Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/311

 the colonies without their consent, a powerful, numerous, and enthusiastic party,—the national party,—immediately sprang into being, ready to resist, in the name of right and of national honor. It was indeed a question, of right and of honor, and not of interest or physical well-being. The taxes were light, and imposed no burden upon the colonists. But they belonged to that class of men who feel most keenly the wrongs which affect the mind alone, and who can find no repose while honor is unsatisfied. 'For, sir, what is it we are contending against? Is it against paying the duty of three pence per pound on tea, because burdensome? No; it is the right only, that we have all along disputed.' Such was, at the commencement of the quarrel, the language of Washington himself, and such was the public sentiment—a sentiment founded in sound policy, as well as moral sense, and manifesting as much judgment as virtue." But the English ministry, with a fatuity which seems wonderful, were determined to pursue the line of policy they had marked out, despite the consequences. The colonists were every day searching deeper and deeper into the foundations of the questions agitating the whole country, and were every day becoming less and less disposed to submit to the control of Parliament. Dickinson's "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies," discussed the subject of the new taxes laid upon the people, and denied the right of Parliamentary taxation in any way whatever. Franklin caused these "Letters" to be reprinted in London: they were extensively read, and exercised a powerful influence in setting forth the injustice and unconstitutionality of the attempt thus to impose taxes upon America. The colonial newspapers, likewise, now numbering twenty-five or more, began to teem with essays on colonial rights.

Bernard refused to call a special session of the General Court to take the new acts into consideration; a public meeting was held in the latter part of October, and it was proposed to both encourage domestic manufactures and industry, and to discontinue the importation of British goods. The example of Massachusetts was followed in Connecticut, New York, and Philadelphia.

The General Court met December 30th, and a large committee was appointed to consider the state of the provinces. A letter of instructions was presently dispatched to Dennis do Berdt, agent for the colony, in London, and a petition to the king, in which they dwell upon the grant of their original charter, "with the conditions of which they had fully complied, till in an unhappy time it was vacated." They next allude to the subsequent and modified charter, granted by William and Mary, confirming the same fundamental liberties secured to them by the first. Acknowledging indeed, the superintending authority of Parliament, in all cases that can consist with the fundamental rights of nature and the constitution, they proceed as follows: "It is with the deepest concern that your humble suppliants would