Page:Letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania - Dickinson - 1768.djvu/24

[&emsp;18&emsp;] work-let us save-let us, continually, keep up our claim, and incessantly repeat our complaints-But, above all, let us implore the protection of that infinitely good and gracious being, “by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice.”

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 * My dear ,

N objection, I hear, has been made against my second letter, which I would willingly clear up before I proceed. “There is,” say these objectors, “a material difference between the Stamp-Act and the late act for laying a duty on paper, &c. that justifies the conduct of those who opposed the former, and yet are willing to submit to the latter. The duties imposed by the Stamp-Act were internal taxes; but the present are external, and therefore the parliament may have a right to impose them.”

this I answer, with a total denial of the power of parliament to lay upon these colonies any “tax” whatever.

point, being so important to this, and to succeeding generations, I wish to be clearly understood.

the word “tax,” I annex that meaning which the constitution and history of England require to be annexed to it; that is---that it is an imposition on the subject, for the sole purpose of levying money.

the early ages of our monarchy, certain services were rendered to the crown for the general good. These were personal : But, in