WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN AMERICAN? The American Experience AMERICAN GOVERNMENT Marshall High School Unit One AB MR. CLINE * We’re Not Gonna Take It! • The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was The Stamp Act. • The Stamp Act stated that many goods that used paper including legal documents, playing cards, newspapers and magazines, etc. be printed only on special paper embossed with the Royal Tax Seal. * We’re Not Gonna Take It! • The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was The Stamp Act. • The Stamp Act was required to be paid only in British currency, which made it much more expensive to colonists than it really was • The Stamp Act was the first time in colonial history that the British had placed a direct tax on the colonists, or one that could not be passed on by merchants in the form of increased price, but was paid by the consumer themselves. • This angered the colonists greatly, and as a result; • Riots took place all over the colonies • Terrorist gangs were formed, particularly in Boston, where they took the name “The Sons of Liberty” • Tax collectors were tarred and feathered, and many quit their posts • Local protest groups from New England to Georgia began corresponding with each other, creating a loose knit national network of protest known as Committees of Correspondence * We’re Not Gonna Take It! • The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was The Stamp Act. • This angered the colonists greatly, and as a result; • Agents from the colonies were sent to enjoin Parliament to abolish the tax • And, representatives of nine of the thirteen colonies gathered in New York to design a coordinated response of all of the colonies to the act. This came to be known as The Stamp Act Congress • The Congress drafted a letter to the King and Parliament which echoed the sentiments of the population of the colonies, since we had no elected representative in Parliament, then to tax us was to do so without our consent, and there should be “No taxation without representation.” • Congresses’ letter, known as The Declaration of Rights and Grievances, claimed that the colonists were loyal Englishmen and only desired the rights afforded other Englishmen as a result of their history. It worried the British, who saw Congress as an extra legal body, and stated that Parliament had the right to legislate for the colonies “in any matter whatsoever.” * We’re Not Gonna Take It! • In the end, the unexpected violence of the colonies in protest against this act, and cries from British merchants who were losing money in trade because Americans were refusing to buy British goods, led to its repeal • However, the British were still having issues defending her colonies. They had moved troops closer to the cities when the violence over the Stamp Act had occurred, and this meant that Indians were taking advantage of less British soldiers on the frontier, and were rising up. • The British knew they needed more troops in America, but how to pay for them? • The logical solution was to house them with private citizens, and have them provide for them, and so they issued The Quartering Act of 1765. • This act stated that colonial legislatures were responsible for providing quarters and billets for British soldiers wherever they could find, and providing clothing, food and ammunition as well * We’re Not Gonna Take It! • All of this unrest in the colonies bothered the British greatly, as they never intended any injustice to their colonies, but were only doing their best to manage their resources, and these statements about why Parliament had no right to legislate for them were near treasonous, and so Parliament reasserted its authority in the Declaratory Act of 1766, which stated that; WHEREAS several of the houses of representatives in his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America, have of late, against law, claimed to themselves, or to the general assemblies of the same, the sole and exclusive right of imposing duties and taxes upon his Majesty's subjects in the said colonies and plantations; and have, in pursuance of such claim, passed certain votes, resolutions, and orders, derogatory to the legislative authority of parliament, and inconsistent with the dependency of the said colonies and plantations upon the crown of Great Britain: ... be it declared ..., That the said colonies and plantations in America have been, are, and of right ought to be. subordinate unto, and dependent upon the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain; and that the King's majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons of Great Britain, in parliament assembled, had, hash, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever. II. And be it further declared ..., 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 and statutes as aforesaid, is denied, or drawn into question, are, and are hereby declared to be, utterly null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever. * We’re Not Gonna Take It! • The problem with this declaration was that it was almost word for word what the British had declared to the Irish, and now the Irish were in basically a state of servitude to the English. • Many colonists feared that was what they had in store for Americans, and they saw the act as a message that there was more to come……they weren’t wrong. • Still needing to pay down its massive debts, the British decided they could do so if they could only get £40,000 a year, and so the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Secretary of the Treasury) proposed a series of revenue generating taxes called the Townshend Revenue Acts • These acts called for the raising of taxes on paper, paint, lead, glass and tea, indirectly, so as not to incite the colonists as they had done over the Stamp Act, a direct tax * We’re Not Gonna Take It! • Still needing to pay down its massive debts, the British decided they could do so if they could only get £40,000 a year, and so the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Secretary of the Treasury) proposed a series of revenue generating taxes called the Townshend Revenue Acts • One of the main purposes for this new revenue was to provide for the salaries of the Colonial Governors, and judges, so that they could be independent of the colonial legislatures, and dependent only on the Crown. • The taxes on tea were meant to make tea more profitable for English merchants, who were losing money to smuggled Dutch tea in the colonies, and naval enforcement on smuggling was stepped up. • However, if you thought the colonists reaction to the Stamp Act was bad…......... YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET!! * We’re Not Gonna Take It! • To start it off, the Massachusetts House of Representatives sent a petition to King George, III asking him to repeal the Revenue Act. • Then they sent a Circular Letter to each of the other colonies asking them to join them in a protest, which they did, sending their own petitions to the King and Parliament • Protests were organized by merchants all over the colonies where they encouraged a boycott of English goods through Non Importation Agreements in the hopes that English merchants losing money would encourage the repeal of the Townshend Acts • When British customs officials seized the ship Liberty owned by John Hancock, on the basis of possible smuggling operations (which he was doing), a mob erupted in violence, tarring and feathering the tax collector. • The newly created Customs Board asked for naval help, afraid of the violence, and the British warship HMS Romney docked in port. Its captain began impressing sailors to serve on the Romney, which upset the citizens of Boston greatly. * We’re Not Gonna Take It! • British merchants eventually convinced the Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts, and they felt compelled to do so….except • Parliament wanted to make a statement that they were still in charge, and had the right and the power to tax the inhabitants of the colonies, despite their protests about no representation, so they left the Tea Act portion of the Townshend Acts in place. • The Tea Act provided that no foreign tea, particularly smuggled Dutch Tea, could be imported and sold into the colonies, or off loaded of ships. Only the British East India Company, could bring tea into the colonies, creating a monopoly. • Three British ships of already taxed tea docked in the harbor, and the longshoremen there refused to unload it, colonists demanded it be sent back to England, but the British refused • Colonists, who drank a lot of tea, were very upset, and a group in Boston (go figure), The Sons of Liberty, who were a mixture of philosophical debating group, political action committee, terrorist cell and street gang, dressed as Indians and boarded the British ship, and threw the tea overboard, in what has come to be known as The Boston Tea Party * We’re Not Gonna Take It! • Customs officials fled town in fear of being tarred and feathered • The Royal Governor was instructed to send British troops into Boston and occupy it • He was also told to find solid evidence of treason amongst the people in Boston, and transport the suspects to England for trial, but no one would provide the incriminating evidence • Tensions between the colonists, British troops and customs officials escalated, and one day a teenage boy named Christopher Seider, in the process of taunting a customs official with his friends, was shot dead when the official became scared of their intentions.