THE GRIEVANCES OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

STEPHEN HOPKINS.

Providence, July 30, 1764.

Liberty is the greatest blessing that men enjoy, and slavery the greatest curse that human nature is capable of. Hence it is a matter of the utmost importance to men which of the two shall be their portion. Absolute liberty, is, perhaps, incompatible with any kind of government. The safety resulting from society, and the advantages of just and equal laws, hath caused men to forego some part of their natural liberty, and submit to government. This appears to be the most rational account of its beginning, although, it must be confessed, mankind have by no means been agreed about it; some have found its origin in the divine appointment; others have thought it took its rise from power; enthusiasts have dreamed that dominion was founded in grace. Leaving these points to be settled by the descendants of Filmer, Cromwell, and Venner, we shall consider the British Constitution, as it at present stands, on revolution principles; and from thence endeavor to find the measure of the magistrates' power and the people's obedience.

This glorious Constitution, the best that ever existed among men, will be confessed by all to be founded on compact, and established by consent of the people. By this most beneficent compact, British subjects are to be governed only agreeably to laws to which themselves have in some way consented, and are not to be compelled to part with their property but as it is called for by the authority of such laws. The former is truly liberty; the latter is to be really possessed of property, and to have something that may be called one's own. On the contrary, those who are governed at the will of another, or others, and whose property may be taken from them by taxes, or otherwise, without their own consent, or against their will, are in a miserable condition of slavery; "for (says Algernon Sidney, in his discourse on government), liberty solely consists in the independency upon the will of another; and by name of slave we understand a man who can neither dispose of his person or goods, and enjoys all at the will of his master.' These things premised, whether the British American colonies on the continent are justly entitled to like privileges and freedoms as their fellow-subjects in Great Pritain are, is a point worthy mature examination. In discussing this question we shall make the colonies of New England, with whose rights we are best acquainted, the rule of our reasoning; not in the least doubting all the others are justly entitled to like rights with them.

New England was first planted by adventurers, who left England, their native country, by permission of King Charles the First, and at their own expense transported themselves to America, and, with great risk and difficulty, settled among the savages, and, in a very surprising manner, formed new colonies in the wilderness. Before their departure the terms of their freedom, and the relation they should stand in to the mother country, were fully settled. They were to remain subject to the King, and dependant on the kingdom of Great Britain. In return they were to receive protection, and enjoy all the rights and privileges of free-born Englishmen. This is abundantly proved by the charter given to the Massachusetts colony, while they were still in England, and which they received and brought over with them, as an authentic evidence of the condition they removed upon. The colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, also, afterwards obtained charters from the Crown granting like ample privileges. By all these charters it is in the most express and solemn manner granted that these adventurers, and their children after them forever, should have and enjoy all the freedom and liberty that the subjects in England enjoy. That they might make laws for their government, suitable to their circumstances, not repugnant to, but as near as might be agreeable to, the laws of England; that they might purchase lands, acquire goods, and use trade for their advantage, and have an absolute property in whatever they justly acquired. This, with many other gracious privileges, were granted them by several kings; and they were to pay, as an acknowledgment to the Crown, only one-fifth of the ore of gold and silver that should at any time be found in the State colonies; in lieu of a full satisfaction for all dues and demands of the Crown and kingdom of England upon them.

There is not anything new or extraordinary in these rights granted to the British colonles. The colonies from all countries at all times have enjoyed equal freedom with the mother state. Indeed, there would be found very few people in the world willing to leave their native country, and go through the fatigue and hardship of planting in a new, uncultivated one, for the sake of losing their freedom. They who settle new countries must be poor, and in course, ought to be free. Advantages, pecuniary and agreeable, are not on the side of the emigrants; and surely they must have something in their stead.

To illustrate this, permit us to examine what hath generally been the condition of the colonies with respect to their freedom. We will begin with those who went out from the ancient Commonwealth of Greece, which are the first, perhaps, we have any good account of. Thucydides, that grave and judicious historian, says of them "they were not sent out to be slaves, but to be the equals of those who re mained behind ;" and again, the Corinthians gave public notice "that the new colony was going to Epidamus, into which all that should

enter should have equal and like privileges with those who stayed at home."

This was uniformly the condition of the Grecian colonies; they went out and settled new countries; they took such forms of government as themselves chose, though it generally nearly resembled that of the mother state, whether democratical or orligarchical. 'Tis true they were fond to acknowledge their original, and always confessed themselves under obligation to pay a kind of honorary respect to, and shyw a filial dependance on the commonwealth from whence it sprung. Thucidides again tells us that the Corinthians complained of the Corcyrans "from whom, though a colony of their own, they had received some contemptuous treatment; for they neither paid them the usual honor on their public solemnities, nor began with the Corinthians in the distribution of the sacrifice which is always done by other colonies." From hence it is plain what kind of dependance the Greek colonies were in, and what sort of acknowledgment they owed to the mother state.

If we pass from the Grecian to the Roman colonies we shall find them not less free; but this difference may be observed between them, that the Roman colonies did not, like the Grecian, become separate states, governed by different laws, but always remained a part of the mother state; all that were free of the colonies were always free of Rome. And Grotius gives us an opinion of the Roman King concerning the freedom of the colonies. King Tullus says, "for our part, we look upon it to be neither truth nor justice that the mother cities ought of necessity to rule over their colonies."

When we come down to the latter ages of the world, and consider the colonies planted in the three last centuries in America from several kingdoms in Europe, we shall find them, says Puffendorf, very different from the ancient colonies, and he gives us an instance in those of the Spaniards. Although it be confessed they fall greatly short of enjoying equal freedom with the ancient Greek and Roman ones, yet it will be truly said they enjoy equal freedom with their countrymen in Spain; but as they are all in the government of an absolute monarch they have no reason to complain that one enjoys the liberty the other is deprived of. The French colonies will be found nearly in the same condition, and for the same reason, because their fellowsubjects of France have always lost their liberty. And the question is whether all colonies, as compared with one another, enjoy equal liberty, or whether all enjoy as much freedom as the inhabitants of the mother state; and this will hardly be denied in the case of the Spanish, French, and other modern foreign colonies.

By this it fully appears that colonies in general, both ancient and modern, have always enjoyed as much freedom as the mother state from which they went out; and will any one suppose the British colonies of America are an exception to this general rule? Colonies

that came from a kingdom, renowned for liberty; from the constitution founded on compact, from the people of all the sons of men the most tenacious of freedom; who left the delights of their native country, parted from their homes and all their conveniences, searched out and subdued a foreign country, with the most amazing travail and fortitude, to the infinite advantage and emolument of the mother state; that removed on a firm reliance of the solemn compact and real promise and grant that they and their successors should be free, should be partakers in all the privileges and advantages of the then English, now English constitution.

If it were possible a doubt could yet remain in the most unbelieving mind that these British colonies are not every way justly and fully entitled to equal liberty and freedom with their fellow-subjects in Europe, we might show that the Parliament of Great Britain have always understood their rights in the same light.

By an act passed in the thirteenth year of the reign of His Majesty, King George the Second, entitled "An Act for naturalizing Foreign Protestants, etc.," and by another act passed in the same reign, for ncarly the same purposes, by both which it is enacted and ordained, "That all foreign Protestants who had inhabited, and resided for the space of seven years, or more, in His Majesty's colonies in America," might, on the conditions therein mentioned, be naturalized, and thereupon should be "deemed, adjudged, and taken to be His Majesty's natural born subjects of the kingdom of Great Britain, to all intents, constructions, and purposes, as if they and every one of them had been, or were born within the same.” No reasonable man will here suppose that Parliament intended, in those acts, to put foreigners who had been in the colonies only seven years, in a better condition than than those who had been born in them, or had removed from Britain thither, but only to put these foreigners on an equality with them; and to do this, they are obliged to give them all the rights of naturalborn subjects of Great Britain.

From what has been shown it will appear beyond a doubt that the British subjects in America have equal rights with those in Britain; that they do not hold those rights and privileges granted them, but possess them as inherent and indefeasible.

And the British legislative and executive powers have considered the colonies as possessed of these rights, and have always, heretofore, in the most tender and parental manner, treated them as their dependant (though free) condition required. The protection promised on the part of the Crown, which with cheerfulness and gratitude we acknowledge, hath at all times been given to the colonies. The dependance of the colonies to Great Britain hath been fully testified by a constant and ready obedience to all the commands of his present Majesty, and royal predecessors; both men and money having been raised in them at all times when called for, with as much alacrity and in as large pro

portion as hath been done in Great Britain, the ability of each considered. It must also be confessed with thankfulness, that the first adventurers and their successors, for one hundred and thirty years, have fully enjoyed all the freedom and immunities promised on their removal from England. But here the scene seems to be unhappily changing. The British ministry, whether induced by jealousy of the colonies, by false information, or by some alteration in the system of political government, we have no information; whatever hath been the motive, this we are sure of, the Parliament passed an act, limiting, restricting, and burdening the trade of these colonies much more than had ever been done before, as also for greatly enlarging the power and jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty in the colonies, and likewise passed another act establishing certain stamp duties. These acts have occasioned great uneasiness among the British subjects on the continent of America. How much reason there is for it, we will endeavor in the most modest and plain manner we can, to lay before the public.

In the first place, let it be considered that although each of the colonies hath a legislature within itself, to take care of its interests and provide for its peace and internal government, yet there are many things of a more general nature, quite out of the reach of these particular legislatures which it is necessary should be regulated, ordered, and governed. One of this kind is the commerce of the whole British empire, taken collectively, and that of each kingdom and colony in it as it makes a part of that whole-indeed, everything that concerns the proper interest and fit government of the whole commonwealth, of keeping the peace, and subordination of all the parts towards the whole and one among another, must be considered in this light. Amongst these general concerns, perhaps money and paper credit, these grand instruments of all commerce, will be found also to have a place. These, with all other matters of a general nature, it is absolutely necessary should have a general power to direct them; some supreme and overruling authority with power to make laws and form regulations for the good of all, and to compel their execution and observance. It being necessary some such general power should exist somewhere, every man of the least knowledge of the British constitution, will naturally be led to look for and find it in the Parliament of Great Britain; that grand and august legislative body must from the nature of its authority and the necessity of the thing be justly vested with this power. Hence it becomes the indispensable duty of every good and loyal subject cheerfully to obey and patiently submit to all the acts, laws, orders, and regulations that may be made and passed by Parliament for directing and governing all these general matters.

Here it may be urged by many, and indeed with great appearance of reason, that the equity, justice, and beneficence of the British Constitution will require that the separate kingdoms and distinct colonies,