please universally was the'object of his life; but to
tax and to please, no more than to love and to' be wise,
is not given to men. However, he attempted it. To
render the tax palatable to the partisans of American
revenue, he made a preamble stating the necessity
of such a revenue. To close with the American distinction, this revenue was external or port-duty; but again, to soften it to the other party, it was a duty of
supply. To gratify the colonists, it was laid on British manufactures; to satisfy the merchbnts of Britain, the duty was trivial, and (except that on tea, which
touched only the devoted East India Company) on
none of the grand objects of commerce. To counterwork the American contraband, the duty on tea was reduced from a shilling to three-pence; but to secure the favor of those who would tax Ameri6a, the
? ? ? ? 68 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION.
scene of Collection was& change:,, and, with the rest, it
was levied in the colonies. wV-hat need I say more?
This fine-spun scheme had the usual fate of all exquisite policy.
the mode of executing that plan, both arose singly
and solely from a love of our applause. He was
truly the child of the House. He never thought,
did, or said anything, but with a view to you. He
every day adapted himself to your disposition, and
adjusted himself before it as at a looking-glass.
/He had observed (indeed, it could not escape him
that several persons, infinitely his inferiors in all respects, had formerly rendered themselves considerable in this House by one method alone. They were a race of men (I hope in: God the species is extinct)
who, when they rose in their place, no man living
could divine, from:any known adherence to parties,
to opinions, or to principles, from any order or system in their politics, or from any sequel or connection in their ideas, what part they were going to take in any debate. It is astonishing how much this
uncertainty, especially at critical times, called the
attention of all parties on such men. All eyes were
fixed on them, all ears open to hear them; each party gaped, and looked alternately for their vote, almost
to the end of their speeches. While the House hung
in this uncertainty, now the hear-hims rose from this
side, now they rebellowed from the other; and that
party to whom they fell at length from their tremulous and dancing balance' always received them in
a tempest of applause. The fortune of such men was
a- temptation too great to be resisted by one to whom
a single whiff of incense withheld gave much greater
pain than he received delight in-the clouds of it
But. the original plan of the duties, and
? ? ? ? . SPEECH ON AMERICAN. TAXATION. 69
which daily:rose about him from the prodigal superstition of innumerable admirers. . -He was a candidate for contradictory. honors; and his great aim was, tommake those agree in admiration of him who
never agreed in anything else.
Hence arose this unfortunate act, the subject of
this day's debate: from a disposition which, after
making an American revenue to please one, repealed
it to please others, and again revived it in hopes of
pleasing a third, and of catching something in the
ideas of all.
This revenue act of 1767' formed the fourth period
of American policy. How we have fared since then:
what woful variety of schemes have been adopted;
what enforcing, and what repealing; what bullying,
and what'submitting; what doing, and undoing;
what straining, and what relaxing; what assemblies
dissolved for not obeying, and called again without
obedience; what troops sent out to quell resistance,
and, on meeting that resistance, recalled; what shiftings, and changes, and jumblings of all kinds of men
at. home, which left no possibility of order, consistency, vigor, or even so much as a decent unity of color,
in any one - public measure - It is a tedious, irksome task. My duty may call me to open it out some
other time; on a former occasion * I tried your temper on a part of it; for the present I shall forbear.
After all these changes and agitations, your immediate situation upon the question on your paper is at
length brought to this. You have an act of Parliament stating that " it is expedient to raise a revenue'
in America. " By a partial repeal you annihilated
the greatest part of that revenue which this preamble
* Resolutions in May, 1770.
? ? ? ? 70 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION.
declares to be so expedient. You have substituted
no other in the place of it. A Secretary of State has
disclaimed, in the king's name, all thoughts of such
a substitution in future. The principle of this disclaimer goes to what has been left, as well as what
has been repealed. The tax which lingers after its
companions (under a preamble declaring an American revenue expedient, and for the sole purpose of
supporting the theory of that preamble) militates with
the assurance authentically conveyed to the colonies,
and is an exhaustless source of jealousy and animosity. On this state, which I take to be a fair one,not being able to discern any grounds of honor, advantage, peace, or power, for adhering, either to the act or to the preamble, I shall vote for the question
which leads to the repeal of both.
If you do not fall in with this motion, then secure&
something to fight for, consistent in theory and valuable in practice. If you must employ your strength,
employ it to uphold you in some honorable right or
some profitable wrong. If you are apprehensive that
the concession recommended to you, though proper,
should be a means of drawing on you further, but unreasonable claims,- why, then employ your force in
supporting that reasonable concession against those
unreasonable demands. You will employ it with
more grace, with better effect, and with great probable concurrence of all the quiet and rational people
in the provinces, who are now united with and hurried away by the violent, - having, indeed, different
dispositions, but a common interest. If you apprehend that on a concession you shall be pushed by
metaphysical process to the extreme lines, and argued out of your whole authority, my advice is this:
? ? ? ? SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 71
when you have recovered your old, your strong, your
tenable position, then face about, - stop short, -do
nothing more, - reason not at all, oppose the ancient policy and-practice of the empire as a rampart
against the speculations of innovators on both sides
of the question, - and you will stand on great, manly,
and sure ground. On this solid basis fix your machines, and they will draw worlds towards you.
Your ministers, in their own and his Majesty's
name, have already adopted the American distinction
of internal and external duties. It is a distinction,
whatever merit it may have, that was originally
moved by the Americans themselves; and I think
they will acquiesce in it, if they are not pushed with
too much logic and too little sense, in all the consequences: that is, if external taxation be understood, as they and you understand it, when you please, to be not a distinction of geography, but of
policy; that it is a power for regulating trade, and
not for supporting establishments. . The distinction,
which is as nothing with regard to right, is of most
weighty consideration in practice. Recover your old
ground, and your old tranquillity; try it; I am
persuaded the Americans will compromise with you.
When confidence is once restored, the odious and
suspicious summum jus will perish of course. The
spirit of practicability, of moderation, and mutual
convenience will never call in geometrical exactness
as the arbitrator of an amicable settlement. Consult
and follow your experience. Let not the long story
with which I have exercised your patience. prove
fruitless to your interests. . For my part, I should choose (if I could have my
wish) that the proposition of the honorable gentle
? ? ? ? :72 SPEECH ON. AMERICAN TAXATION.
man * for the repeal could go to- America without the
attendance of the penal bills. Alone I could aIlost
answer for its success. I cannot be certain of its reception in the bad company it may keep. In such
heterogeneous assortments, the most innocent person
will lose the effect of his innocency. Though you
-'should send out this angel of peace, yet you are seinding out a destroying angel too;' and what would be
the effect of the conflict of these two adverse spirits,
or which would predominate in the end, is what I
dare not say: whether the lenient measures would
cause American passion to subside, or the severe
would increase its fury, - all this is in the hand of
Providence. Yet now, even now, I should confide in
the prevailing virtue and efficacious operation of lenity, though working in darkness and in chaos, in the
midst of all this unnatural and turbid combination:
I should hope it might produce order and beauty in
the end.
Let us, Sir, embrace some system or other before
we end this session. Do you mean to tax America,
and to draw a productive revenue from thence? If
you do, speak out: name, fix, ascertain this revenue;
settle its quantity; define its objects; provide for its
collection;, and then fight, when you have something
to fight for. 'If you murder, rob; if you kill, take
possession; and do not appear in the character of madmen as well as assassins, violent, vindictive, bloody,
and tyrannical, without an object. But may better
counsels guide you! 'Again, and again, revert to your old principles,seek peace and ensue it, - leave America, if she has taxable matter in her, to tax herself. I am not here
* Mr. Fuller.
? ? ? ? . SPEECH ON- AMERICAN TAXATION, 73
going into- the distinctions of rights, nor attempting
to mark. their boundaries. I do not enter into these
metaphysical distinctions; I hate the very sound of
them. Leave the Americans. -as tley anciently stood,
and. these, distinctions, born of our unhappy contest,
will die. along with it. They and we,. and their and
our ancestors, have been happy under that system.
Let the memory of all actions in contradiction to that
good old mode, on both sides, be extinguished forever.
Be content to bind America by laws of trade: you
have always done it. Let this be your reason for
binding their trade. Do not burden them by taxes:
you were not used to do so from the beginning. Let
this be your reason for not taxing. These are the
arguments of states and kingdoms. Leave the rest to
the schools; for there only they may be discussed with
safety. But if, intemperately, unwisely,: fatally, you
sophisticate and poison the very source of government,
by urging subtle deductions, and consequences odious to those you govern, from the unlimited and
illimitable nature of supreme sovereignty, you will
teach them by these means to call -that sovereignty
itself in question. When you drive him hard, the
boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If that
sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled,
which will they take? They will cast your sovereignty in your face. Nobody will be argued into slavery. Sir, let the gentlemen on the other side call
forth all their ability; let the best of. them get up
and tell me what one character of liberty the Americans have, and what one brand of slavery they are
* free from, if they are bound in their property and industry by all the restraints you can imagine on commerce, and at the same time are made pack-horses of
? ? ? ? 74. SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION.
every tax you choose to impose, without the least
share in granting them. When they bear the burdens of unlimited monopoly, will you bring them to
bear' the burdens- of unlimited. revenue. too? The
Englishman in America will feel that this is slavery:
that it is legal slavery will be no compensation either
to':his feelings or his understanding.
" A noble lord-,* who spoke some time ago, is full of
the fire of ingenuous youth; and when he has modelled the ideas of a lively imagination by further experience, he will be an ornament to his country in either'House. He has said that the Americans are'our children, and how can they revolt against their
parent? Hie says, that, if they are not free in their
present state, England is not free; because Manches.
ter, and other considerable places, are not represented. So, then, because some towns in England
are not represented, America is to have no representative at all. They are "-our children";' but when
children ask for bread, we are not to give, a stone. Is
it because the natural resistance of things, and thes
various mutations of time, hinders our government,
or any scheme of government, from being any more
than a sort of approximation to the right, is it therefore that the colonies are to recede from it infinitely?
When this child of ours wishes to assimilate to its
parent, and oto reJectlt atuiie filial resemblance the
beauteous countenance of British liberty, are' we to
turn to them the shameful parts of our constitution?
are we to give them our weakness for their strength,
our opprobrium for their glory, and the. -slough of
slavery, which we are not able to work off,'to serve
them for their freedom?
* Lord Carmarthen.
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If'this be the case,'ask yourselves this question:
Will they be content in such a state of slavery? If
not, look to the consequences. Reflect how you are
to govern a people who think they ought to be free,
and think they are not. . Your scheme yields no revenue; it' yields nothing but discontent, disorder, disobedience:' and such is the state of America,: that, after wading up to your eyes in blood, -you could
only end just where you begun, - that is, to tax
where no' revenue- is to be found, to My voice
fails. . me: -my inclination, indeed, carries me no fur-. ther; all is confusion beyond it.
Well, Sir, I have recovered a little, and: before I
sit down I must say something to another point with
which gentlemen urge us. What is to become of the
Declaratory Act, asserting the entireness of British
legislative authority, if we abandon the practice of
taxation?
For my part, I look upon the rights stated in that
act exactly in the manner in which -I viewed them
on its very first proposition, and which I have often
taken the liberty, with great humility, to lay before
you. I look, I say, on the imperial rights of Great
Britain, and the privileges which the colonists ought
to enjoy under these rights, to be just the most reconcilable things in the world. The Parliament of Great
Britain sits at the head of her extensive empire in two
capacities. One as the local legislature of'this island,
providing for all things at home, immediately, and
by no other instrument than the executive power.
The: other, and' I think her nobler capacity, is what
I call her imperial character; in which, as from the
throne of heaven, she superintends all the several inferior legislatures, and guides and controls them all
? ? ? ? 76 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION.
without: annihilating any. As all these provincial
legislatures are only coordinate to each other, they
ought all to be subordinate to her; else they can neither preserve mutual peace, nor hope for mutual justice, nor effectually afford mutual assistance. ItZ is necessary to:coerce the negligent, to restrain: the
violent, and to aid the weak and deficient, by the
overruling plenitude of her power. She is never to
intrude into the place of the: others, whilst they are
equal to the common ends of their institution. . But
in order to enable Parliament to answer all these
ends of provident and beneficent superintendence, her
powers must be. boundless. The gentlemen who
think the powers of. Parliament limited may please
themselves to talk of requisitions. But suppose the
requisitions are not obeyed? What! shall there be
no reserved power-in the empire, to supply a deficiency which may weaken, divide, and dissipate the
whole? We are engaged in war, - the Secretary of
State calls upon the colonies to contribute, --some
would do it, I think most would cheerfully? furnish
whatever is demanded, - one or two, suppose, hang
back, and, easing themselves, let the stress of the
draft lie on the: others, - surely it is proper that some
authority might legally say, "Tax -yourselves for
the common supply, or Parliament will do it for you. "
This backwardness was, as I am told, actually the
case of Pennsylvania for some short time towards the:
beginning of the last war, owing to some internal dissensions in the colony. But whether the fact were
so or otherwise, the case is equally to be provided for
by a competent sovereign power. But then this
ought to be no ordinary power, nor everused in the
first instance. This is what I meant, when I have
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