No More Learning

4 Considerations on the Propriety of imposing Taxes in the British
Colonies (October, 1765), reprinted in Md. Hist. Mag. , vol. vi, pp. 376-
406. Dulany was largely responsible for the nullification of the Stamp
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? FIRST CONTEST FOR REFORM gg
Although he based his opposition largely on constitutional
grounds, he did not fail to show that the tax fell on a prov-
ince, "not in proportion to its wealth, but to the multi-
plicity of juridical forms, the quantity of vacant land, the
frequency of transferring landed property, the extent of
paper negotiations, the scarcity of money, and the number
of debtors," and he argued that " the principal part of the
revenue will be drawn from the poorest individuals in the
poorest colonies, from mortgagers, obligors, and defend-
ants. " Lieutenant Governor Colden of New York had
"the strongest presumption from numerous Circumstances
to believe that the Lawyers of this Place are the Authors,
Promoters & Leaders " of the local opposition to the stamp
duties. 1
Printers were directly involved in the new act as pub-
lishers of newspapers and pamphlets. The foremost print-
er of the continent, Benjamin Franklin, wrote to his fellow-
publisher of the Pennsylvania Gasette that he believed the
Stamp Act "will affect the Printers more than anybody,
as a Sterling Halfpenny Stamp on every Half Sheet of a.
Newspaper, and Two Shillings Sterling on every Adver-
tisement, will go near to knock up one Half of both. There
Act in Maryland. Latrobe, J. H. , "Daniel Dulany," Pa. Mag. , vol. iii,
pp. 4-5. Vide also the views of William Smith, Jr. , a New York lawyer
whom Colden characterized as "a violent republican independent" and
an organizer of mobs. 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. x, pp. 570-571.
1 Letter Books, vol. ii, pp. 61-62. He continued: "People in general
believe it, and many must with certainty know it. I must add that all
the Judges have given too much Countenance to their Proceedings . . . "
Vide also ibid. , p. 92. The lawyers of New York were discontented
w^th other matters besides the Stamp Act; and Colden claimed that
they were more powerful there than anywhere else in America. "Noth-
ing is too wicked for them to attempt which serves their purposes--
tile Press is to them what the Pulpit was in times of Popery. "
p. 71.
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? 70 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
is also Fourpence Sterling on every Almanack. "1 . The
twenty-odd newspapers of Amen^ r? rri? A op, a tremen-
dously effective propaganda against the Stamp Act,2 and in
no later crisis exhibited such unanimity of protest.
Aside from their influence as directors of popular opposi-
tion, the merchants, lawyers and printers were faced with
the problem of making a living while their business was
legally subject to the use of stamps. The merchants re-
fused to use stamps in their business transactions and usu-
ally succeeded in keeping the ports open for commerce, when
it became apparent to the authorities that the sale of stamps
was impracticable or impossible. * The lawyers* in first
instance, agreed that all lega] hngi"pgg shr^M he suspended
until the Stamp Act should be repealed; but when their
purses began to grow lean from lack of clients' fees and the
merchants and creditors clamored for the opportunity to
collect their debts, they generally induced the courts to open
for business without stamps. 4 "This long interval of in-
dolence and idleness will make a large chasm in my affairs,"
wrote the lawyer John Adams in the period before the
courts were re-opened. He added: " I have groped in dark
obscurity, till of late, and had but just known and gained a
small degree of reputation, when this project was set on
foot for my ruin as well as that of America in general, and
1 Writings (Smyth), vol. iv, pp. 363-364.
*? . g. , Jonathan Watts, of New York, wrote on Sept. 24, 1765:
"You will think the printers all mad, Holt particularly, who has been
'cautioned over and over again, and would have been prosecuted, but
people's minds are so inflamed about this stamp act, it would only be
exposing Government to attempt it. " 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. x, p. 576.
Holt published the New York Gazette-and Post-Boy at this time.
'E. g. , vide Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii, p. 141; 4 M. H. S. Colls. ,
vol. x, p. 587.
4 E. g. , vide I N. J. Arch. , vol. ix, pp. 540-548; N. Y. Merc. , Dec. 9, 23,
1765; Hutchinson, op, cit. , vol. iii, pp. 138, 141-142.
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? FIRST CONTEST FOR REFORM 71
of Great Britain. " l All but a few newspapers continued
publication without stamps; and most of those few reap-
peared when it became evident that infractions of the
law would entail no penalty.
The period between the enactment of the Stamp Act and
the date of its operation was marked by a series of popular
demonstrations, designed to coerce the colonial stamp
agents into resigning. Distressed by non-employment and
temperamentally inclined to boisterous forms of expression,
the rougher elements in the leading seaports responded
readily to the leadership of the classes disaffected by the
legislation of 1764 and 1765.
This appeared clearly in the case of Boston, where the
most serious disturbances occurred. 2 In the first of J:he
August riots, the Stamp nfficy wa* rarpH hv a mr>h and
"Tr is sajfj fhor rh>>~ "">--
men, actors in this scene HiscnuspH W>>V1 trrm<<>rg
on. '" In the succeeding riots, the mob, led by a shoe-
maker named Mackintosh, secured a promise of resignation
from Oliver, the stamp collector, and showed its animus
by attacking the houses of the registrar of the admiralty and
the comptroller of the customs and by destroying the
records of the admiralty court. Lieutenant Governor
Hutchinson's house was also visited and despoiled. Hut-
chinson believed that this last outrage was inspired by cer-
tain smuggling merchants who had just learned of certain
depositions sworn against them before him several months
before. We have it on the word of one merchant writing
tor another that Oliver's promise was not deemed decisive
enough, and that therefore the "Loyall Nine" repaired
1 Works, vol. ii, pp. 155-156.
1 Hutchinson. op. cit. , vol. iii, pp. 120-125; Parliamentary History, voL
xvi, pp. 126-131; Palfrey, History of New 'Engl. , vol. iv, pp. 389-394.
1 Letter of Aug. 15, to Halifax; Palfrey, op. cit. , vol. iv, p. 391.
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? 72 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
to " Liberty Hall " and planned a public resignation under
oath, which was duly carried out on December 17. "We
do everything," added the merchant a little anxiously, "to
keep this and the first affair Private; and are not a little
pleas'd to hear that Mclntosh has the Credit of the whole
Affair. We Endeavour to keep up the Spirit which I think
is as great as ever. " * The Sons of Liberty, composed of
Boston workingmen, performed the actual work of vio-
lence. It is perhaps not without significance that their reg-
ular meeting-place was the counting-room of a distillery;
and John Adams records that, when he was invited to attend
one night, he found there two distillers a ship captain, the
printer of the popular organ and four mechanics. 2
1 Henry Bass to Samuel P. Savage, Dec. 19, 1765. M. H. S. Procs. ,
vol. xliv, pp. 688-689.
1Chase and John Avery; Joseph Field; Benjamin Edes, a publisher
of the Boston Gasette; John Smith and Stephen Cleverly, braziers,
Thomas Crafts, painter, and George Trott, jeweler. Works, vol. ii, pp.
178-179.
Hutchinson's own analysis of mob government at this period was as
follows: "It will be some amusement to you to have a more circum-
stantial account of the model of government among us. I will begin
with the lowest branch, partly legislative, partly executive. This con-
sists of the rabble of the town of Boston, headed by one Mackintosh,
who, I imagine, you never heard of. He is a bold fellow, and as likely
for a Masaniello as you can well conceive. When there is occasion to
"burn or hang effigies or pull down houses, these are employed; but
since government has been brought to a system, they are somewhat
controlled by a superior set consisting of the master-masons, and car-
penters, &c. , of the town of Boston. . . . When anything of more im-
portance is to be determined, as opening the custom-house on any mat-
ters of trade, these are under the direction of a committee of merchants,
Mr. Rowe at their head, then Molyneux, Solomon Davis, &c. : but all
affairs of a general nature, opening all the courts of law, &c. , this is
proper for a- general meeting of the inhabitants of Boston, where Otis,
with his mob-high eloquence, prevails in every motion, and the town
first determine what is necessary to be done, and then apply either to
the Governor or Council, or resolve that it is necessary the General
Court correct it; and it would be a very extraordinary resolve indeed
that is not carried into execution. " Quoted by Hosmer, J. K. , The Life
of Thomas HutMnson (Boston, 1896), pp. 103-104.
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? FIRST CONTEST FOR REFORM 73
Conditions probably were not greatly different at Phila-
delphia. Although the stamp collector there was inclined
to lay the popular outbreak to the machinations of the
"Presbyterians and proprietary minions," it seems rather
more significant that the committee which asked him to re-
sign was composed of five merchants, one attorney and one
printer.
1 In New York, as we have seen, the lawyers
seemed to be at the bottom of the tumults, aided beyond
a dpubt by the merchants and printers.
{Popular outbreaks also occurred in the plantation prov-
inces; but, lacking the multiplied resentments accumulated
by two years of hostile legislation, the demonstrations were
neither as frequent nor usually as violent as in the commer-
cial provinces! The planters generally were wedded to the
notion of d1gnified protests by representative assemblies;
and a compact working-class element was non-existent, ex-
cept at Charleston. The agitation of the newspapers aided
in spreading the tumultuous spirit of the northern trading
towns to the South. Governor Bull, of South Carolina,
testified that the people of Charleston were generally dis-
gosed to obey thfi . Stamp Actt^ but bv the artifices of some
busy spirits the minds of men here were so universally
poisoned with the principles which were imbibed and propa-
gated from Boston and Rhode Island (from which Towns,
at this tifse of the year, vessels very frequently arrive) that
after their example the People of this Town resolved to
seize and destroy the Stamp Papers . . . "Jj[ There was in-
deed a shortage of currency, chiefly in Virginia and South
Carolina, which bore hardly on men owing money and which
1 Robert Morris, Charles Thomson, Archibald McCall, John Cox
and William Richards; James Tilghman; and William Bradford, editor
of the Pennsylvania Journal.
1 Smith, W. R,, South Carolina as a Royal Province, 1719-1776 (New
York, 1903), p. 351.
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? 74
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
the Currency Act of 1764 made it difficult to relieve.
"This private distress which every man feels," wrote Gov-
ernor Fauquier, of Virginia, "encreases the general dis-
satisfaction at the duties laid by the late Stamp Act, which
breaks out and shews itself on every trifling occasion. " 1
However, the inconvenience was not great enough to cause
the people to take part in the efforts to establish domestic
manufacturing or to boycott British goods.
The merchants and factors generally lent the weight of
their influence against popular demonstrations. Henry
Laurens, of Charleston, was a representat1ve ot the best that
the class had to offer. Wealthy, of an excellent American
family and a disapprover of the Stamp Act, he did all he
could to discourage " those infamous inglorious feats of riot
and dissipation which have been performed to the No'ward
. . . " He believed that " the Act must be executed and . . .
that if a stamp officer were so timid as to resign and a Gov-
ernor so complisant as not to appoint another in his stead--
we should in one fortnight . . . go down on our knees and
pray him to give life to that law. What, else, would become
of our estates, particularly ours who depend upon com-
merce? " The searching of houses by mobs he regarded as
"burglary and robbery " and he saw in the zeal of the rioters
only a desire to postpone the payment of their debts. 2
Lauren's attitude, although consistent in itself, aroused
popular suspicion and brought the mob down on his own ears.
1 Brit. Papers ("Sparks Mss. "), vol. ii, p. 44. Other evidence of
money stringency in the various plantation provinces may be found in:
Bos. Post-Boy, Mch. 17, 1766; N. C. Col. Recs. , vol. vii, p. 144; Gibbes,
Doc. Hist. , vol. ii, pp t-6; 5. C. Gas. , Dec. 17, 1765; Ca. Hist. Soc.
Colls. , vol. vi, pp. 44-46.
1 Wallace, D. D. , Henry Laurenz (New York, 1915), pp. 116-122.
Laurens's business was that of factor and, to a lesser extent, inde-
pendent trader, importing and exporting on his own account. He also
had planting interests. Ibitl. , pp. 16, 21, 44-47, 69, 123-136.
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? FIRST CONTEST FOR REFORM
75
In Georgia, some of the merchants, who at first had
talked against the act, drew off and even endeavored to sup-
press the spirit of opposition by converting the majority of
the shipmasters to their change of view. In the latter part
of December they circulated a petition asking the governor
to appoint a new stamp agent. When the mob got wind of
this and protested to the governor, he declared he would act
as he thought best; and forty merchants; with their clerks,
and several ship captains evinced their approbation by
arming and guarding the governor until danger of violence
subsided. 1 Some stamps were actually used in Georgia.
Christopher Gadsden, a Charlestonian possessing large
mercantile and planting interests, represented a different
spirit. A radical by temperament, he was, for years, to be
a contradiction of anything that might be said of the factors
who managed most of the trade of the South. He em-
ployed his talents on the present occasion in instructing the
leaders of the mob, meeting with them frequently under
Liberty Tree for that purpose. 2
The two prouns of provinces met on common ground in
the Stamp Art Cnn^TMgg ** Mow VorL- jn Ortnher. 176? .
This event, so important in light of the subsequent trend
toward union, received scarcely any contemporary mention
in the newspapers, even at New York. The lower houses
of the various provincial legislatures had been invited by
Massachusetts to send committees to a continental congress
to confer on "the difficulties to which they are and must
be reduced by the operation of the acts of parliament for
levying duties and taxes on the colonies" and to unite on
petition for redress. * Delegates from n;ne provinces ap-
peared.
1 Letter from Georgia in Newport Merc. , Feb. 10, 1766. Vide also
5. C. Gaz. , Feb. 25.
? Gibbes. op. cit. , vol. ii, pp. 10-11; Wallace, op. cit. , p. 120.
* Bos. Eve. Post. Aug. 26. 1765.
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? 76 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
It was clearly the design of the Massachusetts House of
Representatives that the congress should remonstrate
chiefly against the restrictive and revenue measures passed
by the Parliament in the years 1764-1765. When the mem-
bers of congress assembled, they found it necessary to make
certain alterations in their ideas before a common ground
could be reached. In particular, there was much skirmish-
ing as to the form in which the various arguments and views
should be presented. Gadsden, the South Carolina radical,
displayed great political acumen in insisting that all sections
could harmonize in their opposition by urging their views
"on the broad, common ground" of natural rights. 1 The
official UlltTaMlfKJ Of tnfi congress Show ihe result of this
plan. A great deal was said about the theoretical rights of
the colonists, and the stamp tax and the laws enabling ad-
miralty courts to try breaches of the trade laws were roundly
denounced as heinous invasions of such rights. Neverthe-
less, all trace of the spirit of the Massachusetts summons
was not obliterated: each memorial, with varying degrees of
emphasis, set forth the alarming scarcity of hard money
and requested the repeal of the laws restricting trade and en-
larging the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts, as well as
the act imposing the stamp duty. 2
in the COmmP"-] rr. iri""^, **-. >>.
gyidences of economic distrg" hoA g*;^<<i>. *^ +kv p^p^ to
mult1ply tHe'lf eiioris 10 retrench expenses. Leading cit-
1zens of New York and Boston, as well as of Philadelphia,
signed resolutions not to purchase or eat lamb, and to boy-
cott any butcher who sought to counteract the resolutions. 8
1 Frothingham, Rise of Republic, p. 188.
1 Authentic Account of the Proceedings of the Congress held at
New York, in MDCCLXV, On the Subject of the Stamp Act (1767).
The petition to the House of Commons is especially explicit on these
points.
? Weyler's N. Y. Co*. , Feb. 10, 17, 1766; Bos. Post-Boy, Apr. 8, 1765,
Mch. 10, 1766; Pa. Gas, Feb. 13, 1766-
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? FIRST COXTEST FOR REFORM
77
The movement for simpler mourning, so popular farther
north, now spread to Philadelphia. 1 Articles in newspapers
advocated the superiority of sage, sassafras and balm to the
enervating beverage of tea. 2 The New York Society for
the Promotion of Arts, Agriculture and Oeconomy now
reached the zenith of its activity, increasing its list of
premiums for local manufactures, establishing spinning
schools, and conducting a fortnightly market for the sale of
New York manufactures. The service of the society in en-
couraging flax culture and linen manufacture was of more
than temporary importance. In the making of linen, more
than three hundred persons were employed from the middle
of 1765 to the close of 1766. * Philadelphia took over the
idea of a market, and three times a week linens, shalloons,
flannels, ink-powder and other wares of Pennsylvania fabri-
cation were offered for sale. Nearly two hundred poor
women were employed in spinning flax in the factory. 4 In
Rhode Island the thrifty maids and matrons improved the
shining hours by gathering in groups and spinning, usually
"from Sunrise to Dark. " The maids of Providence and
Bristol displayed the extent of their resolution by bravely
agreeing to admit the addresses of no man who favored the
Stamp Act. *
It did not take the Americans long to perceive that their
measures of economic self-preservation might be capitalized
to good advantage as political arguments for the repeal of
the obnoxious laws. In face of the fact that British im-
ports were rapidly diminishing from natural causes, news-
1 Pa. Journ. , May 16, Sept . 12, 1765; Pa. Gas. , Jan. 9, 1766.
1 Pa. Journ. , May 9, 1765; N. Y. Gas. & Post-Boy, May 30.
'AT. Y. Journ. , Dec. 17, 31, 1767.
1 Pa. Journ. , Nov. 28, 1765, Jan. 23, 1766; The Record of the Cele-
bration of the sooth Anniversary of the Birth of Franklin (Hays, I. M. ,
ed. ), vol. ii, p. 57.
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