The Petition to the House of Lords against the Boston Port Bill
Summary of DS: House of Lords Library
[March 26, 1774.]
<The petitioners, being Americans, are deeply concerned with any proceeding of the House that touches life, liberty, or property in America. They and their countrymen have law as their inalienable birthright, and it requires that no man shall be judged and condemned without having been permitted to defend himself against the charges. The bill before the House penalizes Boston for a trespass committed against the East India Company by persons unknown; the town has not been told the charges, or allowed to hear the evidence and make its defense. The inhabitants will be deprived of property in quays, wharves, etc., worth several hundred thousand pounds, and many of them will be deprived of their regular employment; the innocent will be punished with the guilty. Even if the reparation required in the bill is made, restoration of property will depend solely on the will of the crown. Such proceedings are repugnant to every principle of law and justice, and threaten every man’s security. To condemn unheard is to remove all defense against false accusation, all protection of the innocent. In the colonies the law provides redress for injuries sustained there and, as the trial and acquittal of Capt. Preston and his soldiers demonstrated, is administered as impartially as in any other part of the King’s dominions. When the law gives redress, the interposition of Parliamentary power is unnecessary, arbitrary, and unjust. The House of Lords, as the supreme judicature of the nation, is too well acquainted with the rules of justice to need any further objections to the bill, and the petitioners pray that the House will not pass it.>
[John] Williams Thos. Barker William Middleton Junr.
Stephen Sayre John Boylston Thomas Pinckney
William Lee Arthur Lee William H. Gibbes
B Franklin Thos Ruston Thos. Bromfield
Wm. Middleton Philip Neyle Joshua Johnson
Henry Laurens Edwd Bancroft John Hobson
Ralph Izard John Peronnaut Dan Bowly
Isaac Motte Peeke Fuller John Alleyne
John Ellis Edwd. Fenwicke William Blake
Hu Williamson John Ballendine
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