CHAP. ners, calm and discriminating in judgment, fixed in XXIX. his principles, steadfast in purpose, and by his abilJune: ity and patriotism enchaining universal respect and 1767. the unfailing confidence of the freemen of his Colony. His opinion was formed, that if "methods tending to violence should be taken to maintain the dependence of the Colonies, it would hasten a separation; "1 that the connection with England could be preserved by "gentle and insensible methods," rather than "by power or force." But not so reasoned Townshend, who, after the Whitsuntide Holidays, "stole " his Bill imperceptibly through both Houses. The Stamp Act had called an American revenue "just and neces sary;" and had been repealed as impolitic. Townshend's Preamble to his Bill granting duties in America on glass, red and white lead, painter's colors and paper, and three pence a pound on tea, declared an July. American revenue "expedient." By another Act a 5 Board of Customs was established at Boston; and general Writs of Assistance were legalized. For NewYork the Lords of Trade, avowedly from political reasons, refused to the Presbyterians any immunities, but such as might be derived from the British Law of Toleration; while an Act of Parliament suspended the functions of its Representatives, till they should render obedience to the Imperial Legislature. 6 On such an alternative, it was thought that that Province would submit without delay; and that the 'Jonathan Trumbull to William S. Johnson, 23 June, 1767. 2 Lord Beauchamp in Cavendish 'W. S. Johnson to Dep. Gov. 6 7 Geo. III. c. XLVI. 7 Geo. III. c. XLI. Report of the Board of Trade, 10 July, 1767. Garth, 17 May, 1767; 7 Geo. III. chap. LVÍ. XXIX. Americans, as their tea would now come to them at CHAP. a less price than to the consumers in England, would pay the impost in their own ports with only seeming July. reluctance. But the new measures were, in their character, even more subversive of right than those of Grenville. He had designedly left the civil officers dependent on the local legislators, and consigned the proceeds of the American tax to the Exchequer.1 Townshend's revenue was to be disposed of under the sign manual at the King's pleasure. This part of the system had no limit as to time or place, and was intended as a perpetual menace. In so far as it provided an independent support for the crown officers, it did away with the necessity of colonial legislatures. Wherever the power should be exercised, Governors would have little inducement to call Assemblies, and an angry Minister might dissolve them without inconvenience to his Administration. Henceforward "no native" of America could hope to receive any lucrative commission under the crown, unless he were one of the martyrs to the Stamp Act. Places would be filled by some Britonborn, who should have exhibited full proof of his readiness to govern so refractory a people as the Americans according to the principle of bringing them to the most exact and implicit obedience to the dictates of England.3 Such an one was Tryon, now Governor of North Carolina, a soldier who, in the army, had learned little 1 Compare Hartley's Letters on the War. 2 W. S. Johnson to the Gov. of Connecticut, 13 July, 1767; Garth VOL. VI.— - 8 to Committee of South Carolina, 5 W. S. Johnson to Stuyvesant 1767. ΧΧΙΧ. CHAP. but a fondness for display. To mark the boundary which in October, 1765, had been agreed upon between 1767. the Carolinas and the Cherokees,1 he, at the cost of July. an impoverished and suffering Colony, marched a company of riflemen through the woods, to the banks of Reedy River. The Beloved Men of the Cherokees met him on the way. "The Man above," said their Orator, "is head of all. He made the land and none other, and he told me that the land I stand on is mine, and all that is in it. True it is, the Deer and the Buffaloes and the Turkeys are almost gone. I refer all to him above. The White People eat what they have here; but our food is further off. The land is very good, but I will not love it. The land on this side the line I will not love, I give it to the White People. When they buy land, they give what soon wears out; but land lasts always. Yet the land is given when the line is run." As he spoke, he laid down a string of beads on the course of the border. From the Elm Tree on Reedy River, the frontier was marked as far as to an Oak on the top of the Mountains which rise over the sources of the Pacolet and the Broad; and thence it was agreed that it should run directly to Chiswell's Lead Mines on the New River branch of the Kanawha." The Cherokee Chiefs, who knew well the cruelty and craft of the most pernicious beast of prey in the mountains, ceremoniously distinguished the Governor by the CHAP. name of the Great Wolf1 2 XXIX. 1767. The Highlands of North Carolina were already July. the homes of a comely and industrious race. Well might David Hume, in view of the ever expanding settlements of those who spoke the same tongue with himself, invite Gibbon to admire, how "the solid and increasing establishments in America promised superior stability and duration to the English language."3 'Tryon to the Secretary of State, 14 July, 1767. 'Tryon to the Secretary, 8 July. David Hume to Gibbon, 1767, in Burton. CHAPTER XXX. HOW TOWNSHEND'S AMERICAN TAXES WERE RECEIVED BY CHAP. July. JULY-NOVEMBER, 1767. THE anarchy in the Ministry was agreeable XXX. to the King, for it enabled him to govern as well as 1767. to reign. Grafton made no tedious speeches in the closet, and had approved the late American regulations; persuading himself even that the choice of tea as the subject of taxation was his own;1 that the law, suspending the legislative functions of New-York, was marked by moderation and dignity; and that abrogating the Charters of the American Colonies would be their emancipation from "fetters." 8 2 The King, who wished to retain Conway in office and had looked into his heart to know how to wind and govern him, attached him by the semblance of perfect trust; showing him all Chatham's letters, and 'Grafton of himself, in his Autobiography. 2 Grafton's Autobiography. 4 authority on account of his intimacy with Conway, and for the time, with Grafton. The comparison with the Autobiography of the latter, shows that Walpole was well-informed. |