THE NEW COLONIAL POLICY

07 OCT 1763 -- PROCLAMATION OF 1763

· Settlement west of Appalachian Mountains prohibited.

· Settlers already established west of the Appalachians ordered to move out.

· Transappalachia reserved for Indians. Purchases of land from Indians in that area prohibited.

· Transappalachia placed under the command of the British military Commander-in-Chief in America.

· English law established in newly-acquired Quebec.

GRENVILLE'S POLICIES

05 APR 1764 - SUGAR ACT

· Extended the Molasses Act of 1733, but reduced the duty upon foreign molasses from 6d to 3d.

· Duty on foreign refined sugar increased.

· Old rate on foreign raw sugar continued.

· Higher duties on non-British textiles, coffee, and indigo; and on Madeira and Canary wines.

· Doubled the duties on foreign goods sent to the colonies through England.

· Added iron, hides, whale fins, raw silk, potash, and pearl ash to the enumerated list.

· Banned the import into the colonies of foreign rum and French wines.

APR 1764 - Grenville's enforcement actions

· Revitalized customs service.

· One admiralty court established at Halifax with jurisdiction over all the American colonies. Prosecutors and informers had the option to bring suit there rather than in local courts.

· Annulled the right of an accused to sue for illegal seizure.

· Placed the burden of proof in smuggling cases upon the accused, and required him to post bond for the cost of the trial.

· Established stricter registration and bonding procedures for ships.

APR 1764 - CURRENCY ACT

· Prohibited issue of legal-tender paper money in all colonies.

· Prohibited extension of any recall date on existing paper currency.

· Nullified all contrary colonial laws.

· Prescribed a fine of 1000 pounds, dismissal from office, and disqualification from any future governmental office for any colonial governor who assented to any colonial legislative acts in defiance of the Navigation laws.

COLONIAL REACTIONS

· Protests and demonstrations in the streets.

· Formal protest by Boston town meeting, incorporating James Otis's "No taxation without representation" argument.

· 13JUN74: Massachusetts House of Representatives created a Committee of Correspondence to coordinate with other colonies.

· AUG64:Nonimportation of English goods began among merchants and mechanics of Boston, and spread through the colonies.

24 MAR 1765 - QUARTERING ACT

· Required colonial governments to supply barracks and supplies for British troops.

THE STAMP ACT CRISIS

22 MAR 1765 - STAMP ACT

· First direct tax ever levied upon the colonies by Parliament.

· Designed to raise money to pay part of the costs of keeping troops in the colonies.

· Required that tax stamps be purchased and affixed to legal documents of all types, insurance policies, ships' papers, licenses, almanacs, pamphlets and broadsides, even newspapers, dice, and playing cards.

· Penalties for infringements could be imposed by admiralty courts.

29 MAY 1765 - VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS

· Introduced by Patrick Henry with his "Caesar/Brutus" speech.

· Asserted the right of Virginia to govern its own internal affairs.

· Claimed that the authority to tax Virginians lay exclusively with the Virginia legislature.

SUMMER, 1765 - Secret organizations known as the Sons of Liberty formed in colonial towns to coordinate opposition to the Stamp Act. Mobs enforced nonimportation, forced merchants to cancel orders for British goods, and forced stamp agents to resign from their posts.

06 JUN 1765 - Upon the motion of James Otis, the Massachusetts Assembly proposed an intercolonial meeting to seek relief from the Stamp Act.

26 AUG 1765 - The Boston Stamp Riot

· Mob, led by Sons of Liberty and including people of every social class, demonstrated against the Stamp Act.

· Admiralty court records seized and burned.

· Homes of British economic officials ransacked.

· Home and library of Chief Justice and former Lt. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson looted and dismantled.

07 OCT 1765 - The STAMP ACT CONGRESS, organized in response to Massachusetts's invitation of 06 JUN, met in New York.

· MA, RI, SC, CT, PA, & MD sent formal delegations.

· NJ, DE, and NY sent no delegations, but were represented informally.

· VA, NC, GA, and NH were not represented.

· 19 OCT - "The Declaration of Rights and Grievances"

o Colonial citizens have all the rights and privileges of any British subject anywhere.

o Taxation without consent expressed directly or through representatives is a violation of the rights of Englishmen.

o Colonists were not and could not effectively be represented in Parliament; therefore, no taxes could be imposed on colonists except through their own legislatures.

o Giving jurisdiction over Stamp Act cases to admiralty courts, which operated without juries and without many of the usual procedures and protections of civil and criminal courts, also violated the rights of Englishmen.

· Before disbanding on 25 October, The Stamp Act Congress drew up petitions demanding repeal of the Stamp Act and the rest of Grenville's 1764 measures, and sent them to the King and to Parliament.

FALL & WINTER, 1765 - Nonimportation spread through the colonies

01 NOV 1765 - Stamp Act went into effect.

· All stamp agents had already resigned their offices under public pressures. No stamps were sold.

· Gov. Stephen Hopkins of RI explicitly refused to enforce the Stamp Act in his colony.

· Courts closed throughout the colonies rather than function under the Stamp Act.

· By the end of the year, courts and businesses functioned as usual without using the required stamps. Defiance of the law was nearly universal in America.

THE END OF GRENVILLE'S PROGRAM

18 MAR 1766 - Parliament, in response to many petitions from the English business community, which had suffered from nonimportation, repealed the Stamp Act. As important to the decision to repeal as economics was politics. Grenville had fallen from power the previous summer over another matter, and the administration of the Marquis of Rockingham, who succeeded him used repeal as a means of further embarrassing Grenville and discrediting his other programs.

18 MAR 1766 - Parliament passed the DECLARATORY ACT, asserting that Parliament had full authority to make laws binding the American colonists "in all cases whatsoever."

01 NOV 1766 - Parliament reduced the Sugar Act's duty from 3d. to 1d., and imposed it on all molasses imported into the colonies from any source whatever. Export duties on British molasses were removed, thereby reducing its cost and making it competitive with foreign imports.

THE TOWNSHEND ACTS - 29 JUN 1767

· Placed new taxes on American colonies, but all were external taxes, thus conforming to the American position of 1765 that the Stamp Act had been illegal because it was an internal tax.

· Placed import duties on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea.

· Money raised by duties was to be used for defense of the colonies and "for defraying the charge of the administration of justice and the support of civil government" in America. (Translation: to pay for royal customs and court officials without having to go to the colonial legislatures for money.)

· Affirmed the power of courts to issue Writs of Assistance.

· Established new admiralty courts.

· Established the American Board of Commissioners of Customs at Boston, responsible not to the governor nor to the colonial legislatures, but directly to the Royal Treasury Board in London. Colonial governments had no control or influence over this body, which was ordered to administer the Townshend Acts and collect the duties.

AMERICAN RESPONSES TO THE TOWNSHEND ACTS

· Revival of non-importation.

· 05 NOV 67 - JAN 68: John Dickenson's series, "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" appeared in Philadelphia.

o Conceded Parliament's right to regulate trade, even if revenue was incidentally produced

o Denied the right of Parliament to levy revenue taxes upon the colonies

o Argued that the Townshend duties were not intended for regulation but for revenue and were, therefore, unconstitutional.

· 11 FEB 68 - The MASSACHUSETTS CIRCULAR.

o Drawn up by Samuel Adams and approved by the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

o Denounced the Townshend Acts as violations of the "no taxation without representation" principle.

o Insisted that America could never be adequately represented in Parliament.

o Attacked any royal move to make governors and judges independent of the will of the people.

o Solicited proposals from other colonies for united action.

· 04 MAR 68 - Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard dissolved the Massachusetts legislature.

· “The Glorious 92”

o 21 APR 68: British government denounced the Massachusetts Circular, ordered all colonial governors to prevent their respective legislatures from endorsing it, and ordered that governors dissolve all colonial legislatures which did endorse it or did not repudiate any already-made endorsements. (By May, NJ, CT, and NH had already endorsed the circular, and VA had drafted a circular of its own recommending that all colonial legislatures endorse it.)

o 21 JUN 68: Governor Bernard ordered the recently-reelected Massachusetts legislature to rescind the Massachusetts Circular

o 30 JUN 68: The Massachusetts legislature defeated a motion to rescind by a vote of 17-92.

o The 17 who voted to rescind were harassed by the Sons of Liberty and other such organizations

o The “Glorious 92” who refused to bend to British pressure were hailed as heroes throughout the colonies.

o Gov. Bernard again dismissed the legislature

o Other legislatures endorse or refuse to withdraw endorsements of the Massachusetts Circular, and are dismissed by their respective governors. South Carolina’s legislature is dismissed when it votes to consider the Circular, but before it can act on that consideration.

· 01 OCT 68 - Two regiments of British infantry and artillery arrived in Boston at the request of the customs commissioners there, who wanted armed protection in carrying out their duties.

· FALL 68 - SPRING 69 - Merchant organizations and community groups in most large colonial cities informal nonimportation

· 16 MAY 69 - THE VIRGINIA RESOLVES

o Framed by George Mason, introduced in the Virginia House of Burgesses by George Washington, and adopted unanimously.

o Asserted that the sole right of taxing Virginians lay with Virginia's colonial government.

o Censured the British ministry for denunciation of the Massachusetts Circular.

· 17 MAY 69 - Virginia Governor Lord Botetourt, responding to the Virginia Resolves, dissolved the Virginia Assembly.

· 18 MAY 69 - Members of the now-dissolved Virginia Assembly met in Williamsburg's Raleigh Tavern and adopted the Virginia Association, an agreement banning the importation into Virginia of British goods on which duties were charged (except paper). This group continued to meet regularly and, though without any legal standing, functioned as a de facto revolutionary government. Its enactments and enforcements, including the Association, were obeyed through Virginia, while the Governor continued his own rule.

· JUN - NOV 69 - The Association idea spread through the colonies, with other colonies' adopting similar programs.

o Special committees to enforce the Association are formed, often calling on the people of the colony to form volunteer police/military units to insure enforcement

o Also in other colonies, members of dissolved legislatures begin meeting on their own, without legal authority, continuing to exercise their government functions. Increasingly, people obey these groups and ignore the royal governors.

12 APR 1770 - New British head of government Lord North withdrew the Townshend duties, except the one on tea, and pledged that his ministry would lay no new taxes upon the colonists. The tea duty was retained as a matter of principle, to show that while the taxes were being repealed, Parliament still insisted on its right to levy them.