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The Townshend Act
The Townshend Acts’ repeal of the Stamp Act left Britain's financial
problems unresolved. Parliament had not given up the right to tax the
colonies and in 1767, at the urging of chancellor of the Exchequer Charles
Townshend, it passed the Townshend Acts, which imposed taxes on lead,
glass, tea, paint, and paper that Americans imported from Britain. In an
effort to strengthen its own authority and the power of royal colonial
officials, Parliament, at Townshend's request, also created the American
Board of Customs Commissioners whose members would strictly enforce the
Navigation Acts. Revenue raised by the new tariffs would be used to free
royal officials from financial dependence on colonial assemblies, thus
further encroaching on colonial autonomy. Once again the colonists
protested vigorously.
In December 1767, John Dickinson, a Philadelphia lawyer, published 12
popular essays that reiterated the colonists' denial of Parliament's right
to tax them and warned of a conspiracy by a corrupt British ministry to
enslave Americans. The Sons of Liberty organized protests against customs
officials, merchants entered into nonimportation agreements, and the
Daughters of Liberty advocated the nonconsumption of products, such as tea,
taxed by the Townshend Acts. The Massachusetts legislature sent the other
colonies a circular letter condemning the Townshend Acts and calling for a
united American resistance. British officials then ordered the dissolution
of the Massachusetts General Court if it failed to withdraw its circular
letter; the court refused, by a vote of 92 to 17, and was dismissed. The
other colonial assemblies, initially reluctant to protest the acts, now
defiantly signed the circular letter, outraged at British interference
with a colonial legislature.In other ways, British actions again united
American protest. The Board of Customs Commissioners extorted money from
colonial merchants and usedflimsy excuses to justify seizing American
vessels. These actions heightened tensions, which exploded on June 21,
1768, when customs officials seized Boston merchant John Hancock's sloop
Liberty. Thousands of Bostonians rioted, threatening the customs
commissioners' lives and forcing them to flee the city. When news of the
Liberty riot reached London, four regiments of British army troops-some
4,000 soldiers-were ordered to Boston to protect the commissioners. The
contempt of British troops for the colonists, combined with the soldiers'
moonlighting activities that deprived Boston laborers of jobs, inevitably
led to violence.
In March 1770 a riot occurred between British troops and Boston citizens,
who jeered and taunted the soldiers. The troops fired, killing five people.
The so-called Boston Massacre aroused great colonial resentment. This
anger was soon increased by further parliamentary legislation. Bowing to
colonial economic boycotts, Parliament, guided by the new prime minister,
Lord Frederick North, repealed the Townshend Acts in 1770 but retained the
tax on tea to assert its right to tax the colonies. In order to rescue
the British East India Company from bankruptcy, Parliament passed the Tea
Act in 1773, reducing the tax on tea shipped to the colonies so that the
company could sell it in America at a price lower than that of smuggled
tea. The colonists, however, refused to buy the English tea. They viewed
the Tea Act as another violation of their constitutional right not to be
taxed without representation. Colonial merchants also feared that the act
would allow the East India Company to monopolize the tea trade and put
them out of business. In Philadelphia and New York City the colonists
would not permit British ships to unload tea. In Boston, in the so-called
Boston Tea Party, a group of citizens, many disguised as Native Americans,
swarmed over British ships in the harbor and dumped the cargoes of tea
into the water.
Word Count: 601
ADDITIONAL FEATURED ESSAYS
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The Midnight Ride Of Paul Revere
“One if by land, two if by sea"- the supposed famous words spoken by Paul Revere to Colonel William Conant, an American
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