previous next
[206] consistency of conduct. His colleague, Oxenbridge
chap. X.} 1764. July.
Thacher, was less enthusiastic and less variable. Connection with Great Britain was to him no blessing, if Great Britain would impose burdens unconstitutionally. He vindicated the right of resisting arbitrary taxation by the frequent example of the British parliament; and he dwelt on the danger to the inhabitants of England if the ministers could disfranchise a million and a half of subjects in America.1

‘Here,’ said Mayhew,2 as he lamented the cold adhesion of ‘the timid good,’3 and for himself, trod the thorny path of resistance to the grandeurs of the world—‘here there are many who ‘see the right, and yet the wrong pursue.’ But it is my fixed resolution, notwithstanding many discouragements, in my little sphere to do all I can for the service of my country; that neither the republic nor the churches of New England may sustain any injury.’ And every where men began to enter into a solemn agreement notto use a single article of British manufacture; not even to wear black clothes for mourning. To encourage the growth and manufacture of wool, nearly all Boston signed a covenant to eat no lamb.

While the people encouraged one another in the conviction that taxation by parliament was tyranny, Hutchinson addressed his thoughts to the Secretary of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

‘The colonists,’ said he, claim a power of making laws, and a privilege of exemption from taxes, unless

1 Thacher's Sentiments of a British American.

2 Mayhew to Hollis, received by Hollis, 23 Aug. 1764.

3 Bryant.

Creative Commons License
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.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
England (United Kingdom) (2)
New England (United States) (1)

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Oxenbridge Thacher (2)
Mayhew (2)
Thomas Hollis (2)
Hutchinson (1)
Bryant (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
August 23rd, 1764 AD (1)
1764 AD (1)
July (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: