McCrady p. 564
Late in the evening of Friday, the 18th of October, the ship Planter's Adventure, Captain Miles Lawley, from London, came to anchor under the guns of Fort Johnson. It had been reported some time before that a distributor of stamps for this province was coming over in this ship, and from the vessel's not coming up to town it was supposed that there was on board either a stamp officer, stamps, or stamped paper. Early Saturday morning, the 19th, there appeared at the intersection of Broad and Church streets, near Mr. Dillon's tavern, — the most central and public part of the town, — suspended on a gallows twenty feet high, an effigy designed to represent a distributor of stamped paper, to which were affixed labels expressive of the sense of a people unshaken in their loyalty, but tenacious of just liberty. On the gallows, in very conspicuous characters, was written " Liberty and no Stamp Act," and on the back of the principal figure these words, " Whoever shall dare attempt to pull down these effigies had better been born with a millstone about his neck and cast into the sea."
These figures remained suspended in this manner, during the whole day, without any one offering to disturb or take them down, the Court of General Sessions sitting all the while but a square away ; nor was there, the Gazette adds, the least riot or disturbance, though a great concourse of people incessantly resorted to the place of exhibition.
Colonel Henry Laurens, writing on the 22d to a friend, tells him that "some of our folks were wise enough to exhibit effigies on Saturday last, a minute and pompous account of which I suppose you will see in the Gazette. I was out of town and saw not the farce, but some sensible men have convinced me that six men of spirit could in the beginning have crushed the whole show; whereas, meeting with no opposition, they carried their point with a high hand."1 [1 Johnson's Traditions, 14.]
In the evening the figures were taken down and placed in a cart or wagon drawn by eight or ten horses in a procession down Broad Street to the Bay, attended by at least two thousand persons, it is said. From the Exchange the procession moved down the Bay to Tradd Street, and proceeding up that street it halted at the door of a house belonging to George Saxby, Esq., who was known to be on his voyage from England, and was supposed to be coming with stamps as a distributor.
Mr. Saxby was a man of consequence in the community, against whom there was no popular personal objection. Arriving at Mr. Saxby's residence, then occupied by Captain William Coats, the mob demanded "whether there was any stamped paper in the house," and there being some delay in opening the doors, it required great prudence and no less exertion of influence, we are told by the Gazette, to restrain them from levelling the house to the ground; as it was, considerable damage was done, and the house was ransacked in the search for stamps.
None, however, being found, the procession resumed its march to the green, back of the brick barracks,1 where the effigies were committed to the flames amidst the loud and repeated shouts of an increasing multitude. The bells of St. Michael's rang muffled all day, and during the procession there was a most solemn knell for the burial of a coffin on which was inscribed "American Liberty."
No outrages whatever were committed during the whole procession, says the Gazette, except the trifling damage done to Mr. Saxby's house, whose furniture, it mentions, however, it was said had been mostly removed into the country ten days before. But after the procession and funeral, diligent search was made for another gentleman upon a report prevailing in the evening that he was appointed distributor of the stamps, and not Mr. Saxby. This gentleman, says the Gazette, not being found that night, had like to have produced some commotion, but the next day being Sunday, a solemn declaration was stuck up at the Exchange, purporting "that he neither had received a commission, knew of his appointment, or that the stamps were consigned to him," which in some measure appeased the people. This person was Mr. Caleb Lloyd, the commandant of Fort Johnson.
The Gazette made light of the damage done to Mr. Saxby's house, and of the conduct of the mob there, but Lieutenant Governor Bull took a more serious view of the matter. He at once, on Monday morning, issued a proclamation reciting that a number of persons unknown had on Saturday night before assembled "together and in a riotous and tumultuous manner entered into the house of William Coats, and did there commit several outrages and acts of violence," and offered a reward of £50 sterling to any person who would discover the person or persons concerned in the same.
Nothing more occurred until Wednesday, the 23d, when his Majesty's ketch, (2 masted schooner) the Speedwell, commanded by Captain Fanshawe, came down from Hobcaw, — a shipyard on Cooper River, — immediately proceeded to Fort Johnson, the garrison of which had been strengthened, and anchored close thereto. The same evening, says the Gazette, it was reported that the stamped papers had been brought up to town unobserved and lodged in the house of a gentleman in Ansonboro, upon which a number of people went thither to be satisfied of the truth of the report, but finding none, they returned quietly without offering the least insult to any person whatever.
This person was no other than Colonel Henry Laurens. Colonel Laurens, as it has already appeared, was a gentle man of high standing in the community, and a merchant of great respectability and large fortune. He was known to be opposed to the Stamp act, but was equally opposed to these riotous proceedings, which he had discountenanced.
In a letter to his friend of October 11, he thus stated his position : [Johnson's Traditions, 14.] —
" Conclude not hence that I am an advocate for the Stamp act. No, by no means. 1 would give, I would do, a great deal to procure a repeal of the law which imposes it upon us; but I am sure that nothing but a regular, decent, becoming representation of the ine pediency and inutility of that law will have the desired effect, and that all irregular, seditious practices will have an evil tendency, even perhaps to perpetuate that, and bring upon us other acts of Parliament big with greater mischiefs."
Suspicion had in some way been aroused that he had some of the stamps. He then lived in the cottage we have mentioned, and into his beautiful garden a crowd burst demanding the stamps, which they charged him with concealing. Colonel Laurens, in another letter to his friend, has left us an account of what took place, and it scarcely bears out the statement of the Gazette as to the polite and amiable manner in which he was treated.
He met the intruders with great natural indignation. He assured them and pledged his word that he had no stamps in his house, and reminded them of his well-known position in regard to the act. He appealed to them on account of his wife's health, who was ill, not to disturb his premises and violate the sanctity of his home; but in vain! The only reply was a brace of cutlasses across his breast and cries of "Light ! light ! search ! search ! "
His firmness, however, and his fortunate discovery of some of the ring leaders, notwithstanding their disguises, and his calling them by name, frightened them and prevented their entering his house; but they searched his outbuildings and broke into his cellar, where they wasted much of his wine. It was a fortunate circumstance, however, that though heated with liquor and armed with cutlasses and clubs, they did no more damage, and that his garden was not in the least injured. [Johnson's Traditions, 14-16.]
From Colonel Laurens's house the mob turned their course to the residence in King Street of Chief Justice Shinner. But he, though aroused from his slumbers, was equal to the occasion. His Irish wit stood him in good stead. He assured the mob he had nothing to do with the stamps, and that they were welcome to search every part of his house — which they did without ceremony, but found nothing. While they were searching, the Chief Justice very complacently had bowls of punch provided, and did not hesitate to drink with the rioters from his own liquor their favorite toast, " Damnation to the Stamp Act ! " The crowd after this dispersed without further interruption to peaceable citizens. [Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 48.]
The next morning, Thursday, the 24th, by order of his honor the Lieutenant Governor, an advertisement was stuck up at the Watch House, signed by the Clerk of the Council, giving notice "that the stamps lately arrived were lodged in Fort Johnson, till it should be necessary to remove them from thence," which, says the Gazette, had the good effect that it prevented troublesome visits and inquiries to other gentlemen who might have been suspected of receiving the stamps into their charge.
There was some threat of another riot when the Carolina Packet, Captain Robson, arrived from London on Friday evening, the 25th, but it subsided as soon as it was shown that no stamps were on board, and that Mr. Saxby had taken his passage and was on board of the Heart of Oak, Captain Gunn. On Saturday this vessel arrived, bringing Mr. Saxby, as was then expected; but having information of what was passing here, instead of coming up to town, he went ashore at Fort Johnson. It was soon learned that, as expected, Mr. Caleb Lloyd was really to be a distributor of stamps, whereupon numbers of people again assembled, and, as the Gazette expressed it, seemed very uneasy — an uneasiness in which they soon made Mr. Saxby and Mr. Lloyd to share; for, as the Gazette puts it, Mr. Saxby being made acquainted at the fort of the commotions which had arisen throughout America on account of the Stamp act, and that it was as little relished here as elsewhere, he expressed great concern that his acceptance of an office under it — that of inspector of the duties — had proved so odious and disagreeable to the people, and in order to restore the public peace — which there was too much reason otherwise to fear might be disturbed — made a voluntary offer to suspend the execution of his office till the determination of the King and Parliament of Great Britain, upon an united application to be made from his Majesty's colonies for the repeal of an act that had created so much confusion, should be known. Mr. Lloyd, who was then also at Fort Johnson, made a like voluntary declaration in regard to his office of distributor.
How far these declarations were voluntary, as alleged, may well be doubted. But, however that may be, the declarations in writing were publicly read on the Bay on Sunday evening, the 27th, to the general joy, it was said, of the inhabitants, which was shown by loud and repeated acclamations and the ringing of St. Michael's bells unmuffled.
On Monday morning, the 28th, St. Michael's bells were again rung, and vessels in the harbor displayed their colors. A party went over to Fort Johnson — friends, it was said, of the two officers — to bring them up under their protection. They came ashore at noon from a boat, in the head of which was hoisted a Union flag with the word " Liberty" in the centre and a laurel branch on the top of the staff. Upon their landing, a lane was formed amidst the greatest concourse of people, the Gazette observes, that ever were assembled upon any occasion, being supposed upwards of eleven thousand souls,[The Gazette must have far overestimated this crowd. Lieutenant Governor Bull, in 1770, estimated the whole population of the town at but 10,863, black and white. — Letter to Lord Hillsboro, November 30,] and a new declaration was publicly read under the hands and seals of the two gentlemen, in which they solemnly declared and protested before God that they would not exercise their offices until it was known whether Parliament would determine to enforce the act after receiving the united application of the colonies for its repeal.
This declaration was received with hearty shouts of approbation. Then Mr. Saxby and Mr. Lloyd verbally assured the people that the declaration read was their free and voluntary act, and that it was their inten tion strictly to adhere to its intent and meaning. Where upon, says the Gazette, the air rang with music of bells, drums, hautboys, violins, hurrahs, firing of cannon, etc., and carrying the Liberty flag before them, the music con tinuing, Mr. Saxby and Mr. Lloyd were conducted to Mr. Dillon's tavern, and after taking some refreshments there, to their own houses.
By three o'clock, the Gazette tells us, every one had retired to his own house and all was peace and good order, and at night the streets were patrolled to see that no injury or insult should be offered to the persons or property of the gentlemen who had suspended the execution of their offices; but the satisfaction of the public was so universal and complete that no such thing seemed even to be thought of, and the town was remarkably composed. The damage done to Mr. Saxby's windows the Gazette estimated at .£5 sterling, which it announced would be made good. And thus happily ended an affair, observes the Gazette in conclusion of its full account of the proceedings, from which the most terrible consequences were apprehended, the people relying upon the wisdom and justice of the Parliament in receiving and hearing their humble remonstrances, and granting the relief prayed for.
The Gazette adds, that to-morrow being the 1st of November, when the act was to go into operation, most of the business in public offices will cease, and from this day, the 31st of October, the publication of the South Carolina Gazette will also be suspended, it being impos sible to continue it without great loss to the printer when the numerous subscribers thereto have signified, almost to a man, that they will not take one stamped newspaper, if stamps could be obtained. The publication accordingly ceased, and was not resumed until the repeal of the act.
But what was now to be done? The provisions of the law were highly penal upon all persons transacting any legal business without stamps. Not only suitors and lawyers, but the judges and clerk of court, and even the Governor himself, were subject to penalties for its violation. In this dilemma the judges and lawyers met to consider the situation, but could devise no relief. On the 13th of November, Chief Justice Shinner, finding himself alone on the Bench, entered an order reciting that he and the other officers of the court having come to the knowledge of the act, and the necessity under it of the use of stamps in recording, enrolling, entering, and filing papers, of which the officers of the court were specially charged: "And whereas the officers appointed under the said act, inspector of the said duties and distributor of the stamped papers for the province, have notified his honor the Lieutenant Governor that they decline acting in these several and respective stations until his Majesty's pleasure touching the carrying the said act into execution shall be further known, by which means no business can be proceeded upon until stamped papers can be had. The court therefore being of opinion that no business can be proceeded with until stamped papers are produced," he ordered the court adjourned to the 3d of December, and its adjournments were continued until the 4th of March, 1766.
On this day Rawlins Lowndes, Benjamin Smith, and Daniel d'Oyley came into court, produced and presented to the Chief Justice his Majesty's commissions appointing them Associate Justices of the Common Pleas, which being read in open court and recorded, they took their seats on the Bench.
Thereupon, doubtless in pursuance of a previous understanding, Mr. Bee, attorney for the plaintiff in a certain cause, arose and moved for judgment. To this Mr. Rutledge, representing the defendant, said that he had no manner of objection. Mr. Manigault, also appearing as counsel for the plaintiff, spoke very fully in support of the motion, as also did Mr. Pinckney, Mr. Parsons, and Mr. Rutledge, who, though not concerned for the plaintiff in the particular cause, said they were concerned in others of a similar nature. The motion was opposed by the Attorney General, Mr. Egerton Leigh, on account of the want of stamps which still subsisted in the province. The question having been very fully argued on both sides, the court took a recess till the afternoon to consider it, when upon resuming their session the court, that is, the Assistant Judges, Lowndes, Smith, and D'Oyley, were unanimously of opinion that under the peculiar circum tances and the steps which had been taken by the different provinces in America to obtain a repeal of the Stamp act, that no positive determination be given, but the case be postponed until the next Return-day,1 which would be the 1st of April. On that day the Assistant Judges decided to proceed with the business, and ordered a judgment, which was moved for, entered.2
The Chief Justice dissented, but his dissent would not have prevailed had not Mr. Dougal Campbell, the Clerk, interposed his objection, which in this case was more effectual than that of the Chief Justice. He refused to enter the order or issue a process under it. Upon this the Assistant Judges re quested the Lieutenant Governor to suspend him, but this Governor Bull refused, as was to have been expected, declaring that in his opinion the circumstances of Mr. Campbell's conduct did not subject him to the charge of disobedience ; especially, the Governor added, as his compliance with the judges' request must subject him not only to the King's displeasure in general, but to the more severe penalties and disabilities of the act. It was one thing for the Assistant Judges to brave the danger of their removal from a Bench they were but voluntarily serving upon for the honor, but quite another for Lieutenant Governor Bull to risk his high position, and that, too, in a cause with which he did not sympathize.
The Assistant Judges then referred their letter to the Commons' House of Assembly on its meeting in March, 1766, by whom it was referred to a committee which had just been appointed to consider a memorial of the merchants and traders of Charlestown and others. In this petition the merchants had represented the great loss and inconvenience to them by the closing of the courts, and urged that it was not the business or duty of suitors to provide stamps for the courts, — a plea which would have come with better grace had not the petition borne the name of Cannon and Williamson and others, who had taken an active part in preventing their distribution.
A considerable correspondence followed between Peter Manigault, the Speaker, and the Lieutenant Governor. But Bull remained firm, and sent a message to the Assembly intimating in what manner only he would cooperate in this or any other matter which might be questioned by the King. The Commons had to content themselves with the passage of a series of resolutions declaring that the court had a right to determine all questions arising in a cause before it, and to make all orders for regulating its practice, and could not be controlled and obstructed in doing so by its clerk ; that Dougal Campbell, by his refusal to obey the orders of the court, had been guilty of a high contempt and had offered the greatest indignity to the court, and that the Lieutenant Governor ought to have suspended him ; that Dougal Campbell and all persons supporting him in his insult and contumacy had therein pursued measures derogatory to his Majesty's authority delegated to the court — destructive to the rights and liberties of the subject, subversive of their best birthright and inheritance, and highly injurious to the good people of the province ; that it was the indisputable right of all good subjects to their most gracious sovereign, George III, to preserve public peace and good will and a due obedience to the laws, etc. These resolutions the House published on the 7th of May, 1766, with an account of all their proceedings upon the subject, in a pamphlet under the title of The Votes of the Commons' House of Assembly of South Carolina.[Memoirs of the Am. Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 49-67.]
In the meanwhile the Congress, to which Lynch, Gadsden, and Rutledge had been sent, had met in New York on the 3d of October, and in it these gentlemen from South Carolina had taken a prominent and controlling part. No colony, says Bancroft, was better represented than South Carolina. Her delegation gave a chief to two of the three great committees, and in all that was done well, he adds, her mind visibly appeared.
The great question before that Congress was as to the safest ground upon which to rest the liberties of America. Should they build on charters or natural justice, on precedents and fact or abstract truth, on special privileges or universal reason? Massachusetts and Connecticut were inclined to rest much upon chartered rights ; but Gadsden, of South Carolina, would not place the hope of America on that foundation, and spoke against it with irresistible impetuosity. "A confirmation of our essential and common rights as Englishmen may be pleaded from charters safely enough ; but any further dependence upon them may be fatal." "We should stand," he continued, "upon the broad common ground of those natural rights that we all feel and know as men and as descendants of Englishmen."
Gadsden was no lawyer, nor can it be claimed for him that he was a statesman, but he was undoubtedly right in this. The charters, of South Carolina especially, would afford no safe ground upon which to base a resistance to the imposition of this tax, had the charter then been in existence ; but the charter had been surrendered and was then of no force. If the imposition of this tax was to be resisted, it must be on the bald ground that Englishmen had always found sufficient, to wit: the right of revolution ; the right to throw off a government which was be coming unsuited to the new and developing conditions in America; the right to govern themselves; the right of home rule. Gadsden and Lynch also vigorously denied the propriety of approaching either House of Parliament with a petition.
"The House of Commons," reasoned Gadsden, " refused to receive the addresses when the matter was pending; besides, we neither hold our rights from them nor from the Lords." But yielding to the majority, Gadsden suppressed his opposition ; " for," said he, " union is most certainly all in all." [Hist, of the U. S. (Bancroft), last ed., 149, 154.] Well did the great historian, in an early edition of his work, declare, "As the united American people spread through the vast expanse over which their jurisdiction now extends, be it remembered that the blessing of union is due to the warm heartedness of South Carolina."2[Ibid., ed. of 1857, vol. V, chap. XIV, 294. Strange to say, this pas sage is omitted in later editions of Mr. Bancroft's History,]
The Congress adopted a series of resolutions declaratory of the principles upon which the colonies resisted the Stamp act and the right of Parliament to tax them. They resolved that his Majesty's subjects in the colonies owe the same allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain that is due from his subjects born there. That his Majesty's liege subjects of the colonies are entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural-born subjects within the Kingdom of Great Britain. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people and the undoubted right of Englishmen there, that no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent. That the people of the provinces are not, and from their local circumstances cannot be, represented in the House of Commons in Great Britain. That the only representatives of the people of the provinces are persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been or can be constitutionally imposed on them but by the legislatures of the provinces. That supplies to the Crown being free gifts of the people, it is unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of the British constitution for the people of Great Britain to grant to his Majesty the property of the people of the provinces, etc. The Congress upon these declarations presented a petition to the King and a memorial to the House of Lords and another to the House of Commons.
Gadsden hurried off from New York that he might arrive in time to meet the Assembly and report the pro ceedings of the Congress, but he had a long passage, and the Assembly had adjourned before his arrival. The Assembly met again, however, on the 26th of November, and received the report of its delegates. It approved and confirmed the action of the Congress and its delegates, and adopted the whole set of resolutions of the Congress, merely changing the phraseology where necessary so as to make them the specific act of the Assembly of South Carolina, and adding one or two upon facts and considerations peculiar to this province.
The action of the Assembly of South Carolina was taken by a vote which wanted but one of being unanimous, and that was the vote of William Wragg, who never flinched on any occasion from boldly asserting his loyalty to the King and his support of the government in England. Peter Manigault, the Speaker, was directed to sign the petition and memorial, and the committee of correspondence was ordered to transmit the same to the provincial agent in England, directing him to use his utmost endeavors to obtain a favorable consideration of them. The Speaker signed and dispatched the memorials by a ship which sailed the morning after.[See " Votes of the Commons' House," So. Ca. Gazette, May 7, 1776.]
The Grenville ministry had fallen in July, 1765, and had been succeeded by Rockingham, and Conway, who had been one of the few opponents of the Stamp act, was now Secretary of State for the colonies. Up to this time the truth was, that however much our forefathers may have thought the affairs of the world were all turning upon their actings and doings, colonial affairs had scarcely received any attention in the English political world. The Regency bill, the Cider bill, Wilkes, and the ille gality of general warrants, the growing power of the House of Bourbon, were the questions, among others, which were engrossing the attention of Englishmen. The colonies had been neglected and overlooked. When Grenville moved his resolutions to impose the stamp tax on the colonies, Colonel Barre* was almost the only man to oppose them, and it has been questioned whether at the time he uttered the eloquent invective which became household words in New England.
[Colonel Barrels alleged invective is directed chiefly against an observation of Mr. Grenville, that the Americans were "children planted by our care and nourished by our indulgence." " Children planted by your care," Colonel Barre' is said to have replied. " No ! your oppression planted them in America ; they fled from your tyranny into a then uncultivated land where they were exposed to almost all hardships to which human nature is liable, and yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all these hardships with pleasure compared to those they suffered in their own country from the hands of those who should have been their friends. They nourished by your indulgence ? They grew out of your neglect of them ; as soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them who were, perhaps, the deputies of some deputy, sent to spy out their liberty, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them ; men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them. They protected by your arms? They have nobly taken up arms in your defence, have exerted their valor amidst their constant and laborious industry, for the defence of a country whose frontiers while drenched in blood, its interior parts have yielded all its little savings to your enlargement ; and the same spirit which actuated that people at first will continue with them still, but providence forbids me to explain myself further." Adolphus, the historian, suggests a doubt as to the authenticity of the report of this speech. It is not found in De Brett's Parliamentary Collec tion. — Adolphus's Hist. of England, vol. I, 167.
In his speech on American Taxation, Burke says : " I sat a stranger in your gallery when the act was under consideration. Far from anything inflammatory, / never heard a more languid debate." — Burke's Works, vol. I, 559. Horace Walpole says, " When Grenville moved the resolutions Colonel Bare" was the first and almost single man to oppose them, treating severely Charles Townshend, who supported them." His editor, commenting on the doubt, observes, "There is nothing in Colonel Barrels character to make it improbable that he may have been his own reporter, and not a very faithful one." — Walpole's Memoirs of George III, vol. II, 7, 8. and note. The speech is, however, incorporated in the text of Parliamentary History, vol. XVI, 38, but a note is added, giving the above quotation from Burke. Lecky accepts it as genuine though, he says, not reported in the contemporary parliamentary history. He attributes the report of the speech to the agent of Connecticut, who had been present in the gallery and transmitted the speech to America. — England in the Eigh teenth Century, vol. III, 352. Lord Mahon holds it probable that this speech, under the name of revision and on a slight foundation of reality, was added by the pen of Barrfi. — Hist. of England (Mahon), vol. V, 131.]
"Mr. Grenville lost America because he read the American dispatches, which none of his predecessors ever did," was the contemptuous remark of one of the under secretaries. The business of the colonies, to use Mr. Burke's words, was treated " with salutary neglect." The act attracted so little attention that it was only in the last days of 1765 or the first of 1766 that the new ministry learned the views of Mr. Pitt upon the subject. It was probably a complete surprise to them to learn that it had brought the colonies to the verge of rebellion, and in the first months they appear to have been quite uncertain what policy to pursue. The ministers would gladly have left the question of American taxation undecided, but that was no longer possible.
Parliament had almost unanimously asserted its right, and the colonial assemblies had defiantly denied it. There was one powerful weapon in the hands of the colonies, and that was the debts they owed merchants in England. These debts involved the merchants of London, Liverpool, and Manchester, and other great trading towns in common cause with the Americans, and the question thus became one of local politics there. Petitions were presented from the traders of London, Liverpool, and other towns, stating that the colonists were indebted to the amount of several millions sterling for English goods which had been ex ported to America; that the colonists had hitherto faith fully made good their engagements, but they now declared their inability to do so; that they would neither give orders for new goods nor pay for those which they had actually received; and that unless Parliament speedily re traced its steps, multitudes of English manufactures would be reduced to bankruptcy.
Parliament met on December 17, 1765, and the attitude of the different parties was speedily disclosed. Mr. Lecky thus fairly sums up their different positions.
A powerful opposition, led by Grenville and Bedford, strenuously urged that no relaxation or indulgence should be granted to the colonists. In two successive sessions the policy of taxing America had been deliberately affirmed, and if Parliament now suffered itself to be defied or intimidated, its authority would be forever at an end. The method of reasoning by which the Americans maintained that they could not be taxed by Parliament, in which they were not represented, might be applied with equal plausibility to the Navigation acts and to every other branch of imperial legislation for the colonies, and it led directly to the disintegration of the empire.
The supreme authority of Parliament chiefly held the different parts of the empire together. The right of taxation was an essential part of the sovereign power. The colonial constitutions were created by Royal charter, and it could not be admitted that the King, while retaining his own sovereignty over certain portions of his dominions, could by a mere exercise of prerogative withdraw them wholly or in part from the authority of the British Parliament. It was the right and duty of the imperial legislation to determine what propor tion the different parts of the empire should contribute to the defence of the whole, and to see that no one part evaded its obligations and unjustly transferred its share to others. The disputed right of taxation was established by a long series of legal authorities, and there was no real distinction between internal and external taxation.
It suited the Americans to describe themselves as the apostles of liberty and to denounce England as an oppressor. It was simple truth that England governed her colonies more liberally than any other country in the world. They were the only existing colonies which enjoyed real political liberty. Their commercial system was more liberal than that of any other colonies. They had attained under British rule a degree of prosperity which was surpassed in no quarter of the globe. England had loaded herself with debt in order to remove the one great danger to their future. She cheerfully bore the whole burden of their protection by sea. Lord Mansfield maintained that there could be no doubt but that the inhabitants of the colonies were as well represented in Parliament as the greatest part of the people of England, among the nine millions of liberty; but perfection never did and never could exist in any human institution. For what purpose, then, were arguments drawn from a distinction in which there was no real difference, of a virtual and actual representation ?
Pitt, on the other hand, rose from his sick-bed, and in speeches of extraordinary eloquence, which produced an amazing effect on both sides of the Atlantic, justified the resistance of the colonies. He maintained in the strongest terms that the doctrine of self-taxation is the essential and discriminating circumstance of political freedom. "It is my opinion," he said, "that this Kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon the colonies." But he was careful to add with emphasis, and in doing so expressed the views of all the leaders in South Carolina, " At the same time I assert the authority of the Kingdom over the colonies to be sovereign and supreme in every circumstance of govern ment and legislation whatsoever." Then he went on to argue : " Taxation is no part of the governing or legislative power. The taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the Commons alone. . . . The distinction between legislation and taxation is necessary to liberty. . . . The Commons of America represented in their several assemblies have ever been in possession of the exercise of this their constitutional right of giving and granting their own money. They would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed it."
In his reply to Grenville he reiterated these principles in still stronger terms. "I rejoice," he said, "that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have been fit instruments to have made slaves of the rest ! " [England in the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), yol. III, 363, 307.]
These views were defended in the strongest terms by no less a lawyer than Lord Camden, who pledged his great legal reputation to the doctrine that taxation is not included under the general right of legislation, and that taxation and representation are morally inseparable. [Lives of the Lords Chancellors (Campbell), vol. V, 253-255.]
The Stamp act was repealed, but with its repeal another act was passed which in principle was more hostile to the assertion of the right claimed by the Americans than the Stamp act itself. This was called the " Declaratory act. " Its very title was a direct traverse and denial of the claim of the colonies. It was entitled " An act for the better securing the dependency of his Majesty's dominions in America upon the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain, " and it provided "that all resolutions, votes, orders, and proceedings in any of the said colonies or plantations, whereby the power and authority of the Parliament of Great Britain to make laws is denied or drawn in question, are and are hereby declared to be utterly null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever."
There could have been no general desire or settled purpose on the part of the people of South Carolina to quarrel with the mother country if this act was satisfactory; for it was in direct opposition to the resolutions of the Congress at New York, which the Commons' House had just endorsed and adopted. The truth is, the heart of the people was not as yet much in the controversy.
The Governor's Council, composed of members of the most influential families in the colony, was entirely opposed to the action of the Commons' House; and William Wragg, in his sturdy resistance in that body, had, as it will be seen, the support of his constituents and of many others in the province.
Nothing, says Mr. Sabine, is clearer than that the British Navigation act and the Laws of Trade, which were a part of the system it was meant to enforce, contained the germs of the Revolution. The Stamp act and other statutes of a kindred nature have been made, he thinks, to occupy too prominent a place among the causes assigned for that event. The irritation which the duties on stamps excited in the planting colonies subsided as soon as the law which imposed them was repealed; and but for the policy which oppressed the commerce and inhibited the use of the waterfalls of New England, the "dispute " between the mother country and her children would have been "left," as Washington breathed a wish that it might be, " to posterity to determine." In this Mr. Sabine is no doubt correct. The southern colonies, and South Carolina in particular, had no longer any practical cause of complaint. She was suffering from no material oppression. What part she took thereafter was in the interest of the commerce and waterfalls of New England, and not in her own. She, at least, was to contend only for abstract right and abstract liberty.
The news of the repeal of the Stamp act was received in Charlestown May 6, 1766, and its reception was cele brated by bonfires, illuminations, ringing of bells, and other demonstrations of joy. [Drayton's Memoirs, vol. I, 59.]
On the 13th the Commons' House requested Thomas Lynch, Christopher Gadsden, and John Rutledge to sit for their pictures, which were to be drawn at full length and preserved in the assembly room as a testimony of public regard, that the remem brance of the signal service they had done their country as a committee of the province at the Congress at New York might be transmitted to and remembered by posterity. [So. Ca. Gazette, June 9, 1766.]
The House also, upon the motion of Rawlins Lowndes, voted to have a statue made in England of the Right Honorable William Pitt, to be erected in the State House as a memorial of the respect for his upright and disin terested conduct upon all occasions, and particularly his assistance in procuring a repeal of the Stamp act, which they declared was equally beneficial to Great Britain and the colonies. [So. Ca. Gazette and Country Journal, May 13, 1766.]
But William Wragg would not allow the opportunity to pass without putting in a word for his sovereign ; he moved to amend the resolution by inserting the name of his Majesty George the Third in the place of that of his Honor William Pitt. He could not obtain a second to his motion. An address to his most gracious Majesty was, however, ordered to be prepared and sent upon this occasion, and his birthday happening a few days afterward the people turned out to show that the con troversy had not lessened their loyalty. The morning of the 4th of June, the King's birthday, was ushered in with the ringing of bells and the display of colors. At noon the great guns were fired and answered by volleys of the Charlestown militia. The artillery and light infantry companies were drawn up on Broad Street, and we are told made a fine appearance. They were reviewed by his honor the Lieutenant Governor, who gave on the joyful occasion a very elegant entertainment at Mr. Dillon's tavern to his Majesty's Council and the Speaker and members of the Assembly, the officers, civil and military, and the clergy. So the Lieutenant Governor, the Chief Jus tice, and the Associate Justices, and Dougal Campbell, the Clerk, and Captain Gadsden of the artillery, together with his colleagues, Lynch and Rutledge, and Peter Manigault, the Speaker, washed down with Governor Bull's wine all personal animosities, and the Gazette informs us the evening concluded with illuminations and other demonstrations of joy and gratitude for the many blessings enjoyed under his Majesty's most auspicious reign. Mr. Pitt and all the friends of Great Britain and the colonies were duly remembered.
Two weeks after, on the 17th of June, the successor to Governor Boone, his Excellency Lord Charles Greville Montagu, Governor-in-chief, and the lady to whom he had been but recently married, arrived in the ship Fonthill from Cowes. [So. Ca. Gazette and Country Journal, June 13, 1766. Lord diaries Greville Montagu was the second son of Robert, the third Duke of Man chester ; he was born in 1741, and was consequently but twenty-four years of age upon his appointment as Governor of South Carolina. As a younger son of a duke he bore the courtesy title of Lord with his Christian and surname.]
His Excellency's arrival was made another occasion of demonstration of the loyalty of the people of the province. The morning of his disembarkment was ushered in, as the King's birthday had been just before, with the ringing of bells and the display of colors. The militia were again drawn up on Broad Street, forming two lines, between which his Lordship, who was received at the landing by two members of his Majesty's Council, walked to the State House. At the State House his Excellency was received by another deputation of his Majesty's Council and conducted into the Council Chamber, where his Honor the Lieutenant Governor received and read his Majesty's commission. His Excellency, attended as before and accompanied by his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, walked to Granville's Bastion, where the artillery, commanded by Captain Gadsden, was posted. His Majesty's commission was again read and published, upon which a general discharge of cannon was answered by volleys of small arms. His Excellency returned to the State House, preceded by the light infantry, Captain Thomas Savage, of whom and of the artillery his Lordship expressed his approbation in the genteelest terms. His Excellency, with his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, members of his Majesty's Council, the Speaker of the House, officers, civil and military, and the clergy, about two o'clock met at Mr. Dillon's, where an elegant entertainment was again provided, and where his Excellency passed the afternoon, it was said, with much satisfaction. The inhabitants of James Island, opposite the town, illuminated their residences in demonstration of joy at the safe arrival of his Lordship; and the Charlestown Library Society, the South Carolina Society, the principal merchants, the clergy of the Church of England, and the Presbytery of the province, all hastened to present his Lordship with addresses of congratulation and loyalty.
The people of South Carolina were generally satisfied, and were earnest in their allegiance to the mother country. There were some, however, among those who were uniting in doing honor to the newly arrived Governor who were not content with the action of Parliament, and who fully appreciated the significance of the Declaratory act, and chief of these was Christopher Gadsden. He was still for decisive and energetic measures. He thought it folly to temporize, and insisted that cordial reconciliation was impossible under these terms ; and while the community was in ecstasy at the repeal of the Stamp act, he received it, with its accompanying declaration, with indignation. His followers were mostly among the artisans and mechanics of the town, and chief among these was William Johnson, a blacksmith.
We have it on the authority of John Rutledge that William Johnson was the man who first moved the ball of revolution in Charlestown. He was an upright, influential, and intelligent mechanic, a man of considerable inherited means, who had not long since come into this province from New York.1
At his instance two or three individuals assembled with him under an oak tree in Hampstead, or Mazyckboro', then a suburb of the town, and discussed the aggressions of the mother country. This oak became famous afterward as the "Liberty Tree." It stood in the centre of the square known as Mazyckboro',
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