No modern revolution was deeper rooted in taxation than the revolt of the Thirteen Colonies in British North America. British taxation not only caused the revolution, but perhaps most important, it acted as a unifying force in the colonies. The once disorganized and squabbling colonies rallied around the cause of taxation without consent, took up arms against the British, and finally formed the United States of America. The American independence movement was not deep-rooted; it began in 1766 when colonial leaders met to protest British taxes under the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act Congress, as it was called, was the real birthplace of the United States.
The rallying cause against taxation by the Crown was at first a confused concept in the minds of most Americans. The colonists first argued that internal taxes, like stamp taxes, were bad, but external taxes, like import taxes, would be acceptable. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, quite properly called this position by the Americans as "perfect nonsense." This nonsensical reasoning made it difficult for the Crown to know what to do. In the end the Americans revolted when Parliament adopted the kind of taxation the colonists said they were willing to pay. You could justifiably say that the American Revolution occurred, not because we objected to taxes without representation, but because we objected to taxes, period.
And the American attitude didn't change much after the war. What were the people doing in 1765? They were tarring and feathering British tax agents. What were they doing in 1794? They were tarring and feathering American tax agents.
Once the War of Independence had been won, there was little thought of creating a national government with taxing power….
Tax Revolt in the Colonies
From the fullest conviction, I disclaim every idea both of policy and the right internally to tax America. I disavow the whole system. It is commenced in iniquity; it is pursued with resentment; and it can terminate in nothing but blood.
— Marquis of Grandby, Speech in House of Commons, 5 April 1775
It is not difficult to argue that the founding fathers of America revolted over taxes that were neither unfair nor oppressive. The Americans were among the most blessed and fortunate people on earth; they had the protection of the British nation and their land was rich and choice. Business was good and there were jobs for everyone. Europe's social castes did not enchain them and their sons were not conscripted to fight wars in far away places. If revolution is the consequence of oppression then the American Revolution should never have occurred.
The taxes the British tried to collect were modest; the money was to be spent entirely in the colonies for their benefit and protection. It was not going to be sent back to the mother country. Why all the ruckus and cry of "tyranny"? Did the mother country have a bunch of spoiled brats who did not realize just how well off they were? Why shouldn't they pay their share of the costs of maintaining the military forces that secured their borders? The Americans were the beneficiaries of recent military victories that removed the threat of French imperialism and opened up the western frontier. Did not the Americans have a moral obligation to pay for some of the costs incurred in securing these benefits?
The American Revolution had its roots in the attitudes of the first settlers who came to the New World in the seventeenth century. Most of them were embroiled in the English Civil War and carried with them the ideals of Lord Coke and the Petition of Rights. Their colonial charters from Parliament guaranteed them "all the rights, privileges, and immunities of Englishmen." This meant that they would have the right to trial by jury; they would be governed by the Common Law; they could not be arbitrarily imprisoned; and they could not be taxed without their consent.
In theory the Crown was just as restricted in dealing with them as with Englishmen at home. Their attitude is illustrated in a letter written home by one British civil servant who said that if you approached a colonist about providing funds for British armies fighting in America, he responded by giving a "lengthy lecture on his rights." -->The chances are this lecture was not very logical.
An Englishman living in the colonies had no member of Parliament to represent him. Under those circumstances it was not possible for him to "consent" to laws and taxation. His rights as an Englishman were illusory, especially when he found himself in the clutches of arrogant bureaucrats sent out from the mother country to interfere in his way of life.
This unfortunate situation was no one's fault. Political forms and practices that guaranteed his rights had not been invented. Local courts helped somewhat; jury trials were provided and the Common Law governed — but much was missing, especially some means by which he could debate and consent to taxation. Local assemblies could be overruled by the Crown. It may be that the real cause of the American Revolution was this lack of political machinery to protect the colonists' rights. The British Parliament was not designed to work for Englishmen living in faraway places. As events turned out, the American Revolution was a radical solution to that problem. In the years that followed, other colonial areas such as Canada, Australia, and even twentieth-century Commonwealth countries, were to find more moderate solutions. The basic problem in eighteenth-century North America was that British colonial practices were incompatible with the "rights of Englishmen," and the American Revolution was an expression of that incompatibility.
| "The American Revolution occurred, not because we objected to taxes without representation, but because we objected to taxes, period." |
British colonialism in the eighteenth century was based on mercantilism, an economic practice which tied colonies to their mother country. Colonies shipped raw materials to Britain where they were either consumed or used for manufacturing and trade. Most important, the colonies had to buy their imports from the mother country. Mercantilism gave British merchants a monopoly on colonial trade. Smuggling hurt them more than it injured the revenue, since trade regulations and high customs were designed to prevent foreign competition, not to collect taxes. One mercantile law, the Molasses Act of 1733, placed a high tax on molasses from the French West Indies. The law was never effective because of the ease with which cheap French molasses could be smuggled into the colonies. British sugar merchants complained bitterly.
"The American," they said, "derived his right of cheating the Revenue, and of perjuring himself, from the example of his fathers and the rights of nature"; and would continue to "complain and smuggle, and smuggle and complain, till all Restraints are removed, and till he can both buy and sell, whenever, and wheresoever, he pleases. Any thing short of this, is still a Grievance, a Badge of Slavery." Actually, British merchants had no right to accuse Yankee traders of smuggling — which was much more extensive along the coasts of England than in North America.
The Writ of Assistance
During Cromwell's era, customs officers were authorized to search for smuggled goods in Britain by a Writ of Assistance issued by the Exchequer Court. To obtain this unique writ, the customs officer would swear under oath before a judge that smuggled property was in a particular place; if probable cause was shown, the writ would be signed and the customs officer would conduct the search with the assistance of a local peace officer.
This writ came to the colonies in 1755 in a novel form which attracted no attention at first. But in 1761, in Boston, James Otis resigned as attorney general to represent the merchants of Boston in a law suit to prevent the renewal of the writ (the king had died and a new authorization was required by the courts). Otis charged nothing for his services:
"In such a case, I despise all fees." A young lawyer named John Adams (later to become president) sat in the courtroom and took notes of the proceeding. Otis argued for five hours and charged that the writ
was the worst instrument of arbitrary power, the most destructive of English Liberty and the fundamental principles of law that ever was found in an English law-book…. Not more than one instance can be found of it in all our law-books and that was in the zenith of arbitrary power, namely, the reign of Charles I, when the Star Chamber powers were pushed to extremity.
| "To many Britons, America was a land of milk and honey, lace and linen, silver and silk, paid for by British taxpayers." |
Otis didn't object to the use of the writ for the search of a specific place when authorized by a court upon an oath and affidavit of the customs officer; what he did object to was the power this peculiar writ gave to any officer to search without a court order. Not even Parliament could authorize such a monstrosity. Said Otis: "An act against the Constitution is void." The judges of the court ruled against Otis and issued the writ to the customs officers in Boston. But, even though Otis lost, the case attracted attention and thereafter judges and lawyers worked together to frustrate customs officers trying to obtain the writ. Contrary to popular belief the colonists were never oppressed with the use of the Writ of Assistance. It was on the books and it irritated the Americans, but thanks to the guts and ingenuity of a courageous bar and bench, most writs gathered dust waiting to be signed in the chambers of colonial judges.
The Writ of Assistance is important in American history because the threat of its use caused the founding fathers to place the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights. While that great amendment is not now used to restrain revenue agents, it was initially adopted to do just that. The amendment prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures," which meant, most of all, that tax agents cannot snoop without a court order based on an affidavit establishing probable cause.
For more than fifty years before the American Revolution the British government considered taxing the colonies. Sir Robert Walpole was told by the retiring governor of Virginia that colonial taxation was feasible. Years later, in 1732, when the excise crisis developed over wine and tobacco, one minister suggested extending the new excise to the colonies. "No," said Walpole, "I have old England against me, do you think I will have New England do likewise?"
By mid-century the peace of Walpole's era ended. Britain was at war with France. The revenue demands of the war became increasingly severe. By 1764, British armies had pushed the French out of North America and it was not unfair for the American to shoulder some of the financial burdens that benefited them. If they did, the land tax in Britain could be reduced to peacetime levels and some of the excises could be withdrawn. Furthermore, stories abounded in Britain about the profiteering of American merchants from free-spending British soldiers, war contracts, and smuggling. To many Britons, America was a land of milk and honey, lace and linen, silver and silk, paid for by British taxpayers.
The Sugar Act
| "The Sugar Act trapped the innocent more than the guilty." |
Parliament responded in 1764 with the Sugar Act, which was the Crown's first and only successful tax law in the colonies. Yankee traders in New England protested vehemently, but the rest of the colonies showed little interest in their plight. Smuggling was open in New England and most colonists believed the New Englanders were probably getting what they deserved. Years later, after the revolution, President John Adams of Massachusetts fame said the Sugar Act imposed "enormous taxes, burdensome taxes, oppressive, ruinous, intolerable taxes." But at the time, outside of New England, no one felt that way. Taxes under the Sugar Act covered a wide range of non-British goods. The rates were really quite modest.
Protests against the Sugar Act were really directed against administrative provisions designed to check evasion. The act was a typical sledgehammer revenue measure which treated every trader as a cheat. A maze of regulations entangled all importers, even little coastal vessels, and any breach justified seizure of the vessel as well as the entire cargo.
Even the personal chests of ordinary seamen were seized if the contents were not listed on customs declarations. The Sugar Act trapped the innocent more than the guilty.
Besides the presumption of guilt which the law made, tax litigation was moved from local courts and juries to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for trial before pro-government Admiralty Courts. Acquittals were common in trials in New England because under the Common Law, unlike today, a jury would acquit if the members believed the law or the punishment was unjust. An acquittal paved the way for a civil action for damages against the Crown's tax agents and informers for false charges. Under the Sugar Act such civil actions were prohibited. Informers were encouraged by rewards of a third of any confiscated property.
Revenue from the Sugar Act did not bring much relief to British taxpayers at home. In 1765 there were serious riots in Britain. After excise tax collectors were mobbed, cider excises were repealed. In the search for new revenue, the rich and undertaxed colonies attracted the attention of the British government. The prime minister asked Parliament if any members questioned the right of the Crown to tax the colonists. There were no dissenters. He then asked if the colonies would refuse "to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy burdens which we lie under?" (Approximately ten thousand British troops were stationed in America for its defense.) He even suggested that the colonists could use any form of taxation they desired — but for the present, the government would introduce stamp taxes.
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was no mere mite to the colonist. Colonial legislatures held emergency sessions. There were town meetings, speeches, and pamphlets condemning the tax. Mob violence erupted; property was destroyed. Governors wrote home to Britain advising the government that the rebellion could not be curbed. Even the strongest opponents of the tax spent their time trying to coot the mobs and restore order. Most important, the Stamp Act united the colonies — something that had been impossible up to 1765. Massachusetts called for a congress of the colonies, and delegates appeared from almost all colonial governments.
Stamp taxes were popular throughout Europe at this time. By 1750 they were in use in the colonies by colonial governments. The British Act of 1765 followed the established practice of taxing newspapers, legal documents, business licenses, diplomas, and a few other items. The funds from these taxes were to be used exclusively to pay for British troops stationed in North America. To make the tax more tolerable, local citizens were granted the exclusive right to sell or issue the stamps. No arrogant bureaucrats would be sent out from the mother country, as had been the case with customs. Even Ben Franklin applied for the job of stamp salesman.
| "Under the Common Law, unlike today, a jury would acquit if the members believed the law or the punishment was unjust." |
The Stamp Act Congress petitioned Parliament for repeal, arguing that taxes were internal and thus required the consent of the colonists. Parliament could not speak for them, as it lacked a natural bond to the colonists. When the congress adjourned a few prominent citizens were sent to London to lobby for repeal.
Benjamin Franklin was one of those sent to argue for repeal. He was the agent for New Jersey, Georgia, and above all, Massachusetts — the seedbed of the rebels. He was invited to speak to the House of Commons.
Here are some of the questions put to him by the Commons, with his answers:
Question: "What was the temper of America towards Great Britain before the year 1763?"
Answer: "The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the Crown and paid, in their courts, obedience to acts of Parliament
Question: "And what is their temper now?"
Answer: "O, very much altered."
Question: "Did you ever hear the authority of Parliament to make laws for America questioned till lately?"
Answer: "The authority of Parliament was allowed to be valid in all laws, except such as should lay internal taxes. It was never disputed in laying duties to regulate commerce."
At the time of this testimony (January 1766) Franklin spoke with the moderates. When he spoke of internal taxes he was talking about the Stamp Act. He certainly made it clear that customs (external taxes) were not objectionable.
The Stamp Act was repealed and there was jubilation throughout the colonies. British merchants in England opposed the Stamp Act as much as the colonists. Repeal meant victory for everyone but the Exchequer and the cabinet.
| "The Stamp Act united the colonies — something that had been impossible up to 1765." |
There was an addendum to the repeal act that was to irritate the colonists in the years to come. In effect, the addendum said Parliament had the power to tax if it wanted to. Parliament wanted to make it clear they were not abdicating their power over the coloni