Tract IV.: The True Interest of Great-Britain SET FORTH In REGARD to the COLONIES; And the only Means of Living in Peace

A VERY strange Notion is now industriously spreading, that ’till the late unhappy Stamp-Act, there were no Bickerings and Discontents, no Heartburnings and Jealousies subsisting between the Colonies and the Mother Country. It seems ’till that fatal Period, all was Harmony, Peace, and Love. Now it is scarcely possible even for the most superficial Observer, if his Knowledge extends beyond the Limits of a Newspaper, not to know, That this is entirely false. And if he is at all conversant in the History of the Colonies, and has attended to the Accounts of their original Plantation, their Rise, and Progress, he must know, that almost from the very Beginning, there were mutual Discontents, mutual Animosities and Reproaches. Indeed, while these Colonies were in a mere State of Infancy, dependent on their Mother Country, not only for daily Protection, but almost for daily Bread, it cannot be supposed that they would give themselves the same Airs of Self-sufficiency and Independence, as they did afterwards, in Proportion as they grew up to a State of Maturity. But that they began very early to shew no other Marks of Attachment to their antient Parent, than what arose from Views of Self-Interest and Self-Love, many convincing Proofs might be drawn from the Complaints of, and the Instructions to, the Governors of the respective Provinces; from the Memorials of our Boards of Trade, presented from Time to Time to his Majesty’s Privy Council against the Behaviour of the Colonists; from the frequent Petitions and Remonstrances of our Merchants and Manufacturers to the same Effect; and even from the Votes and Resolutions of several of their Provincial Assemblies against the Interest, Laws, and Government of the Mother Country; yet I will wave all these at present, and content myself with Proofs still more authentic and unexceptionable; I mean the public Statutes of the Realm: For from them it evidently appears, that long before there were any Thoughts of the Stamp-Act, the Mother Country had the following Accusations to bring against the Colonies, viz. 1st, That they refused to submit to her Ordinances and Regulations in Regard to Trade.—2dly, That they attempted to frame Laws, and to erect Jurisdictions not only independently of her, but even in direct Opposition to her Authority.—And 3dly, That many of them took unlawful Methods to skreen themselves from paying the just Debts they owed to the Merchants and Manufacturers of Great-Britain.

These are the Objections of the Mother-Country to the Behaviour of the Colonies long before their late Outrages, and their present Conduct:—For even as early as the Year 1670, it doth appear, that many Complaints (the very Words of the Act) had been made against the American Proprietors of Ships and Vessels, for engaging in Schemes of Traffic, contrary to the Regulations contained in the Act of Navigation, and in other Statutes of the Realm made for confining the Trade of the Colonies to the Mother Country. Nay, so sensible was the Parliament, above an hundred Years ago, that Prosecutions for the Breach of those Laws would be to little or no Effect, if carried on in American Courts, or before American Juries, that it is expressly ordained, “It shall, and may be lawful for any Person or Persons to prosecute such Ship or Vessel [offending as described in the preceding Section] in any Court of Admiralty in England; the one Moiety of the Forfeiture, in Case of Condemnation, to be to his Majesty, his Heirs, and Successors; and the other Moiety to such Prosecutor or Prosecutors thereof.” [See 22 and 23 of Ch. II. Cap. 26, § 12 and 13.] And we find, that two Years afterwards, viz. 25 of Ch. II. Cap. 7. the same Complaints were again renewed; and in Consequence thereof higher Duties and additional Penalties were laid on, for the more effectually enforcing of the Observance of this and of the former Laws: But in Spite of all that was done, Things grew worse and worse every Day. For it is observable, that in the Year 1696, the very Authority of the English Legislature, for making such Laws and Regulations, seemed to have been called in Question; which Authority, therefore, the Parliament was obliged to assert in Terms very peremptory;—and I may likewise add, very prophetical. The Law made on this Occasion was the famous Statute of the 7th and 8th of William II. Cap. 7. wherein, after the Recital of “divers Acts made for the Encouragement of the Navigation of this Kingdom, and for the better securing and regulating the Plantation Trade, it is remarked, that notwithstanding such Laws, great Abuses are daily committed to the Prejudice of the English Navigation, and the Loss of great Part of the Plantation Trade to this Kingdom, by the Artifice and Cunning of ill disposed Persons.” Then, having prescribed such Remedies as these great Evils seemed to require, the Act goes on at §. 7. to ordain, “That all the Penalties and Forfeitures beforementioned, not in this Act particularly disposed of, shall be one third Part to the Use of his Majesty, his Heirs, and Successors, and one third Part to the Governor of the Colony or Plantation where the Offence shall be committed, and the other third Part to such Person or Persons as shall sue for the same, to be recovered in any of his Majesty’s Courts at Westminster, or in the Kingdom of Ireland, or in the Courts of Admiralty held in his Majesty’s Plantations respectively, where such Offence shall be committed, at the Pleasure of the Officer or Informer, or in any other Plantation belonging to any Subject of England, wherein no Essoin, Protection, or Wager of Law shall be allowed; and that where any Question shall arise concerning the Importation or Exportation of any Goods into or out of the said Plantations, in such Case the Proof shall lie upon the Owner or Claimer; and the Claimer shall be reputed to be the Importer or Owner thereof.”

Now here it is obvious to every Reader, that the Suspicions which the Parliament had formerly conceived of the Partiality of American Courts, and American Juries in Trials at Law with the Mother-Country, were so far from being abated by Length of Time, that they were grown higher than ever; because it appears by this very Act, that the Power of the Officer or Informer was greatly enlarged, having the Option now granted him of three different Countries for prosecuting the Offence; whereas in the former of Charles II. made 16 Years before, he had only two. Moreover it was this Time further ordained, that the Onus probandi should rest on the Defendant, and also that no Essoin, Protection, or Wager of Law should be allowed him.

But above all, and in order to prevent, if possible every Sort of Chicane for the future, and to frustrate all Attempts of the Colonies, either to throw off or evade the Power and Jurisdiction of the Mother Country,—It was at § 9. “further enacted and declared by the Authority aforesaid, that all Laws, Bye-Laws, Usages, or Customs, at this Time, or which hereafter shall be in Practice, or endeavoured, or pretended to be in Force or Practice, in any of the said Plantations, which are in any wise repugnant to the before-mentioned Laws, or any of them, so far as they do relate to the said Plantations, or any of them, or which are any ways repugnant to this present Act, or to any other Law hereafter to be made in this Kingdom, so far as such Law shall relate to, and mention the said Plantations, are illegal, null, and void to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever.”

Words could hardly be devised to express the Sentiments of the English Legislature, more fully and strongly, than these have done: And if ever a Body of uninspired Men were endowed with a Spirit of Divination, or of foreseeing, and also of providing against untoward future Events, as far as human Prudence could extend, the King, Lords, and Commons of the Æra 1696, were the very Men. For they evidently foresaw, that a Time was approaching, when the Provincial Assemblies would dispute the Right of American Sovereignty with the great and general Council of the British Empire: And therefore they took effectual Care that, whenever the Time came, no Law, no Precedent, nor Prescription should be wanting, whereby the Mother Country might assert her constitutional and inherent Right over the Colonies.

But notwithstanding these wise Precautions, some of the Colonies found Ways and Means to evade the Force and Meaning even of this express Law; at least for a Time, and ’till the Legislature could be sufficiently apprized of the Injury designed. The Colonists, who practised these disingenuous Arts with most Success, were those who were endowed with chartered Governments, and who, in Consequence of the extraordinary Favours thereby indulged them, could nominate or elect their own Council, and (if my Memory doth not fail me) their own Governors likewise;—at least, who could grant such Salaries to their Governors, and with such Limitations, as would render them too dependent on the Will and Pleasure of their Pay-Masters. Hence therefore it came to pass, that in the Colonies of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, the Massachuset’s Bay, and New Hampshire; the Governors of these Provinces suffered themselves to be persuaded to give their Sanction to certain Votes and Resolutions of their Assemblies and Councils; whereby Laws were enacted first to issue out Bills of Credit to a certain Amount, and then to make a Tender of those Bills to be considered as an adequate Discharge of Debts, and a legal Release from Payment. A most compendious Method this for getting out of Debt! And were the like Artifice to be authorized every where, I think it is very evident, that none but the most stupid Ideot would be incapable of discharging his Debts, Bonds, or Obligations; and that too without advancing any Money.

However, as soon as the British Legislature came to be fully apprized of this Scheme of Iniquity, they passed a Law, “to regulate and restrain Paper Bills of Credit in his Majesty’s Colonies or Plantations, of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, the Massachuset’s Bay, and New Hampshire, in America; and to prevent the same being legal Tenders in Payments of Money.”—This is the very Title of the Statute; but for further Particulars, and for the different Regulations therein contained, consult the Act itself, 24th of George II. Cap. 53, Anno 1751.

Now will any Man after this dare to say, that the Stamp-Act was the first Cause of Dissention between the Mother Country and her Colonies? Will any Man still persist in maintaining so gross a Paradox, that ’till that fatal Period, the Colonies shewed no Reluctance to submit to the commercial Regulations, no Disposition to contest the Authority, and no Desire to Question the Right of the Mother Country? The Man who can maintain these Paradoxes, is incapable of Conviction, and therefore is not to be reasoned with any longer. “But the Stamp-Act made bad to become worse:—The Stamp-Act irritated and inflamed, and greatly encreased all those ill Humours, which were but too predominant before.” Granted; and I will further add, that any other Act, or any other Measure, of the British Government, as well as the Stamp-Act, if it were to compel the Colonists to contribute a single Shilling towards the general Expence of the British Empire, would have had the same Effect. For, be it ever remembered, that the Colonists did not so much object to the Mode of this Taxation, as to the Right itself of levying Taxes. Nay, their Friends and Agents here in England were known to have frequently declared, That if any Tax were to be crammed down their Throats without their Consent, and by an Authority which they disallowed, they had rather pay this Stamp-Duty than any other.

But indeed, and properly speaking, it was not the Stamp-Act which increased or heightened these ill Humours in the Colonists; it was rather the Reduction of Canada, which called forth those Dispositions into Action which had long been generating before; and which were ready to burst forth at the first Opportunity that should offer. For an undoubted Fact it is, that from the Moment in which Canada came into the Possession of the English, an End was put to the Sovereignty of the Mother-Country over her Colonies. They had then nothing to fear from a foreign Enemy; and as to their own domestic Friends and Relations, they had for so many Years preceding been accustomed to trespass upon their Forbearance and Indulgence, even when they most wanted their Protection, that it was no Wonder they should openly renounce an Authority which they never thoroughly approved of, and which now they found to be no longer necessary for their own Defence.

But here some may be apt to ask, “Had the Colonies no Provocation on their Part? And was all the Fault on one Side, and none on the other?” Probably not:—Probably there were Faults on both Sides. But what doth this serve to prove? If to exculpate the Colonies in regard to their present refractory Behaviour, it is needless. For I am far from charging our Colonies in particular with being Sinners above others; because I believe (and if I am wrong, let the History of all Colonies, whether antient or modern, from the Days of Thucydides down to the present Time, confute me if it can) I say, ’till that is done I believe, that it is the Nature of them all to aspire after Independence, and to set up for themselves as soon as ever they find that they are able to subsist, without being beholden to the Mother-Country. And if our Americans have expressed themselves sooner on this Head than others have done, or in a more direct and daring Manner, this ought not to be imputed to any greater Malignity, or Ingratitude in them, than in others, but to that free Constitution, which is the Prerogative and Boast of us all. We ourselves derive our Origin from those very Saxons, who inhabited the lower Parts of Germany; and yet I think it is sufficiently evident, that we are not over complaisant to the Descendants of these lower Saxons, i. e. to the Offspring of our own Progenitors; nor can we with any Colour of Reason, pretend to complain that even the Bostonians have treated us more indignantly than we have treated the Hanoverians. What then would have been the Case, if the little insignificant Electorate of Hanover had presumed to retain a Claim of Sovereignty over such a Country as Great-Britain, the Pride and Mistress of the Ocean? And yet, I believe, that in Point of Extent or Territory, the present Electoral Dominions, insignificant as they are sometimes represented, are more than a Moiety of England, exclusive of Scotland and Wales: Whereas the whole Island of Great-Britain, is scarcely a twentieth Part of those vast Regions which go under the Denomination of North-America.

Besides, if the American Colonies belonging to France or Spain, have not yet set up for Independence, or thrown off the Masque so much as the English Colonies have done—what is this superior Reserve to be impured to? Not to any greater filial Tenderness in them for their respective antient Parents than in others;—not to Motives of any national Gratitude, or of national Honour;—but because the Constitution of each of those parent States is much more arbitrary and despotic than the Constitution of Great Britain; and therefore their respective Offsprings are awed by the Dread of Punishments from breaking forth into those Outrages which ours dare do with Impunity. Nay more, the very Colonies of France and Spain, though they have not yet thrown off their Allegiance, are nevertheless as forward as any in disobeying the Laws of their Mother Countries, wherever they find an Interest in so doing. For the Truth of this Fact, I appeal to that prodigious clandestine Trade which they are continually carrying on with us, and with our Colonies, contrary to the express Prohibitions of France and Spain: And I appeal also to those very free Ports which the British Legislature itself hath lately opened for accommodating these smuggling Colonists to trade with the Subjects of Great-Britain, in Disobedience to the Injunction of their Mother-Countries.

Enough surely has been said on this Subject; and the Upshot of the whole Matter is plainly this,—That even the arbitrary and despotic Governments of France and Spain (arbitrary I say, both in Temporals and in Spirituals) maintain their Authority over their American Colonies but very imperfectly; in as much as they cannot restrain them from breaking through those Rules and Regulations of exclusive Trade; for the Sake of which all Colonies seemed to have been originally founded. What then shall we say in Regard to such Colonies as are the Offspring of a free Constitution? And after what Manner, or according to what Rule, are our own in particular to be governed, without using any Force or Compulsion, or pursuing any Measure repugnant to their own Ideas of civil or religious Liberty? In short, and to sum up all, in one Word, How shall we be able to render these Colonies more subservient to the Interests, and more obedient to the Laws and Government of the Mother Country, than they voluntarily chuse to be? After having pondered and revolved the Affair over and over, I confess, there seems to me to be but the five following Proposals, which can possibly be made, viz.

1st, To suffer Things to go on for a While, as they have lately done, in Hopes that some favourable Opportunity may offer for recovering the Jurisdiction of the British Legislature over her Colonies, and for maintaining the Authority of the Mother-Country.—Or if these temporising Measures should be found to strengthen and confirm the Evil, instead of removing it;—then,

2dly, To attempt to persuade the Colonies to send over a certain Number of Deputies, or Representatives, to sit and vote in the British Parliament; in order to incorporate America and Great-Britain into one common Empire.—Or if this Proposal should be found impracticable, whether on Account of the Difficulties attending it on this Side of the Atlantic, or because that the Americans themselves would not concur in such a Measure;—then,

3dly, To declare open War against them as Rebels and Revolters; and after having made a perfect Conquest of the Country, then to govern it by military Force and despotic Sway.—Or if this Scheme should be judged (as it ought to be) the most destructive, and the least eligible of any;—then,

4thly, To propose to consent that America should become the general Seat of Empire; and that Great-Britain and Ireland should be governed by Vice-Roys sent over from the Court Residencies, either at Philadelphia or New York, or at some other American imperial City.—Or if this Plan of Accommodation should be ill-digested by home born Englishmen, who, I will venture to affirm, would never submit to such an Indignity;—then,

5thly, To propose to separate entirely from the Colonies, by declaring them to be a free and independent People, over whom we lay no Claim; and then by offering to guarantee this Freedom and Independence against all foreign Invaders whomsoever.

Now these being all the Plans which, in the Nature of Things, seem capable of being proposed, let us examine each of them in their Order.