The Loyalists of America and Their Times Volume I Part 28
Q.--Have not you heard of the resolutions of this House, and of the House of Lords, a.s.serting the right of Parliament relating to America, including a power to tax the people there?
A.--Yes; I have heard of such resolutions.
Q.--What will be the opinion of the Americans on those resolutions?
A.--They will think them unconst.i.tutional and unjust.
Q.--Was it an opinion in America before 1763, that the Parliament had no right to levy taxes and duties there?
A.--I never heard any objection to the right of levying duties to regulate commerce; but a right to levy internal taxes was never supposed to be in Parliament, as we are not represented there.
Q.--You say the colonies have always submitted to external taxes, and object to the right of Parliament only in levying internal taxes; now, can you show that there is any kind of difference between the two taxes to the colony on which they may be laid?
A.--I think the difference is very great. An external tax is a duty levied on commodities imported; that duty is added to the first cost, and other charges on the commodity, and when it is offered for sale, makes a part of the price. If the people do not like it at that price, they refuse it; they are not obliged to pay it. But an internal tax is forced from the people without their consent, if not levied by their own representatives. The Stamp Act says we shall have no commerce, make no exchange of property with each other, neither purchase, nor grant, nor recover debts; we shall neither marry nor make our wills unless we pay such and such sums, and thus it is intended to extort our money from us, or ruin us by the consequences of refusing to pay it.
Q.--But supposing the internal tax or duty to be levied on the necessaries of life imported into your colony, will not that be the same thing in its effects as an internal tax?
A.--I do not know a single article imported into the northern colonies, but what they can either do without or make themselves.
Q.--Don't you think cloth from England absolutely necessary to them?
A.--No, by no means absolutely necessary; with industry and good management, they may very well supply themselves with all they want.
Q.--Considering the resolution of Parliament as to the right, do you think, if the Stamp Act is repealed, that the North Americans will be satisfied?
A.--I believe they will.
Q.--Why do you think so?
A.--I think the resolutions of right will give them very little concern, if they are never attempted to be carried into practice.
The colonies will probably consider themselves in the same situation in that respect with Ireland; they know you claim the same right with regard to Ireland, but you never exercise it. And they may believe you never will exercise it in the colonies, any more than in Ireland, unless on some very extraordinary occasion.
Q.--But who are to be the judges of that extraordinary occasion? Is not the Parliament?
A.--Though the Parliament may judge of the occasion, the people will think it can never exercise such right till representatives from the colonies are admitted into Parliament, and that, whenever the occasion arises, representatives will be ordered.
Q.--Did the Americans ever dispute the controlling power of Parliament to regulate the commerce?
A.--No.
Q.--Can anything less than a military force carry the Stamp Act into execution??
A.--I do not see how a military force can be applied to that purpose.
Q.--Why may it not?
A.--Suppose a military force sent into America, they will find n.o.body in arms; what are they then to do? They cannot force a man to take stamps, who refuses to do without them. They will not find a rebellion; they may indeed make one.
Q.--If the Act is not repealed, what do you think will be the consequences?
A.--A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and affection.
Q.--How can the commerce be affected?
A.--You will find that, if the Act is not repealed, they will take very little of your manufactures in a short time.
Q.--Is it in their power to do without them?
A.--I think they may very well do without them.
Q.--Is it their interest not to take them?
A.--The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, mere conveniences, or superfluities. The first, as cloth, etc., with a little industry they can make at home; the second they can do without, till they are able to provide them among themselves; and the last, which are much the greatest part, they will strike off immediately. They are mere articles of fashion, purchased and consumed because the fashion in a respected country, but will now be detested and rejected. The people have already struck off, by general agreement, the use of all goods fashionable in mournings, and many thousand pounds worth are sent back as unsaleable.
Q.--Suppose an Act of internal regulations connected with a tax, how would they receive it?
A.--I think it would be objected to.
Q.--Then no regulation with a tax would be submitted to?
A.--Their opinion is, that when aids to the Crown are wanted, they are to be asked of the several a.s.semblies, according to the old-established usage, who will, as they always have done, grant them freely; and that their money ought not to be given away without their consent by persons at a distance, unacquainted with their circ.u.mstances and abilities. The granting aids to the Crown is the only means they have of recommending themselves to their Sovereign, and they think it extremely hard and unjust that a body of men, in which they have no representation, should make a merit to itself of giving and granting what is not its own, but theirs, and deprive them of a right they esteem of the utmost value and importance, as it is the security of all their other rights.
Q.--But is not the post-office, which they have long received, a tax as well as a regulation?
A.--No; the money paid for the postage of a letter is not of the nature of a tax; it is merely a _quantum meruit_ for a service done; no person is compellable to pay the money if he does not choose to receive the service. A man may still, as before the Act, send his letter by a servant, a special messenger, or a friend, if he thinks it cheaper and safer.
Q.--But do they not consider the regulations of the post-office, by the Act of last year, as a tax?
A.--By the regulations of last year, the rate of postage was generally abated near thirty per cent. through all America; they certainly cannot consider such abatement as a tax.
Q.--If an excise was laid by Parliament, which they might likewise avoid paying, by not consuming the articles excised, would they then object to it?
A.--They would certainly object to it, as an excise is unconnected with any service done, and is merely an aid which they think ought to be asked of them, and granted by them if they are to pay it, and can be granted for them by no others whatsoever, whom they have not empowered for that purpose.
Q.--You say they do not object to the right of Parliament in levying duties on goods to be paid on their importation; now, is there any kind of difference between a duty on the importation of goods and an excise on their consumption?
A.--Yes, a very material one; an excise, for the reasons I have just mentioned, they think you can have no right to levy within their country. But the sea is yours; you maintain by your fleets the safety of navigation in it, and keep it clear of pirates; you may have therefore a natural and equitable right to some toll or duty on merchandise carried through that part of your dominions, towards defraying the expense you are at in ships to maintain the safety of that carriage.
Q.--Supposing the Stamp Act continued and was enforced, do you imagine that ill-humour will induce the Americans to give as much for worse manufactures of their own, and use them preferably to better ones of yours?
A.--Yes, I think so. People will pay as freely to gratify one pa.s.sion as another--their resentment as their pride.
Q.--What do you think a sufficient military force to protect the distribution of the stamps in every part of America?
A.--A very great force; I can't say what, if the disposition of America is for a general resistance.
Q.--If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would not the Americans think they could oblige the Parliament to repeal every external tax law now in force?
A.--It is hard to answer questions of what people at such a distance will think.