A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 1: Colonialism and NationhoodPart 12: Building a Shadow Government

KING GEORGE III

King George III ascended to the throne in 1760, at age twenty-two, in the midst of the Seven Years War. He was a conservative and somewhat authoritarian king who did not hesitate to involve himself in colonial affairs, unlike his father and predecessor King George II.

COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE

In 1764, Bostonian merchants and prominent citizens formed an organization known as a Committee of Correspondence. The job of the Committee was to petition the British Government for the repeal of the Sugar Act.

COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE

Shortly afterwards, other Committees of Correspondence were formed in other colonies, although the act remained in force.

THE STAMP ACT

• In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act which created new taxes on almost every kind of printed product.

• Like the taxes created by the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act taxes were created explicitly for the purposes of raising revenue to pay the debt from the French and Indian War and to pay the soldiers in the standing army.

• The probable consequences of the Stamp Act for the North American economy created an uproar in the colonies.

PATRICK HENRY

• Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses who led legislative opposition to the Stamp Act.

• Drafted the Virginia Resolves, laying out arguments against the Stamp Act, and guided their passage through the House of Burgesses on May 30, 1765.

• Claimed that the people of the colonies could be taxed only by their colonial governments.

• Argued that taxation rights in Virginia came from the First Charter of Virginia in 1606.

JAMES OTIS

• Led public opposition to the Stamp Act. Building on Patrick Henry’s assertions, Otis claimed that because the colonies had no representation in the British Parliament and the people of the colonies had no means of petitioning their government for a redress of grievances, the Stamp Act was effectively the result of dictatorial governance.

• Famously argued against taxation without political representation, decrying it as tantamount to tyranny.

SAMUEL ADAMS

• Beer brewer and newspaper columnist in Boston. Provoked popular uprisings against the Stamp Act and the authorities responsible for enforcing it.

• On August 14, 1765, a mob in Boston hung an effigy of Andrew Oliver, the distributor of stamps for Massachusetts.

• This event marked the creation of the Sons of Liberty, an underground organization of resistance to perceived acts of British tyranny. Adams exerted strong influence over them.

THE STAMP ACT CONGRESS: OCTOBER 7 TO 25, 1765

Delegates from nine of the eighteen colonies in North America met in New York City to agree on a strategy for asking King George III to repeal the Stamp Act. James Otis was one of them.

The delegates to the congress were selected by the Committees of Correspondence that had been established in each of the colonies. The Committees thus acted as de facto local governments.

The congress alarmed observers in Britain. Previous congresses had been assembled to discuss ways of dealing with external threats, but the target of this one was the authority of the British Government.

More importantly, since the Committees of Correspondence were often loosely affiliated with the Sons of Liberty, the colonies were effectively united under a shadow government able to create and enforce its own policies.

THE STAMP ACT CONGRESS: OCTOBER 7 TO 25, 1765

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS AND GRIEVANCES

The delegates to the Stamp Act Congress produced a Declaration of Rights and Grievances to send to King George III. Building on the Virginia Resolves, they argued that the Stamp Act was a violation of the traditional rights of Englishmen.

THE RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN

• The ‘rights of Englishmen’ are largely unwritten, but they can be said to date back at least to the drafting of England’s Magna Carta (Great Charter) in 1215.

• The most important principle established in Magna Carta is that of habeas corpus, which implies the sovereignty of the people above and beyond the sovereignty of a government.

• Habeas corpus suggests that the people who administer a government are ultimately responsible to the people whose lives they govern.

THE RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN

• In other words, habeas corpus guarantees the people the right to petition their government for redress of grievances, and to do so without fear of arbitrary or punitive retribution.

• People without representation in a government cannot enjoy the full rights of habeas corpus.

• The Bill of Rights of 1689 also stated that people could not be taxed without parliamentary consent, and the colonies could not give consent without parliamentary representation.

REPEAL AND DECLARATION

• In March 1766, the colonists achieved a victory when the British Parliament responded to the petitions of the Stamp Act Congress by agreeing to repeal the Stamp Act.

• On the same day, however, the Parliament also passed the Declaratory Act which asserted that the British Government retained “full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America… in all cases whatsoever.”

A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 1: Colonialism and NationhoodPart 12: Building a Shadow Government