1765]

THE STAMP ACT.

281

The consequence, however, was that many young men received a higher education, for whom there was no future, at least such as that to which they aspired. Only a limited number could obtain a fair professional income; the provincial assemblies could furnish seats for some of the number, to the exclusion of the local influential personages engaged in agriculture. They had little to look forward to in the form of imperial employment, which was a field closed to them: and they were ready to welcome a change that would lay open to their ambition the avenues, at that time crowded by nominees from home. It took some years for the doctrine to be set aside; that colonial appointments were to be reserved for the benefit of the friends of the supporters of the imperial government in power.

It has long been customary to adduce the stamp act as the primary cause of these troublous times. Imposed by George Grenville, it came into operation in 1765. If that act is dispassionately considered, it must be seen that other causes of dissatisfaction, if not so loudly expressed, were strongly and deeply felt, and that they aggravated the violent denunciation of the measure. Grenville, during Bute's administration, had been leader of the house of commons. On Bute's resignation, he recommended Grenville as his successor: it is supposed with the anticipation, that, from behind the scenes, he would continue to retain power. If this were Bute's calculation, it entirely failed. Grenville possessed courage and self-assertion amounting to obstinacy. He was painstaking and laborious, mastered the detail of his office with untiring drudgery; he had no feeling of respect or regard for Bute, and was without sympathy with Bute's political views. Grenville had indeed differed widely from Bute regarding the peace. He became head of the government on April the 8th, 1763. The prominence given by writers for the century past to the introduction of the stamp act, conferred an importance on that event against which it is difficult to contend. The act is still spoken of as an arbitrary violation of right, and the strong opposition against it is adduced as an argument establishing its injustice.

The character of the act itself has been lost sight of, in the consideration of the principle of constitutional government it was considered to violate. It had, however, but a slight influence on commercial or social life; the tax was to be paid by the more prosperous classes; it was easy of collection; and the proceeds were devoted to the use of the province. The grievance in the form of its collection lay in the fact that it was a tax raised by imperial authority, without reference to the colonies, and without the formality of seeking their consent.

The agitation took the wider field that it had been experimentally enacted, to be the forerunner of other taxes. The revenue derivable was estimated at about £100,000, while the money, necessary to pay the troops to be quartered in the country would have demanded four or five times the amount. The uses to which the impost was to be applied, the maintenance of a military establishment, was a greater source of discontent. The policy called forth much heart-burning and anger in New York and in New England, where there was little love for the imperial soldier, although the service he had rendered was of too recent date for the memory of it to be weakened.

The necessity of an armed force in British America had been unmistakably shewn by the obstinate character of the Indian war, narrated in the early chapters of this volume, a war, even unsubdued in 1764, the year when the stamp act was proposed. The aggressive operations of the western tribes had been conducted with such vigour and pertinacity, that they could not have been repelled by hastily collected undisciplined troops, drawn hap-hazard, and in many instances unwillingly, from civil life. It was evident that should such an emergency recur, it could only be met by a thoroughly organized disciplined body of men in a word, by trained reliable soldiers.

Canada had lately been conquered and constituted as the northern province. The maintenance of garrisons in its principal centres became a necessity, if the possession of the

1765]

IMPERIAL RESPONSIBILITY.

283

province was to be assured; and thus it became an element in the general consideration.

In Europe, the national jealousies and complications of the time likewise exacted attention, and by every law of statesmanship it was the duty of Great Britain to hold her possessions secure against every hostile attempt. There was no certainty that war in Europe would not be rekindled, and it was a matter of ordinary precaution to be prepared for such a contingency. The agitators of the day pointed to the colonial militia as a sufficient defence in the hour of danger. Experience, however, had shewn that in the last war with France, when the existence of the American provinces was threatened, and the people were earnestly summoned to take up arms for the defence of their homes, their families, and their nationality, the provincial troops alone came forward to join the ranks of the imperial troops, when Chatham engaged to pay

them for their service.

The extent of the power possessed by the imperial parliament in the government of the colonies will probably continue to be a matter of dispute. It is neither my duty nor my purpose to enter into the question; but I feel it proper to say, that the assertion of the authority of parliament by the stamp act was not at variance with the limit of authority, previously exercised, and recorded in the statute book.

The mistake of the stamp act was the incapacity to understand the economic condition of those, to whom the act would apply, and the failure to recognize that, in the condition of feeling in the province, it was inexpedient to enforce it. It seems to me that we err, when we regard the question simply from the constitutional point of view. Had perfect loyalty to the imperial government been entertained, any objection to the enactment might have been temperately stated, and relief from the asserted injustice asked with moderation and dignity but no such course was followed. The dissatisfaction assumed the form of violent indignation, fomented by those who felt that the time had arrived when the subordinate position of the colonist should cease; and that in America the

only controlling legislation should be that, which the people themselves voted in the provincial houses of assembly.

The regulations regarding the Indian territories likewise caused wide discontent. The operations of the jobbers in land were checked by the imperial control imposed on dealings with the Indian. No few of this class were prepared to obtain patents by any system of chicane, regardless of the tumult and bloodshed the fraud might cause. To this day

Indian wars have prevailed in the United States from the constant failure to observe the principle inculcated by these regulations; while in Canada, our fidelity to them has saved us from all evil consequences. It is to be remembered that Bouquet's expedition to the Muskingum was brought to a close only in 1764. It may be questioned, if the militia of the provinces had alone been in the field, whether peace would have been then obtained, and a desolating war might have been continued for years. The narrative contained in the early pages of this volume will shew the truth of this view.

One great mark of the want of wisdom of the stamp act was the insensibility to the obligations entailed by its enactment. Those who, in the provinces, took part in the opposition to its introduction went to the extreme of agitation. In the house of commons, the act itself had attracted little attention, the minority against it in a thin house, was less than forty in number. The political passions had, at that date, not been excited by the proceedings against Wilkes. In America on the contrary, public feeling was strongly called forth. The violent opposition to the act, commencing at Massachusetts, ran through all the colonies. Grenville had stated that the tax was an experiment towards further aid from America, and the expression was tortured into a determination on the part of parliament, to introduce a systematic impost of imperial taxation.

The agitators had the ground to themselves; their virulence could be persevered in without contradiction, especially in the American cities. The governors were powerless to restrain them; and while the opposition press teemed with unrestrained

1765]

SMUGGLING.

285

violence, scarcely a journal in the imperial interest was active in counteracting the poison. Even at this date the policy was observed, which was followed to the eve of the declaration of independence; the assertion, on the part of those who had determined to break from the mother country, of their perfect allegiance to her, with the declaration that they claimed only the right of British subjects and the freedom they had inherited from their English forefathers.

The stamp act was a plausible grievance, for it could be discussed and dignified by patriotic language. The repression of smuggling was of a different character. During the late war it had much increased in England; in America it prevailed as a custom, and had grown into an almost universal practice. The British government resolved that the revenue laws should no longer remain inoperative. As the officials who enforced the custom regulations were appointed and paid by the crown, they were independent of control by the local authorities. As in England, all cases of smuggling in America were brought before the admiralty courts, in which the decision was made. by the judge alone, no jury being summoned. Much activity was shewn in preventing these breaches of the law, and their suppression proved troublesome in the extreme to the traders. at Boston, and the other parts of New England, as also to a numerous class at New York. Armed vessels of war were stationed on the coast to prevent the landing of contraband goods, and the naval officers were sworn to execute the revenue laws. They carried on the duty, possibly, with no great delicacy, and with little consideration for those engaged in the trade. The consequence was the continual complaints of wrongful seizures, and illegal outrages.

All the passions awakened by the regulations on the subject of Indian lands, and called forth by the suppression of smuggling, found vent in the denunciation of the stamp act. To me it appears unwarrantable, to attribute to this measure alone all the bad blood which was engendered. The act came into great prominence from the fact that no other cause. explanatory of the dissatisfaction was specifically named.