[228] certain cases of property. On these grounds the Stamp Act was held to be an outrage. The Colonies were aroused against it. Virginia first declared herself by solemn resolutions, which the timid thought ‘treasonable;’—yes, sir, ‘treasonable,’—even as that word is now applied to recent manifestations of opinion in Boston—even to the memorial of her twenty-nine hundred merchants. But these ‘treasonable’ resolutions soon found a response. New York followed. Massachusetts came next. In an address from the Legislature to the Governor, the true ground of opposition to the Stamp Act, coincident with the two radical objections to the Slave Act, are clearly set forth, with the following pregnant conclusion:‘We deeply regret that the Parliament has seen fit to pass such an Act as the Stamp Act; we flatter ourselves that the hardships of it will shortly appear to them in such a light as shall induce them, in their wisdom, to repeal it; in the meantime, we must beg your Excellency to excuse us from doing anything to assist in the execution of it.’The Stamp Act was welcomed in the Colonies by the Tories of that day, precisely as the unconstitutional Slave Act has been welcomed by imperious numbers among us. Hutchinson, at that time Lieutenant Governor and Judge in Massachusetts, wrote to Ministers in England: ‘The Stamp Act is received with as much decency as could be expected. It leaves no room for evasion, and will execute itself.’ Like the Judges of our day, in charges to Grand Juries, he resolutely vindicated the Act, and admonished ‘the Jurors and the people’ to obey. Like Governors in our day, Bernard, in his speech to the Legislature of Massachusetts, demanded unreasoning submission. ‘I shall not,’ says this British Governor, ‘enter into any disquisition of the policy of the Act. I have only to say it is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain.’ Like Marshals of our day, the Officers of the Customs are recorded as having made ‘application for a military force to assist them in the execution of their duty.’ The elaborate answer of Massachusetts—the work of Samuel Adams, and one of the corner-stones of our history—was pronounced ‘the ravings of a parcel of wild enthusiasts,’ even as recent proceedings in Boston, resulting in the memorial before you, have been characterized on this floor. Was I not right in adducing this parallel? The country was aroused against the execution of this Act. And here Boston took the lead. The opposition spread and deepened, and one of its natural tendencies
This text is part of:
United States Publishing Company, 1874.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.