THE TOWNSHEND ACTS
The year 1767 brought another se- ries of measures that stirred anew all the elements of discord . Charles
Townshend, British chancellor of the exchequer, attempted a new fis- cal program in the face of continued discontent over high taxes at home . Intent upon reducing British taxes by making more efficient the col- lection of duties levied on American trade, he tightened customs admin- istration and enacted duties on colo- nial imports of paper, glass, lead, and tea from Britain . The “Townshend Acts” were based on the premise that taxes imposed on goods imported by the colonies were legal while internal taxes (like the Stamp Act) were not .
The Townshend Acts were de- signed to raise revenue that would be used in part to support colonial officials and maintain the Brit- ish army in America . In response, Philadelphia lawyer John Dickinson, in Letters of a Pennsylvania Farm- er, argued that Parliament had the right to control imperial commerce but did not have the right to tax the colonies, whether the duties were external or internal .
The agitation following enact- ment of the Townshend duties was less violent than that stirred by the Stamp Act, but it was nevertheless strong, particularly in the cities of the Eastern seaboard . Merchants once again resorted to non-impor- tation agreements, and people made do with local products . Colonists, for example, dressed in homespun clothing and found substitutes for tea . They used homemade paper and their houses went unpaint- ed . In Boston, enforcement of the new regulations provoked violence .
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When customs officials sought to collect duties, they were set upon by the populace and roughly handled . For this infraction, two British regi- ments were dispatched to protect the customs commissioners .
The presence of British troops in Boston was a standing invitation to disorder . On March 5, 1770, antag- onism between citizens and British soldiers again flared into violence . What began as a harmless snowball- ing of British soldiers degenerated into a mob attack . Someone gave the order to fire . When the smoke had cleared, three Bostonians lay dead in the snow . Dubbed the “Boston Mas- sacre,” the incident was dramatically pictured as proof of British heart- lessness and tyranny .
Faced with such opposition, Par- liament in 1770 opted for a strategic retreat and repealed all the Townsh- end duties except that on tea, which was a luxury item in the colonies, imbibed only by a very small minori- ty . To most, the action of Parliament signified that the colonists had won a major concession, and the cam- paign against England was largely dropped . A colonial embargo on “English tea” continued but was not too scrupulously observed . Prosper- ity was increasing and most colonial leaders were willing to let the future take care of itself .
SAMUEL ADAMS
During a three-year interval of calm, a relatively small number of radicals strove energetically to keep
the controversy alive . They contend- ed that payment of the tax consti- tuted an acceptance of the principle that Parliament had the right to rule over the colonies . They feared that at any time in the future, the principle of parliamentary rule might be ap- plied with devastating effect on all colonial liberties .
The radicals’ most effective leader was Samuel Adams of Mas- sachusetts, who toiled tirelessly for a single end: independence . From the time he graduated from Harvard College in 1743, Adams was a public servant in some capacity — inspec- tor of chimneys, tax-collector, and moderator of town meetings . A consistent failure in business, he was shrewd and able in politics, with the New England town meeting his theater of action .
Adams wanted to free people from their awe of social and politi- cal superiors, make them aware of their own power and importance, and thus arouse them to action . To- ward these objectives, he published articles in newspapers and made speeches in town meetings, instigat- ing resolutions that appealed to the colonists’ democratic impulses .
In 1772 he induced the Boston town meeting to select a “Commit- tee of Correspondence” to state the rights and grievances of the colo- nists . The committee opposed a British decision to pay the salaries of judges from customs revenues; it feared that the judges would no lon- ger be dependent on the legislature for their incomes and thus no longer
CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
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accountable to it, thereby leading to the emergence of “a despotic form of government .” The committee communicated with other towns on this matter and requested them to draft replies . Committees were set up in virtually all the colonies, and out of them grew a base of effective revolutionary organizations . Still, Adams did not have enough fuel to set a fire .