Plan, notes, rough draft, and fair copy: American Philosophical
Society
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Their readiness to contribute Canada Exp[editio]n Car- |
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[In the margin:] The last War not for the Colonies
but |
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They as Consumers contribute in the Price of Com- |
[First part of passage missing; defence,
and for raising among themselves by common Taxes such Sums as would
be necessary for defraying the Expence. This Plan
of Union, was sent to Government here, that if approv’d it
might be carried into Execution. It was not approv’d;
whether from a Jealousy that such an Union might make the Colonies
in some degree formidable to the Mother Country as well as to the
Enemy, or from what other good Reasons, I will not pretend to
conjecture. It was however thought better to send Troops from
hence, and they were sent accordingly, at first a few only, but
many more afterwards than were either originally intended here or
desired there, at an immense Expence to this Nation, which in my
Opinion, and that of many Americans, might well have been spared; a
Fleet only, to favour the Operations of an American Land Force
under such Union, and prevent Troops and
Succours from France to Canada, being perhaps what alone was truly
necessary. And yet, however great this Expence, as the War ended in
the Reduction of Canada, and Cession to Britain of all the vast
Country northward, southward, and westward to the Missisipi,
wherein she may from time to time plant more Colonies out of the
vast Increase of the present, thereby extending her Empire in the
most natural Ma[nner] and with it her Strength by Sea and Land,
[torn] by Commerce and an ever-craving Demand [remainder
of passage missing.]
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C. o M. |
The manner they are represented by Governors and |
It is not my Purpose here to censure the
Conduct of Ministers, whose Motives, whose Lights, Informations and
Misinformations I am unacquainted with. They might intend all for
the best, and yet be mistaken in the Means, as wise Men sometimes
are, and wiser Men are always ready to acknowledge. They might be
prejudic’d against the Colonies by the artful Misrepresentations of
the Enemies of the Colonies: For Enemies the Colonies have, and
bitter ones, as one may see by the rancorous Libels with which the
Papers are daily fill’d against them, exciting this Country to
imbrue its Hands in their Blood; and yet perhaps no People ever
deserv’d Enemies less. What I shall put down therefore, as the
Causes of this Change, I desire may be consider’d simply as a
Relation of Facts; and I leave Censure to those who are better
qualify’d to judge, and to whom it more properly belongs.
In the first Place, by posting Frigates all along
the Coast, with armed Tenders and Cutters to run into every River
and Creek, the Officers of which were all vested with Custom-house
Powers, and who, especially those of the lower Rank, executed their
Commissions with great Rudeness and Insolence, all Trade and
Commerce, even the most legal, between Colony and Colony, was
harass’d, vex’d and interrupted, by perpetual Stoppings of Boats,
Rummagings and Searchings, Unladings and Detainings, on trifling
Occasions, and Seizures of Vessels on the slightest Omission or
Irregularity of Papers, &c. extorting Compositions by
terryfying the Owners with carrying the Vessels seized on Suspicion
to Halifax, in which remote Place the great Court of Admiralty was
es-tablish’d.2º. The Exacting rigorously at the same time a too
heavy Duty on foreign Mellasses, an Article which our own Islands
could not furnish in sufficient Quantities, and which was not only
of great Consequence in the Distilleries, Fisheries and Guinea
Trade, but in North America was become one of the Necessaries of
Life, being the common Sweetning used in the Food of the poorer
Sort, and universally a principal Ingredient in their common Beer,
gave also a general Dissatisfaction. 3º The Trade too, which had
been carried on with the foreign Plantations, (whence Money, and
Commodities that being carried to Europe might be turned into
Money, were usually procured, to discharge the Ballances
continually growing due in England) was at the same time greatly
embarrass’d, discourag’d and prevented, so that a Scarcity of
Cash, and the Distresses such Scarcity always occasions in
Trade, came on very fast. 4º. And what render’d that Scarcity of
Gold and Silver less tolerable, was a new Act of Parliament,
prohibiting the making any more Paper Money in the Colonies
that should be a legal Tender. 5º. And then, when both Silver and
Paper Money were daily diminishing, and in a Way of being totally
annihilated, comes the fatal Stamp-Act,
demanding a new and heavy
Tax; and this laid on by the very Power that had in a great degree
taken away the means of paying any Tax at all; while every
Province was groaning under the Weight of Taxes laid by its own
Assemblies to discharge the Debts left by the last War.6º. This Act
too was render’d the more galling, by its taking away Trials by
Juries for all Offences against it, and [One page of the
manuscript missing] it might take when it pleas’d the other
nineteen so that in fact they had then nothing they could call
their own. It was now that they recollected all the former
Hardships imposed on them, which their Respect for the Mother
Country had induc’d them to bear in Silence. The numerous and
perplex’d Restraints on their Trade, many of them requiring
Labour in vain, and Expence to no purpose. The
Restraints on their Manufactures, those very few that their
Situation and particular Circumstances gave them some Opportunity
of carrying on to Advantage: The Emptying by Law all the Goals of
this Country into their Settlements; an Instance of sovereign cruel
Insolence unexampled, with which no Nation before had ever treated
even a Country they had conquer’d, made if possible still more
grievous by that barbarous Sarcasm in a solemn Report of the
Bo—d of T—e, on a Plantation Act intended to prevent the
Importation of Convicts, “that the Act for transporting them was
necessary for the Better Peopling of his
Majesty’s Colonies!” And now while their Minds were in this
disturbed State, came among them numberless ministerial Pamphlets
and Papers printed here, arguing away all their Rights by the most
sophistical Reasoning representing them in the most odious Lights,
and treating them and their Pretensions to English Liberty with the
utmost Contempt; one of those Pieces, too, said to be written by a
Person in high Office, with much Wit indeed, but which a
little more Wit would have induc’d him rather to suppress. Let any
sensible considerate Englishman put himself but for a Moment in
this Situation of these People, and attend to his own Feelings, I
am persuaded he will find himself dispos’d to pity (even while he
blames) the Distractions and Extravagancies this Situation and
these Apprehensions drove them into.
But why should it be thought strange that the
Governing People here are usually prejudic’d against the Colonies?
Much has been said of a virtual Representation, which the
Colonies are suppos’d to have here. Of that I understand nothing.
But I know what kind of actual Representation is continually
made of them, by those from whom Ministers chiefly have
their Information. Governors and other Officers of the Crown, even
the little Officers of the Revenue sent from hence, have all at
times some Account to give of their own loyal and faithful Conduct,
with which they mix some contrary Character of the People that
tends to place that Conduct in a more advantageous Light. Every
good thing done there in the Assemblies, for promoting his
Majesty’s Service, was obtained by the Governor’s Influence; he
propos’d; he urg’d strongly; he manag’d Parties; there was great
Opposition; the Assembly were refractory, and disaffected; but his
Zeal and Dexterity overcame all Difficulties. And if thro’ his own
Imprudence, or real Want of Capacity, any thing goes wrong: he is
never in fault; the Assembly and the People are to bear all the
Blame; they are factious, they are turbulent, disloyal, impatient
of Government, or what is the same thing, disrespectful to his
Majesty’s Representative. The Custom House Officer represents
the People as all inclin’d to Smuggling, Dutch and French
Goods (by his Account) swarm in the Country, nothing else would be
us’d if it were not for his extream Vigilance; which,
indeed, as it takes up all his Time, he hopes will be considered in
the Allowance of a larger Salary. Even the Missionary
Clergy, to whom all Credit is due, cannot forbear acquainting the
Bishops, and their other Superiors, here from whom they receive
their Stipends, that they are very [dili]gent in their respective
Missions, but that they meet with great difficulties from the
adverse disposition of the people: Quakers oppose them in one
place, Presbyterians in another: this country swarms with
thwarting hereticks; t’other with malevolent secretaries:
Infidelity gains ground here, Popery is countenanced
there. Their unwearied endeavours, which are never wanting,
scarce suffice to prevent the colonists being overwhelmed with
vice, irreligion, ignorance, and error! Then the Military Officer,
who has served in the colonies, represents them as abounding in
wealth; the profuse tables they used to spread for him in their
hospitable entertainments convinced him of it; for these he saw
daily when he din’d from house to house, and therefor he had reason
to imagine it was their common way of living; (though in truth that
was extreamly different and much more suitable to their
circumstances.) But opulent as he supposes them, they must, in his
opinion, be the meanest of mortals to grudge the payment of a
trifling tax, especially as it is to maintain soldiers. Thus
represented, how can it be otherwise, but
that the governing people in Britain should conceive the most
unfavourable idea of Americans, as unworthy the name of Englishmen,
and fit only to be snubb’d, curb’d, shackled and plundered.