The Colonial Agent: Imperial Lobbyist
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
VO L. 1 THE CLEMENTS LIBRARY ASSO C IATES N O .1 THE QVARTO, wealth of new material available to interest to the British governm ent. them, and to encourage those who have Some were Americans living in NEW SERlES not yet visited the Library to come and London, others were Englishmen who explore. We take advantage of this had neve r seen the colonies, many were With the hope that friend s and col occasion, this renewal, to greet old lawyers, some were Members of leagues will enjoy hearing news of our friends and welcome new ones to the Parliament, but all of them were activities, the Cleme nts Library proudly Clements Library. familiar with government politics, resumes publication of The Quarto. In acco mplished in the art of "dancing 1942 Library Director attendance" on the Randolph Adams officials who made began The Qua rto as colonial policy. an occasional publica They frequented the tion aimed at the rare coffeehouses of book and manuscript Westminister and collector. Five years the City, where later, when the politicians, bankers, Clements Library and merchants Associates was trading with the founded, it became colonies gathered to the newsletter of this talk and read the first "friends" latest Lond on news organization at The or American Universi ty of Michi dispatches. Regu gan, occup ying this larly attending the role until the 1980s. House of Commons, Much has changed they followed the since then, and we Charle ston was a thriving port in the /7605. Exports of rice and indigo, both crops debates from the want to reflect those cultivated by slave lahor, brought annual profi ts ofhalfa million pounds sterling visitors' gallery and changes in The into the South 's only large colonial city. In this view from Scenographia Americana kept their clients Quarto. The Library (London, 1768), Charlestown is shown f rom across the Coope r River with Gran ville inform ed about Bastion on the far left and Saint Philip '5 Church on the right. Associates now legislation that include a highly affected America. diverse group from allover the country, Colonial agents had no standing in law whose historical interests are as varied THE COLONIAL or the fonnal constitutional structure of as their backgrounds and ways of life. the British Empire, yet they played an In the last ten years the Library has AGENT: IMPERIAL important role in making the imperial greatly expanded its holdin gs, moving LOBBYIST machine work, and work fairl y well, into new collecting fields and adding given the problems of distance and depth to old ones. As this is written, The colonial agent is an obscure figure informati on. Agents were the ones who renovations to our building are under in early American history. Few of us brought a colony' s business to the way. These are exciting times at the know that Benjamin Franklin first government's attention. Following the Clements Library, and we want to share made his reputation in London as agent instruction s they received from their the excitement - to tell our Associates for Penn sylvania in the late l750s, constituents, agents drafted petitions abou t the fine acqui sitions which have much less what his job entailed. which they presented to the Board of been made through their generou s In fact, an agent was half-lobbyist, Trade or the Privy Council - a giving, to inform resea rchers who have half-ambassador, employed by an req uest for repairs to a fort or men to used our resources in the past about the American colony to represent its garrison it, a plea for money to buy the Indian presents they hoped would buy America, then beginni ng to be in tion, the agen ts of the Thirteen Colonies allegiance or stave off an attack, a agitation," as Britain tightened control in London were in an unrivaled position claim to land in dispute with another over her colonies. In May 1764 Garth to see, analyze, and explain the emer colony, or an application to expand the first heard detai ls of Grenville's plan to gence of the crisis. Few were better colony's export market. What ever the raise revenue in America from stamp observer-reporters than Charles Garth, issue, these petitions were supported by duties and warned, "It is of great Member of Parliament and agent for reports. statistics, or statements by concern to the Colonies not to suffer a South Caro lina, Georgia, and Maryland . interested partie s. information about the precedent of this kind." As American His letters to his American employers American colonies gathered to impress resistance mounted, Garth and his were particularly perceptive and the British government. As a result, the fellow agents organi zed oppos ition detailed. Thu s the acquisition by the colonial agents created an invaluable among London's merchants. When a Clements Library of a letterbook historical record. bill repealing the Stamp Act passed the containing Garth's reports to the South A fascinating piece of that record House of Commons in March 1766, Carolina legislative conunittee is was recently acquired by the Clements Garth could take a measure of credit for particularly noteworthy and greatly Library, a letterbook containing the its succes s. University of Michigan strengthens the library's holdin gs on the correspondence of South Carolina Emeritus Professor of History Jacob M. genesis of the American Revolution." agent Charles Garth and his predeces Price has commented, " In the dozen or sor James Wright. later Governor of so years before the Ame rican Revolu- Georgia. It adds a substantial number of letters not included in the Garth letterbook published in the South. THE SOLDIER'S LIFE: THE SCHOFF Carolina History and Genealogical M agazine. The letters, written between CIYI L WAR COLLECTION 1758 and 1766, cove r the tumultuou s final years of the French and Indian On March 14, 1863, Private Charles where are the oppresse d and the down War and the first stage of the American Henthorn of the 77th Illinois Infantry trodden millions of the eart h to look for Revolut ion, the Stam p Act Crisis. wrote to his father from Milliken's hope of better days." Wright's letters of 1758-60, deal Bend, Louisiana, 25 miles above Henthorn's lofty ideals would with wartime crises - wrangling with Vicksburg on the Missi ssippi: accord with the contemporary popul ar the Board of Ordnance for cannon to Grant's army is said to stretch tendency to romanticize the Civil War, fortify Charleston Harbor, convincing for a distance of seventeen miles portray ing it as a gallant, if brutal, the Admiralty to provide convoys to along the river. The inner side of the face-off between tho se who fought to protect South Carolin a ships trading levee is thickly marked with graves preserve the Union and the defenders so taking it all together there has been with London, getting the Secretary at of what was to be a tragic "lost cause." a great number of deaths since War, "after long sollicitation and much Such popularization s, whether in hook , coming down the river. The number trouble," to approve payment of "all the movie, or televised form, tend to depict expences whatever, on acco unt of the may reach thousands.. .. The future historian will record the number who the participants in the war as true War." His petition to the Treasury in fell on the memorable Battlefields of believers, as willing and courageous November 1758 reveals the colony's Bull Run, Donelson, Shiloh and warrio rs. Indeed, many were. Histo vulnerability on two fronts, from Indian others but who shall know the rian Gera ld Linde rman 's psychological attacks on settlements in the back number who have perished by disease profi le of Civil War soldi ers, Embattled country and from slave uprisings on before Yorktown and amid the Courage, depicts a widespread plantations in the low country. "Two miasmatic swamps of the allegiance to Victorian-era virtues thousand pounds worth of good s to be Chickahominy. courage, manliness, duty, honor, used as presents" were urgently needed Henthorn could not have realized godliness , knightliness. As the war "to gain the support of the Choctaws, as that his letters to father, brother, and wore on, these ideals were more likely well as Cherokees , Cree ks, and sister would themselves beco me a rich to beco me replaced by bitterness and Chic kasaws who regularly come into source of evidence for "the future disillusion, although years after the fact Charlestown. Together these tribes historian" of his musings. Even so, the the romantic myth of a heroic war have 10,000 Gun Men," that the French detail and eloque nce of his writing strongly reasserted itself. could incite again st the colony 's "8 ,000 about "this "accursed rebellion" show But perhaps for every Private men, who have 60,000 slaves to keep in that he was well aware of the signifi Henthorn, with his patrio tism, anti proper subjection." Within two years cance of this vast enterprise in which slavery senti ments, and disapproval of of Wright's petition, South Carolina he played such a small part, and in plundering, there is a Robert Sherry. was embroiled in bloody warfare which he hoped to acquit himself with The 32-year-old carriage maker from against the Cherokee. honor. "How anxiously the world is Buffalo, New York, served as a private Garth's letters, written in the watching our struggle for exis tence," in the 2 1st and 97th New York Infantry aflerrnath of the Seve n Years' War, he wrote.