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CHAPTER XI

WHO SHALL TAX AMERICA?

1763-1774

The treaty of 1763 gave England an undisputed title to a greatly extended area in America, consisting of three regions: The thirteen colonies, inhabited chiefly by Englishmen; Canada, inhabited by the French and Indians; and the country from the Allegheny to the Mississippi, from Florida to Hudson Bay, inhabited by hostile Indians. The thirteen colonies had well-organized governments, but Canada was a wilderness, save the region along the St. Lawrence, organized as the Province of Quebec, which extended southward to the crest of the Appalachian highlands dividing New York and New England from Canada. Florida, which for a hundred years had been shifting its boundaries, was now organized as two provinces: East Florida, comprising the present state east of the Appalachicola, and West Florida, containing also a part of the present area of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Georgia was extended to the St. Mary's River.

Believing that the colonies and the three provinces gave ample room for settlers, the king reserved the remainder of the country, that west of the Alleghany Mountains, exclusively for the Indians. Beyond the highlands that divide the headwaters of Atlantic streams from the headwaters of streams flowing into the Mississippi, no white man should be suffered to go, and all settlers within this region should at once return to the colonies, to the Floridas, or to Quebec. The Indians henceforth should be unmolested and their country be forever closed to the whites at least so the king's proclamation read. It will be noticed that the "proclamation" line coincides exactly with the frontier which France had been trying to establish for seventy years. Would the king's will prove any stronger than a line of

French forts? By the treaty of 1763, Spain was acknowledged master from the Pacific to the Mississippi, and from the tropics northward, as California might extend. France had been driven from the continent; but might she not attempt to reconquer her lost domain? England must do more than issue proclamations and make new provinces on paper; she must hold the new country with English soldiers. The ministry thought that ten thousand would be enough, and decided to distribute them from Canada to Florida. The thirteen colonies were to have their share.

Thus English America was to be protected by regular troops sent from England, and in return for this protection. the colonies should pay a portion of the expense involved. This plan seemed very fair to king and Parliament. They reasoned that it was the colonies which had been chiefly benefited by the overthrow of the French in America. England had been at war almost continuously for a hundred years, and her public debt had risen in consequence to gigantic proportions, upward of one billion pounds sterling, a sum which seemed too great ever to be paid. The people of Great Britain were heavily taxed to meet the interest on this debt and to carry on the government. The American colonies were part of the empire. Its welfare was theirs. England had just closed a long struggle for their benefit. The French and Indians would no longer ravage the settlements. A few regular troops in America would prevent any sudden attack by France or Spain. Meanwhile the colonies would have peace and prosperity.

During the last two wars, King George's (1744-48) and the French and Indian (1749-56-63), the laws of trade and navigation intended to produce a revenue in America had been openly violated. Smuggling had quite wiped out revenue; but now the old laws should be revived, amended, and be executed strictly. The Americans were making a good deal of money on rum, which they manufactured out of the sugar and molasses brought from the West Indies. Here a slight impost tax would be productive, and would not be felt. Englishmen at home paid a stamp tax, small but productive, and not burdensome; the Americans should pay one also. Why should Englishmen in America be

1763]

NEW TAXES

127

favored more than Englishmen at home? So England decided to levy new taxes in America.

The navigation acts, or tariff laws, of the seventeenth century were now revived and amended and their execution attempted. But first, smuggling must be stopped. This meant the patrol of the Atlantic coast for nearly two thousand miles, from the St. Croix in the north to the St. Mary's in the south, with armed vessels that would now be called revenue cutters. But the Americans did not consider smuggling a crime, or even an offense. True, it violated English law, but they believed the law to be bad. If the smugglers were caught, they must be tried and punished. Violations of the revenue laws by ancient custom were tried before the admiralty courts.

To assist the naval officers, Parliament created viceadmiralty courts in America which should try all persons caught violating the navigation laws. The vice-admiralty judges were appointed by the king, and were to try all offenses without a jury. Now the right of Englishmen to trial by jury was at least as old as King Alfred. At once the Americans protested against the form of procedure in the new law courts, which, by depriving them of the benefits of trial by jury, was a violation of the ancient and undoubted rights of British subjects.

The

To tax sugar and molasses was not a new idea. old tax of sixpence a gallon on the one and five shillings a hundredweight on the other was levied, in 1733, on all brought to the colonies, except from the British West Indies, and the assemblies had repeatedly protested against the act. Now for the sixth time Parliament re-enacted the law, but cut down the tax on molasses twopence, and added to the tariff list indigo, coffee, white sugar (the old tax had been only on brown sugar), wines from Spain and Portugal, and all goods from France or the East Indies. If the Americans did not wish to pay the duty, they could buy their supplies in England. But the Americans protested, saying that the law cut them off from trading with all parts of the world and favored the merchants and monopolies of England.

Stamp duties were a new thing in America.

A strong

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