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.
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.
Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
net/2027/mdp.
39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? 64 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
lutions were so well kept by the people generally that it was
reported that there had been only one or two violations after
four months' trial, although almost one hundred funerals
had occurred; and it was estimated that the saving would be
more than ? 10,000 sterling a year. 1 Burials " according to
the new mode" were recorded by the newspapers in New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York.
In September the tradesmen of Boston followed in the
path of the merchants, by agreeing to wear only leather of
Massachusetts manufacture for their work clothes. 2 In
November the students of Yale took unanimous action to
abstain from the use of foreign liquors. * The people of
New York apparently took no formal action; but five fire
companies of Philadelphia attempted to counteract the high
price of mutton by agreeing to refrain from the purchase of
lamb. * One company added a pledge against the drinking
of imported beer.
The logical counterpart of the efforts for the disuse of
imported superfluities was the
_manufactures. This movement had greatest vitality in New
York, where a number of prominent men in December, 1764,
organized the " Society for H1o frnmnn'op r,f A rtv Agri-
culture and Oecpnomy, and proceeded to award premiums
fora great variety of local productions, to print informing
pamphlets, and to promote the formation of similar societies
throughout the province8 Ja_other provinces, the news-
1 Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 21, 1765; Bos. Post-Boy, Oct. 1, 8, 1764, July 1,
1/65.
'Ibid. , Oct . 1, 1764.
*N. Y. Gas. & Post-Boy, Nov. 22, 1764.
4 Pa. Gaz. , Feb. 28, Mch. 7, 14, May 16, 1765.
? F1les of Weyler's N. Y. Gas. and of the AT. Y. Merc, from Dec. 3,
1764, to June 1, 1767. The notice of Dec. 3, 1764, declared that the
society was formed upon a plan "wholly detached from all Party
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? FIRST CONTEST FOR REFORM 65
papers teemed with instructive articles on the methods and
opportunity of American manufactures; and the provinces
north of Maryland showed many instances of increased pro-
duction of linen and woolen homespun. Outside of New
York, greatest progress seems to have been made at Boston,
where the " Linen Manufactory" produced four hundred
yards of "Bengals, Lillepusias and Broglios" in a period
of three months, and " Lynn Shoes " won a merited popu-
larity. 1
On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act received the royal as-
sent, and by its terms was to go into effect on November
the first of that year. The act was an integral part of the
taxation program inaugurated by Grenville in 1764. Stamp
duties were placed on commercial papers of various kinds,
on deeds, bonds, leases and other legal documents, on pam-
phlets, newspapers and advertisements, and on articles of
apprenticeship, liquor licenses, etc. Heavy fines and for-
feitures were provided for infractions of the law, and these
might be collected through the vice-admiralty courts at the
tion of the informer or prosecutor. 2
1 In view of the later revolutionary movement, it is not too
much to say that the Stamp Act derived its chief import-
ance from the fact . that it lifted the controversy from the
profit-and-loss considerations of the northern colonists and
furnished a common ground on which the planting provinces
might join with the commercial provinces in protest. ! The
eighteenth century Anglo-Saxon liked nothing better than
Spirit, personal Interest, political Views or private Motives. " The next
week, it was stated that the severe times had caused the formation of
the society.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Oct. 8, 1764, Jan. 24, 1765. John Hancock's wealthy
uncle had bequeathed ? 200 to this society on his death on Aug. 1, 1764.
Ibid. , Aug. 13, 1764.
1 5 George III, c. 12.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 66 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
the expansive phrases of the natural rights theory; and the
Stamp Act readily lent itself to protests against " taxation
without representation" and "trial without jury. " 1
The economic burden of the new law, as in the case of the
duties of 1764, fell very largely on the commercial provinces.
The merchants, lawyers and printers were the classes par-
ticularly affected; and these classes, as we shall see, felt im-
pelled to take a leading part in instigating popular demon-
strations against the measure.
The taxes on commercial documents threatened to
paralyze such business as had survived the restrictive legis-
lation of the preceding year. "Under this additional
Burthen of the Stamp Act," wrote one of the merchant
princes of Boston, "I cannot carry it [trade] on to any
profit and we were before Cramp'd in our Trade & suffi-
ciently Burthen'd, that any farther Taxes must Ruin us. "
In another letter, Hancock declared that if the act were
carried into execution, itC' will entirely Stagnate Trade
here, for it is universally determined here never to submit
1 Colonel George Mercer, of Virginia, told a committee of Parliament
in Feb. , 1766: "I have heard the Complaints of Right and oppression
blended together. But the thinking people don't speak so plainly on
the right as others; they complain of the oppression" ; he apprehended
that " the Idea of Oppression awakened the Idea of Right. " Brit. Mus.
Addl. Mss. , no. 33030 (L. C. Transcripts), ff. 126, 129. A letter from a
New Yorker to an English friend said: "It is thought the stamp act
would not have met with so violent an opposition if the colonies had
not previously been chagrined at the rigorous execution of the laws
against their trade. " Bos. Eve. Post, Feb. 17, 1766. Dean Tucker
wrote in his pamphlet, A Letter from a Merchant in London to his
Nephew in North America (1766): "What is the Cause of such an
amazing Outcry as you raise at present? Not the Stamp Duty itself;
. . . none can be so ignorant, or so stupid, as not to see that this is a
mere Sham and Pretence. What, then, are the real Grievances . . . ?
Why, some of you are exasperated against the Mother Country on the
Account of the Revival of certain iRestrictions laid upon their Trade. "
Pa. Mag. , vol. xxvi, p. 86.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? FIRST CONTEST FOR REFORM 67
to it, and the principal merchants here will by no means
carry on Business under a StampTj Early in October, he
told Governor Bernard that he would rather perform the
severest manual labor than continue business under the bur-
den of the pending Stamp Act, and that " I am Determin'd
as soon as I know that they are Resolv'd to insist on this act
to Sell my Stock in Trade & Shut up my Warehouse Doors. "
In a letter a few days later, he protested that " there is not
cash enough here to support it. " I lancock's commercial
correspondence of this period snyndeH a gremnnf; nnte of
despair; and only as an afterthought did he allude, once or
twice, to the unconstitutionallv of the act. 1
vo1cing the apprehensions of the merchants of Pennsyl-
vania, John Dickinson questioned whether, under present
panic conditions, a merchant's commerce could bear "the
payment of all the taxes imposed by the Stamp Act on his
policies, fees with clerks, charter parties, protests, his other
notarial acts, his letters, and even his advertisements. " He
showed that hard times were having a cumulative effect.
Money, where any remained, had gone into hiding. When
creditors took out executions, they discovered that the lands
and personal estates could be sold only at a fraction of their
value. The records of the courts attested that the number
of debtors had increased enormously; at the last term, no
less than thirty-five persons from Philadelphia County alone
had sought relief under the insolvency act, although the law
applied only to those who owed no single debt above ? 150.
This being the situation, said Dickinson, " from whence is
the silver to come, with which the taxes imposed by this act,
and the duties imposed by other late acts, are to be paid? " 2
1 Brown, John Hancock His Book, pp. 83, 87, 88, 90. Vide also pp.
69, 70, 81, 86-90, 103-104, 115.
1 The Late Regulations etc. , Dickinson, Writings (Ford, L. , ed. ),
pp. 227-230. Vide also pp. 440-441.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 68 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Jonathan Watts, a member of the New York Council,
was writing home in the same strain: "I cannot conceive
there will be silver or gold enough to carry this Act and the
high duties that are laid, through, and what shall people
then do in a new country where property so frequently
changes hands, must everything stagnate, and will not a
universal discontent prevail? Man is man, and will feel
and will resent, too . . . "l The Philadelphia merchant,
Stephen Collins, repeated the plaintive note in many letters
to London creditors, alleging that, owing to the stagnation
of trade, " I have not been able to Forward your Remitances
more timely. " 2
Benjamin Franklin hplipv-pH that the new act would fall
"particularly hard on us lawvers and printers. " 8 The
lawyers throughout British America were affected by the
duties imposed on all important legal documents. "It is
well known," commented a writer in the New York Gasette
and Post-Boy, February 20, 1766, "that some of the
Lawyers in the several Provinces have been, and still con-
tinue, the principal Writers on the Side of American
Liberty. " Indeed, one of the ablest pamphlets against the
Stamp Act was written by Daniel Dulany, the foremost
lawyer of Maryland, a man who opposed no subsequent tax
of Great Britain and who eventually became a loyalist. 4
1 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. x, p. 576. "N" claimed in the Pa. Journ. ,
Sept. 5, 1765, that there was not nearly enough money in America to
pay the current debt to British merchants, let alone the new taxes.
"Publicola" calculated in the N. Y. Gas. & Post-Boy, May 30, 1765,
that all the gold and silver would be drained off in two years at most.
1Letter Book, 1760-1773 (L. C. Mss. ), May 18, June 24, 1765; Aug.
14, Nov. 10, 1766.
1Writings (Smyth), vol. iv, pp. 361-363.
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
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
?
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.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 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.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 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.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 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.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 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.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl.
? 64 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
lutions were so well kept by the people generally that it was
reported that there had been only one or two violations after
four months' trial, although almost one hundred funerals
had occurred; and it was estimated that the saving would be
more than ? 10,000 sterling a year. 1 Burials " according to
the new mode" were recorded by the newspapers in New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York.
In September the tradesmen of Boston followed in the
path of the merchants, by agreeing to wear only leather of
Massachusetts manufacture for their work clothes. 2 In
November the students of Yale took unanimous action to
abstain from the use of foreign liquors. * The people of
New York apparently took no formal action; but five fire
companies of Philadelphia attempted to counteract the high
price of mutton by agreeing to refrain from the purchase of
lamb. * One company added a pledge against the drinking
of imported beer.
The logical counterpart of the efforts for the disuse of
imported superfluities was the
_manufactures. This movement had greatest vitality in New
York, where a number of prominent men in December, 1764,
organized the " Society for H1o frnmnn'op r,f A rtv Agri-
culture and Oecpnomy, and proceeded to award premiums
fora great variety of local productions, to print informing
pamphlets, and to promote the formation of similar societies
throughout the province8 Ja_other provinces, the news-
1 Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 21, 1765; Bos. Post-Boy, Oct. 1, 8, 1764, July 1,
1/65.
'Ibid. , Oct . 1, 1764.
*N. Y. Gas. & Post-Boy, Nov. 22, 1764.
4 Pa. Gaz. , Feb. 28, Mch. 7, 14, May 16, 1765.
? F1les of Weyler's N. Y. Gas. and of the AT. Y. Merc, from Dec. 3,
1764, to June 1, 1767. The notice of Dec. 3, 1764, declared that the
society was formed upon a plan "wholly detached from all Party
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? FIRST CONTEST FOR REFORM 65
papers teemed with instructive articles on the methods and
opportunity of American manufactures; and the provinces
north of Maryland showed many instances of increased pro-
duction of linen and woolen homespun. Outside of New
York, greatest progress seems to have been made at Boston,
where the " Linen Manufactory" produced four hundred
yards of "Bengals, Lillepusias and Broglios" in a period
of three months, and " Lynn Shoes " won a merited popu-
larity. 1
On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act received the royal as-
sent, and by its terms was to go into effect on November
the first of that year. The act was an integral part of the
taxation program inaugurated by Grenville in 1764. Stamp
duties were placed on commercial papers of various kinds,
on deeds, bonds, leases and other legal documents, on pam-
phlets, newspapers and advertisements, and on articles of
apprenticeship, liquor licenses, etc. Heavy fines and for-
feitures were provided for infractions of the law, and these
might be collected through the vice-admiralty courts at the
tion of the informer or prosecutor. 2
1 In view of the later revolutionary movement, it is not too
much to say that the Stamp Act derived its chief import-
ance from the fact . that it lifted the controversy from the
profit-and-loss considerations of the northern colonists and
furnished a common ground on which the planting provinces
might join with the commercial provinces in protest. ! The
eighteenth century Anglo-Saxon liked nothing better than
Spirit, personal Interest, political Views or private Motives. " The next
week, it was stated that the severe times had caused the formation of
the society.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Oct. 8, 1764, Jan. 24, 1765. John Hancock's wealthy
uncle had bequeathed ? 200 to this society on his death on Aug. 1, 1764.
Ibid. , Aug. 13, 1764.
1 5 George III, c. 12.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 66 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
the expansive phrases of the natural rights theory; and the
Stamp Act readily lent itself to protests against " taxation
without representation" and "trial without jury. " 1
The economic burden of the new law, as in the case of the
duties of 1764, fell very largely on the commercial provinces.
The merchants, lawyers and printers were the classes par-
ticularly affected; and these classes, as we shall see, felt im-
pelled to take a leading part in instigating popular demon-
strations against the measure.
The taxes on commercial documents threatened to
paralyze such business as had survived the restrictive legis-
lation of the preceding year. "Under this additional
Burthen of the Stamp Act," wrote one of the merchant
princes of Boston, "I cannot carry it [trade] on to any
profit and we were before Cramp'd in our Trade & suffi-
ciently Burthen'd, that any farther Taxes must Ruin us. "
In another letter, Hancock declared that if the act were
carried into execution, itC' will entirely Stagnate Trade
here, for it is universally determined here never to submit
1 Colonel George Mercer, of Virginia, told a committee of Parliament
in Feb. , 1766: "I have heard the Complaints of Right and oppression
blended together. But the thinking people don't speak so plainly on
the right as others; they complain of the oppression" ; he apprehended
that " the Idea of Oppression awakened the Idea of Right. " Brit. Mus.
Addl. Mss. , no. 33030 (L. C. Transcripts), ff. 126, 129. A letter from a
New Yorker to an English friend said: "It is thought the stamp act
would not have met with so violent an opposition if the colonies had
not previously been chagrined at the rigorous execution of the laws
against their trade. " Bos. Eve. Post, Feb. 17, 1766. Dean Tucker
wrote in his pamphlet, A Letter from a Merchant in London to his
Nephew in North America (1766): "What is the Cause of such an
amazing Outcry as you raise at present? Not the Stamp Duty itself;
. . . none can be so ignorant, or so stupid, as not to see that this is a
mere Sham and Pretence. What, then, are the real Grievances . . . ?
Why, some of you are exasperated against the Mother Country on the
Account of the Revival of certain iRestrictions laid upon their Trade. "
Pa. Mag. , vol. xxvi, p. 86.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? FIRST CONTEST FOR REFORM 67
to it, and the principal merchants here will by no means
carry on Business under a StampTj Early in October, he
told Governor Bernard that he would rather perform the
severest manual labor than continue business under the bur-
den of the pending Stamp Act, and that " I am Determin'd
as soon as I know that they are Resolv'd to insist on this act
to Sell my Stock in Trade & Shut up my Warehouse Doors. "
In a letter a few days later, he protested that " there is not
cash enough here to support it. " I lancock's commercial
correspondence of this period snyndeH a gremnnf; nnte of
despair; and only as an afterthought did he allude, once or
twice, to the unconstitutionallv of the act. 1
vo1cing the apprehensions of the merchants of Pennsyl-
vania, John Dickinson questioned whether, under present
panic conditions, a merchant's commerce could bear "the
payment of all the taxes imposed by the Stamp Act on his
policies, fees with clerks, charter parties, protests, his other
notarial acts, his letters, and even his advertisements. " He
showed that hard times were having a cumulative effect.
Money, where any remained, had gone into hiding. When
creditors took out executions, they discovered that the lands
and personal estates could be sold only at a fraction of their
value. The records of the courts attested that the number
of debtors had increased enormously; at the last term, no
less than thirty-five persons from Philadelphia County alone
had sought relief under the insolvency act, although the law
applied only to those who owed no single debt above ? 150.
This being the situation, said Dickinson, " from whence is
the silver to come, with which the taxes imposed by this act,
and the duties imposed by other late acts, are to be paid? " 2
1 Brown, John Hancock His Book, pp. 83, 87, 88, 90. Vide also pp.
69, 70, 81, 86-90, 103-104, 115.
1 The Late Regulations etc. , Dickinson, Writings (Ford, L. , ed. ),
pp. 227-230. Vide also pp. 440-441.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 68 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Jonathan Watts, a member of the New York Council,
was writing home in the same strain: "I cannot conceive
there will be silver or gold enough to carry this Act and the
high duties that are laid, through, and what shall people
then do in a new country where property so frequently
changes hands, must everything stagnate, and will not a
universal discontent prevail? Man is man, and will feel
and will resent, too . . . "l The Philadelphia merchant,
Stephen Collins, repeated the plaintive note in many letters
to London creditors, alleging that, owing to the stagnation
of trade, " I have not been able to Forward your Remitances
more timely. " 2
Benjamin Franklin hplipv-pH that the new act would fall
"particularly hard on us lawvers and printers. " 8 The
lawyers throughout British America were affected by the
duties imposed on all important legal documents. "It is
well known," commented a writer in the New York Gasette
and Post-Boy, February 20, 1766, "that some of the
Lawyers in the several Provinces have been, and still con-
tinue, the principal Writers on the Side of American
Liberty. " Indeed, one of the ablest pamphlets against the
Stamp Act was written by Daniel Dulany, the foremost
lawyer of Maryland, a man who opposed no subsequent tax
of Great Britain and who eventually became a loyalist. 4
1 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. x, p. 576. "N" claimed in the Pa. Journ. ,
Sept. 5, 1765, that there was not nearly enough money in America to
pay the current debt to British merchants, let alone the new taxes.
"Publicola" calculated in the N. Y. Gas. & Post-Boy, May 30, 1765,
that all the gold and silver would be drained off in two years at most.
1Letter Book, 1760-1773 (L. C. Mss. ), May 18, June 24, 1765; Aug.
14, Nov. 10, 1766.
1Writings (Smyth), vol. iv, pp. 361-363.
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
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
?
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.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 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.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 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.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 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.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 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.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl.
