between the proprietors and the people, the old French war, the massacres of the whites by the Indians, and the Indians by the whites. In the next chapter, we will introduce him to events of greater importance than any of the preceding.

CHAPTER X.

PENNSYLVANIA FROM 1765 TO 1775.

Great Britain lays a Tax upon the Colonies - Stamp Act-Stamp Officer appointed - Manufacturing prohibited - Repeal of the Stamp Act - Duties on British Goods - Tax on Tea-Colonists oppose all Taxes - Mass Meeting - Provincial Congress-Continental Congress - Petition to King GeorgeCongress adjourns - Re-assembles - George Washington appointed — Washington's Speech.

REAT BRITAIN was now in debt to the enormous sum

of one hundred forty-eight millions sterling, or about six hundred and fifty-seven millions five hundred thousand dollars. Her favor to the colonies extended just so far as she could filch money from them; or, as Patrick Henry said, "She offered us such protection as vultures give to lambs." Hence, in order to draw money from us, she proceeded to lay a tax. A resolution was introduced in Parliament by George Grenville, prime-minister, "That it was proper to charge certain stamp duties in the colonies and plantations." It passed the House of Commons March 10, 1764; but no further action was taken until the year following, when the subject was resumed, and the obnoxious Stamp Act was passed in the month of March, 1765. It is a singular fact, that two historians1 of Pennsylvania state that this act was repealed before it was passed. Immediately upon the passage of this act, Dr. Franklin wrote thus to Charles Thompson: "The sun of liberty is set: you must light up the candles of industry and economy." This taxing of the colonies involved the great question which led to the American Revolution; to wit, the right to tax those who had no representation in Parliament, or, in other words, "Taxation without representation." Franklin used his utmost 1 Day, vol i. p. 31; Gordon, p. 443.

efforts to avert these odious measures for oppressing the colonies, as his far-seeing mind discovered what would be the future consequences: still, with a view to place the execution of the act in proper hands, now that it had passed, he procured the appointment of his friend John Hughes as stamp officer at Philadelphia.

"On the arrival at Philadelphia, in October, 1765, of the stamps from England, the vessels hoisted their colors at halfmast; bells were muffled; and thousands of citizens assembled in a state of great excitement. Mr. Hughes was called on to resign his commission; but he only agreed, for the present, not to perform the duties of the office."1

The people of the colony now determined to manufacture for themselves. This created a storm in Great Britain, and set the manufacturers there in opposition to the oppressive acts of their own government.

The Stamp Act was repealed Feb. 22, 1766, the anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Although Great Britain thus repealed this odious act, Parliament still persisted in, and re-affirmed, their right of taxation by imposing duties on British goods. As the colonies opposed their right to tax them at all, they would submit to no measures which involved that principle. John Dickinson, an eminent lawyer, a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, published a series of able letters, the pith and marrow of which were, that the people should beware of acquiescing in any measures leading to establish the right of parliamentary taxation.

In consequence of the general opposition in the colonies to the principle of taxation in any form, in 1769 the taxes were greatly reduced, and in 1770 were abolished, except threepence per pound on tea; but so determined were our fathers in resisting this system altogether, that this small tax of threepence a pound on tea was as offensive as a larger one would have been; and so spunky and resolute in this resistance were they, that upon a single chest of tea only was the duty paid. The Assembly still urged their agents in London to protest against any and every act that involved the right of Parlia

1 Day's History of Pennsylvania, vol. i. p. 31.

ment to tax the colony, and also to oppose any plan for our representation in Parliament, insisting that they would pay no tax that was not imposed in the Province.

In 1773 Parliament made a forced exportation of tea into all the principal ports of the colonies. This measure aroused indignation from one end of the country to another. The Philadelphians passed resolutions, "Denouncing the duty on tea as a tax laid without their consent, -laid for the express purpose of establishing the right to tax, and asserting that this method of providing a revenue for the support of government, the administration of justice, and defence of the colonies, had a direct tendency to render assemblies useless, and to introduce arbitrary government and slavery; and that steady opposition to this plan was necessary, to preserve even the shadow of liberty." No one being willing to receive the tea in Philadelphia, the captains of the ships returned with it to England. The same was the case with that sent to New York; while in Boston it was thrown into the harbor, and in Charleston rotted in the warehouses.

Special indignation was felt by Great Britain against Boston on account of the destruction of the tea; and that port was closed. The colonies were now all aroused, and made common cause with Boston in denouncing this new act of oppression. The citizens of Philadelphia advised the Bostonians to use all lenient measures for relief, assuring them, at the same time, that Pennsylvania would adhere to the liberty of the colonies. Although the governor, when requested to convene the Assembly, declined, yet a mass-meeting of the people, numbering eight thousand, assembled June 18, 1774, and recommended a Continental Congress, and also appointed a committee to correspond with the other counties of Pennsylvania, for the purpose of appointing deputies to a general Congress, and, furthermore, agreed to raise funds to relieve the suffering citizens of Boston.

The committee immediately wrote to all the counties of Pennsylvania, requesting them to appoint deputies to a general conference, to be held at Philadelphia the 15th of July, and in their circular said, "We will not offer such an affront to

the well-known public spirit of Pennsylvanians as to question your zeal on the present occasion. Our very existence in the rank of freemen, and the security of all that ought to be dear to us, evidently depend on our conducting this great cause to its proper issue, by firmness, wisdom, and magnanimity. It is with pleasure that we assure you that all the colonies, from South Carolina to New Hampshire, are animated with one spirit in the common cause, and consider this as the proper crisis for having our differences with the mother-country brought to some certain issue, and our liberties fixed upon a permanent foundation. This desirable end can only be accomplished by a free communication of sentiments, and a sincere and fervent regard for the interests of our common country."

1

This was the second step towards the Revolution; and it was creditable to Pennsylvania, that she was the first to recommend the calling of a congress of all the colonies, to consider how best to oppose the oppressive measures of Great Britain. In accordance with the request of this committee, deputies from the several counties of Pennsylvania met at Philadelphia, at the time appointed, and adopted the following resolutions, Thomas Willing being elected Chairman, and Charles Thompson, Secretary.

"That they owed allegiance to George the Third — that unconstitutional independence on the parent state was abhorrent to their principles-that they ardently desired the restoration of their ancient harmony with the mother-country, on the principles of the constitution, and an interchange of good offices without infraction of their mutual rights — that the inhabitants of the colonies were entitled to the same rights and liberties within the colonies, that subjects born in England were entitled to within that realm - that the power assumed by Parliament, to bind the colonists by statutes in all cases whatever,' was unconstitutional, and therefore the source of the prevailing unhappy differences that the late acts of Parliament affecting the Province of Massachusetts were unconstitutional, oppressive, and dangerous that there was an absolute necessity that a colonial congress should be imme

1 Ramsay.