Interesting enough, the Molasses or Sugar Act passed back in 1733 could have been called unconstitutional, but it was the Stamp Act that caused the riots and brought the colonies together.
Why the Stamp Act and not the Sugar Act?
The Sugar Act didn’t affect all the colonies. The tax was mostly imposed on molasses which is used in rum and there are no distilleries south of Pennsylvania. The Stamp act was universal. It hit everyone’s pocketbook.
We understand the riots over here brought down Grenville’s ministry.
They helped, but Grenville was on his way out even before the riots. He offended George III when he advised him not to recommend his mother to the regency council because he felt the House of Commons wouldn’t accept her. King George took his advice and then was embarrassed when Parliament revised a bill to include her. The King tossed Grenville out and brought Rockingham in.
What is the Regency Council?
It is a group of people selected by Parliament to rule England if the King becomes too ill.
Rockingham was also a disappointment to George III, wasn’t he?
Rockingham was a compromise between Pitt, who favors reconciliation with the colonies, and Grenville, who believes in a military solution. Rockingham is young and, for better or worse, he heads the Whig party. He’s also sympathetic to the colonies. He actually argued for reconciliation, but Pitt apparently wanted his job and didn’t back him.
Then George III fired Rockingham and put Pitt in power.
I’ve wondered, along with others, why Pitt took the job. Why he would leave the House of Commons for that of the Lords. Pitt is revered by all of Britain as the “Great Commoner.” His power is rooted in the Commons.
Parliament repealed the Stamp Act under Pitt’s ministry.
Yes, but under a Declaratory Act that reasserts Parliament’s sovereignty over the colonies, including the right to tax at a later time; in 1767 to be exact, when the Townshend Acts were passed and the colonies boycotted British products.
Townshend was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
He proposed an import tax on wine, fruits, paper products, lead and glass. Items that weren’t consumed by the general public and he thought shouldn’t raise too much ire over here.
Townshend died recently.
Yes, and King George appointed Lord North to succeed him because North was adamant about collecting those taxes
Apparently the boycott was successful because the Townshend Acts were repealed.
Not all that successful. Parliament still asserts its right to tax, and the tea duties remain on the books.
And when Parliament attempted to enforce the tea duties, it unwittingly gave a few Bostonians a masquerade party in their harbor one night.
That event, which happened two years ago, still enrages much of England. It’s one thing to refuse to unload the tea like they did in New York. It’s another thing to masquerade as Indians, trespass on a private vessel and dump its contents overboard.
Lord North convinced Parliament to answer with the Coercive Acts.
People here call them the Intolerable Acts. Parliament is finally getting tough under North. It closed the port of Boston and wrote the colonists out of government by giving George III the right to appoint his people in the colonies’ upper houses of government. The colonies discussed the Acts with each other through their Committees of Correspondence and then answered England by declaring the Acts unconstitutional.
Wasn’t the so-called Boston “Tea Party” condemned here, too?
You bring up a very good point. There’s more than one power struggle going on over here. Gage’s war with the New England militia is more visible, but its potential for bloodshed isn’t any more threatening than the dissension between those who call themselves “Patriots” and those who call themselves “Loyalists.” Some of these people are militant and they hate each other’s politics with a passion.
Why so much open bitterness?
For one thing they’re encouraged to from the pulpit. Preachers on both sides of the conflict claim God has given them the nod. Loyalists swear by the divine right of kings and they site scripture to prove their case. Patriots pull out their own passages from the same Bible to argue that King and Parliament have no rights over them at all. Many Patriots are convinced they’ve been chosen by God to declare their independence from England.
Some have called this conflict a rebellion and others call it a revolution. How do you see it?
Of course it’s a revolution to the Patriots. King George’s England, however, would label it a nasty little rebellion.
How do you mean?
He’s convinced that the radicals are small in number and the Loyalists will rise up and fight with his troops, much like this whole country did in the French and Indian wars.
Do you think they will?
I’m not sure at this point. There are over 10,000 Patriot militia around Cambridge right now and I haven’t seen one armed Loyalist yet. They may come out when Gage moves his army on the mainland but right now the Patriots seem to have the leverage nearly everywhere.
In what way?
They’ve gained control over most of the colonies by usurping the local and provincial governments the King and Parliament put in place. Here in Massachusetts they’ve literally thrown politicians who don’t agree with them out of office. They’ve formed so-called Committees of Safety all over the colonies. These Committees have run many Loyalists off. Of course, all this could change when the militia come up against Gage and his armies again.
He wasn’t too successful the last time, was he?
Well, he can’t pull back when he has them running. Clinton’s reserves might have mopped them up at Cambridge.
Washington is considered a farmer rather than a military man. Was his appointment purely political?
Whoever came up with the notion that Washington isn’t a career officer hasn’t done his homework. The man has been in and out of the military since the age of 20. In fact, he ordered the shots that began the French and Indian War. He’s requested an officer’s commission from the British at least three times that I know of.
And he never received one?
That’s right. They turned him down on all three occasions and now they just might live to regret it, because he has to feel he has something to prove. He wanted command and he courted Congress for it. Showed up at every session in uniform. He was the only delegate who looked military. Did a great job of selling himself.
Do you think these people can beat the British?
They’ve shown they can damage them more than anyone expected. If the Loyalists stay in the background and this becomes a long, drawn out war, it’s anybody’s guess.
Can Washington make a decent army with the men you’ve seen?
Hard to say. They are a very unruly bunch and they aren’t about to put themselves or their muskets under just anyone’s authority.
Do you think the independence movement will take hold over here?