WEBVTT NOTE 33. Repeal of the Stamp Act 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Volume 3, Chapter 33, Repeal of the Stamp Act 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:14.000 Considering the tough, ultra-imperialist policy Britain had been pursuing toward the American colonies, 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:22.000 we may well ask, how did it finally come to choose the alternative of appeasement and repeal? 4 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.000 And when every imperialist instinct certainly called for a tough crackdown 5 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:32.840 on the presumptuous, impertinent and presumably traitorous colonist. 6 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:39.360 The chief clue to the answer was the fall of the arch-imperialist Grenville ministry 7 00:00:39.360 --> 00:00:42.120 in July 1765. 8 00:00:42.120 --> 00:00:48.040 King George had never liked Grenville personally, and Grenville's attempt to exclude the king's 9 00:00:48.040 --> 00:00:54.560 mother from being selected regent in case of the monarch's incapacity from illness 10 00:00:54.560 --> 00:01:01.440 was just about the last straw. Grenville's open insult to the king's mother was caused 11 00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:08.920 by her long-time liaison with the generally hated Earl of Bute. Accordingly, King George 12 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:15.080 removed Grenville and replaced him with an ultra-wig ministry headed by the wig leader 13 00:01:15.080 --> 00:01:21.160 the Marquis of Rockingham and included the venerable Duke of Newcastle as Lord Privy 14 00:01:21.160 --> 00:01:28.120 The bulk of the rest of the cabinet was new and young blood, headed by the fighting liberal, 15 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:32.100 General Conway, as Secretary of State for the Southern Department. 16 00:01:32.100 --> 00:01:35.900 But the liberal millennium had scarcely arrived in Britain. 17 00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:38.920 The new ministry was held in general contempt. 18 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:44.360 Clearly, Rockingham commanded nothing close to a majority in Parliament, and only the 19 00:01:44.360 --> 00:01:47.940 king's whim kept him in office. 20 00:01:47.940 --> 00:01:51.020 Everyone expected Rockingham's imminent fall. 21 00:01:51.020 --> 00:01:56.660 In this context, repeal of the Stamp Act was scarcely assured, but at least there was now 22 00:01:56.660 --> 00:01:58.960 a fighting chance. 23 00:01:58.960 --> 00:02:06.320 Charles Watson Wentworth, Marquis of Rockingham, was at this point a young man in his thirties 24 00:02:06.320 --> 00:02:12.480 and the political leader of the wool-grazing district of Yorkshire, as well as of the Whig 25 00:02:12.480 --> 00:02:13.980 movement. 26 00:02:13.980 --> 00:02:20.320 From his early years, his mentor in Lockean ideas of liberty had been Sir George Seville. 27 00:02:20.320 --> 00:02:25.760 Under Seville's guidance, Rockingham had studied at the Center of Liberal Thought, St. John's 28 00:02:25.760 --> 00:02:32.640 College, Cambridge, under John Newcomb and Bishop Samuel Squire, at one time secretary 29 00:02:32.640 --> 00:02:39.400 to the Duke of Newcastle. The young, shy, and gentle Marquis was not, however, cast 30 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:47.120 in a heroic mold. The Rockingham ministry, friendly to the Wilkite cause, quickly quashed 31 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:54.120 General Warns and the Persecution of the Wilkite Press and removed the persecutors from office 32 00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:59.320 while the massacred innocents were restored to their public post. 33 00:02:59.320 --> 00:03:04.520 The chief test of the Rockingham Ministry, however, would come in December when Parliament 34 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:06.160 would meet. 35 00:03:06.160 --> 00:03:12.560 Newcastle, as usual, tried desperately and fawningly to get William Pitt to join the 36 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:19.100 in the Cabinet, so as to ensure a parliamentary majority, while Pitt, as usual, scornfully 37 00:03:19.100 --> 00:03:25.400 refused to enter any cabinet where he did not enjoy absolute power. Grumbling about 38 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:32.180 the lack of a warlike spirit among the Whigs, Pitt remained aloof, in effect aligned with 39 00:03:32.180 --> 00:03:39.180 Grenville and Temple, in maintaining opposition to the Whig ministry. Several factors joined 40 00:03:39.180 --> 00:03:45.900 to Enlist the Rockingham Ministry in a Drive to Repeal the Stamp Act. There was, in the 41 00:03:45.900 --> 00:03:53.020 first place, the liberal ideology of the Whigs, and in particular the long and honorable record 42 00:03:53.020 --> 00:03:59.780 of the Duke of Newcastle's salutary neglect of the colonies. Second, the Whigs were close 43 00:03:59.780 --> 00:04:05.740 to many of the merchants of England, and the merchants who traded with America were especially 44 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:35.740 The English merchants trading with America had been hurt by the American Revenue Act and by the whole program to enforce mercantilism upon the colonies. They suffered directly as traders and indirectly in the loss of American markets caused by the British restrictions. Their devotion to repeal of the Stamp Act was further strengthened by the decision of the leading American merchants. 45 00:04:35.740 --> 00:04:58.740 The Boycott was shrewdly designed to pressure the English merchants. It began shortly before November 1, when 200 New York merchants and retailers signed an agreement to cease importing from Britain until the Stamp Act was repealed. 46 00:04:58.740 --> 00:05:05.300 They were followed by four hundred Philadelphia merchants and traders a week later, supported 47 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:10.340 by Philadelphia retailers, and then by two hundred and fifty merchants and traders of 48 00:05:10.340 --> 00:05:18.340 Boston. These agreements were joined by merchants in Albany, in rural Pennsylvania, and in Salem, 49 00:05:18.340 --> 00:05:25.860 Marblehead, Plymouth, and Newburyport, Massachusetts. Compliance with the boycott was remarkably 50 00:05:25.860 --> 00:05:55.860 The first breach occurred in late April in Philadelphia. 51 00:05:55.860 --> 00:06:07.860 The principle of the secondary boycott was also applied against any exports to American ports where the stamp tax was being observed. 52 00:06:07.860 --> 00:06:21.860 Thus, for the short while that Georgia was using stamped paper, the Charleston Fire Company, consisting of small businessmen artisans, organized a boycott of all exports to Georgia. 53 00:06:21.860 --> 00:06:28.800 In late February, the Charleston Sons of Liberty, growing out of the fire company, threatened 54 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:35.920 destruction of a ship about to export rice to Georgia, as well as murder of the exporters. 55 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:39.680 The offending merchants thought it wiser to submit. 56 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:44.720 The people of Newburyport, Massachusetts, after threats had failed, informed customs 57 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:51.260 officials of violations in order to stop a schooner from sailing to Halifax, a port using 58 00:06:51.260 --> 00:06:53.620 and Stamped Paper. 59 00:06:53.620 --> 00:06:59.820 Joined to the slackening of imports due to the restrictions and taxes, the boycott helped 60 00:06:59.820 --> 00:07:07.460 to cement and intensify the clamor of British merchants to repeal the Stamp Act. 61 00:07:07.460 --> 00:07:12.860 Another aid, as we have seen, was the stoppage of some of the civil courts that enforced 62 00:07:12.860 --> 00:07:15.720 debt payments to English creditors. 63 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:20.820 The clamor was joined by the newly burgeoning English manufacturers, who were in danger 64 00:07:20.820 --> 00:07:36.820 The future of losing their American markets and the merchant planters in the West Indies who, in contrast to their vested interest in restricting the molasses trade, wanted the incubus of the stamp tax on their markets removed. 65 00:07:36.820 --> 00:07:43.820 This was the first time in English history that manufacturers were mobilized for political cause. 66 00:07:43.820 --> 00:07:50.460 The Duke of Newcastle had long been one of the best informed Englishmen on American affairs, 67 00:07:50.460 --> 00:07:56.340 and he was always in close touch with merchants in the American trade, especially their leader, 68 00:07:56.340 --> 00:08:03.820 the radical alderman, Sir William Baker. As early as May 1765, the London merchants in 69 00:08:03.820 --> 00:08:10.580 the American trade had chosen a select committee to battle oppressive legislation and taxation 70 00:08:10.580 --> 00:08:16.180 of the Colonies. During August and September, the merchants of Liverpool petitioned the 71 00:08:16.180 --> 00:08:22.980 government to repeal Grenville's oppressive acts in order to relieve the depressed state 72 00:08:22.980 --> 00:08:30.460 of trade, and they were followed by the manufacturers of Manchester and of the Yorkshire cities. 73 00:08:30.460 --> 00:08:36.900 All this pressure had particular meaning for Rockingham. The Marquis was the political 74 00:08:36.900 --> 00:08:41.900 He was a powerful leader of Yorkshire and close to the wool manufacturers there. 75 00:08:41.900 --> 00:08:46.900 He was also a relative of the powerful Wentworth family of New Hampshire, 76 00:08:46.900 --> 00:08:53.900 and was therefore very likely to favor their presentation of the American point of view. 77 00:08:53.900 --> 00:09:00.900 One of the joint agents for New Hampshire in arguing against the stamp tax was John Wentworth, 78 00:09:00.900 --> 00:09:04.900 nephew and future successor of Governor Benning Wentworth, 79 00:09:04.900 --> 00:09:11.700 And John exerted considerable influence upon Rockingham. Also close to Rockingham was former 80 00:09:11.700 --> 00:09:19.540 Boston merchant and now MP John Husk, who had been born in New Hampshire. Other influential 81 00:09:19.540 --> 00:09:27.020 New Hampshire agents were the John Tomlinson's, senior and junior, who were close associates 82 00:09:27.020 --> 00:09:32.020 of Newcastle. The Rockingham ministry was inclined not only 83 00:09:32.020 --> 00:09:39.100 for reasons ideological, social and economic to work for the repeal of the Stamp Act and 84 00:09:39.100 --> 00:09:46.020 other repressive restrictions on the colonies, but for compelling political reasons as well. 85 00:09:46.020 --> 00:09:52.420 For one thing, the merchants and manufacturers joined to the London radicals could provide 86 00:09:52.420 --> 00:09:58.700 the Whigs with a mass base for influence upon Parliament. For another, the focus could then 87 00:09:58.700 --> 00:10:05.500 and Beyond discrediting Grenville by highlighting the evil consequences of the actions of his 88 00:10:05.500 --> 00:10:11.260 administration. The British press kept the public well informed of the developing opposition 89 00:10:11.260 --> 00:10:18.580 to stamps in America. Patrick Henry's Resolves received full publicity in England. When news 90 00:10:18.580 --> 00:10:23.660 of the numerous American riots and actions of the Sons of Liberty began to be published 91 00:10:23.660 --> 00:10:30.580 In mid-October, Newcastle made a swift decision to drive for outright repeal of the Stamp 92 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:35.120 Act, a decision backed by Sir George Seville. 93 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:42.180 In early December, the London merchants, led by Barlow Trokoffic, an eminent merchant born 94 00:10:42.180 --> 00:10:49.100 in Boston, organized a committee to mobilize mercantile and manufacturing sentiment and 95 00:10:49.100 --> 00:10:56.340 and Depressor Parliament, then in the process of opening for repeal of the Stamp Act. 96 00:10:56.340 --> 00:11:03.660 Tarkovic was selected for this task by Rockingham, Newcastle, and the Whig Ministry. 97 00:11:03.660 --> 00:11:09.780 Tarkovic was another joint agent of New Hampshire, as well as a partner of the Tomlinson's in 98 00:11:09.780 --> 00:11:11.640 the American trade. 99 00:11:11.640 --> 00:11:17.540 He was also a radical alderman from London and an important advisor of Rockingham. 100 00:11:17.540 --> 00:11:23.420 Trikothic sent a crucially important circular letter, inspired by Rockingham and William 101 00:11:23.420 --> 00:11:30.300 Burke, to thirty of the leading trading and manufacturing towns in Great Britain. Letters 102 00:11:30.300 --> 00:11:35.940 were also sent to individual Whig leaders in the various towns, urging them to take 103 00:11:35.940 --> 00:11:40.860 the lead in organizing the various petitions to the government. This letter, which has 104 00:11:40.860 --> 00:11:47.300 been called the principal instrument in the happy repeal of the Stamp Act, soon bore fruit 105 00:11:47.300 --> 00:11:53.440 in a deluge of petitions to Parliament for repeal of the Stamp Act from over 20 towns 106 00:11:53.440 --> 00:12:00.580 and cities, including Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester. The petitions, of course, stressed 107 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:07.940 not the moral or political rights of colonies, but the grievous economic effects of the measure 108 00:12:07.940 --> 00:12:14.660 for trade in the colonies and at home. While Parliament would have to decide on repeal, 109 00:12:14.660 --> 00:12:19.660 There were many good deeds that the Rockingham administration could perform strictly on its 110 00:12:19.660 --> 00:12:26.580 own. Above all, it could return to the policy of salutary neglect, including a seemingly 111 00:12:26.580 --> 00:12:34.580 bungling failure to enforce the Stamp Act. This was precisely what it did. Instructions 112 00:12:34.580 --> 00:12:41.280 to the royal governors on the stamp tax were deliberately tardy and vague, and confined 113 00:12:41.280 --> 00:12:48.680 to Cloudy Advice to Do Their Duty Within the Limits of Prudence. No British Army was sent 114 00:12:48.680 --> 00:12:54.700 or mobilized and the Navy did not bother about the lack of stamps on the clearance papers 115 00:12:54.700 --> 00:13:01.760 of American ships. Furthermore, under the influence of Newcastle, the Rockingham Ministry 116 00:13:01.760 --> 00:13:10.340 applied salutary neglect to the rest of Grenville's restrictive program. Laxity was again encouraged. 117 00:13:10.340 --> 00:13:16.560 In particular, the useful Spanish bullion trade from South America to the British West 118 00:13:16.560 --> 00:13:23.180 Indies in exchange for English-manufactured goods, which helped repay debts to American 119 00:13:23.180 --> 00:13:30.860 and English merchants, was again looked at benignly, even though it was illegal. 120 00:13:30.860 --> 00:13:36.960 Laxity was particularly welcome after Grenville's repressive enforcement had disrupted transatlantic 121 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:40.040 trade habits of over a century. 122 00:13:40.040 --> 00:13:47.900 Moves were also undertaken to legalize informally or formally the vital American molasses trade 123 00:13:47.900 --> 00:13:53.720 with the foreign West Indies. Influence to this end was exerted by William Burke, the 124 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:59.460 young undersecretary to Conway. Burke, who had been the leading publicist at the end 125 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:05.960 of the Seven Years' War for the Whig peace terms of keeping the West Indian Islands and 126 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:11.880 and Letting France Keep the American Colonies, was himself involved in the molasses trade 127 00:14:11.880 --> 00:14:18.240 from Guadeloupe to America. Burke was a partner in this vital trade, repressed by Grenville's 128 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:24.960 program of rigor, as were his cousin Richard Burke and Richard's brother Edmund, the brilliant 129 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:31.120 young private secretary to Rockingham. In originally formulating its plans for the opening 130 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:38.360 of Parliament, the Whig Ministry had been misled into underestimating the colonial reaction 131 00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:45.620 to the Stamp Act, and therefore had planned to repeal or revise the Grenville Trade Acts 132 00:14:45.620 --> 00:14:50.120 gradually before taking up the Stamp Tax. 133 00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:56.800 They were misled largely by the special situation in Pennsylvania, including the over-optimistic 134 00:15:26.800 --> 00:15:32.940 At last becoming disillusioned about the quality of Franklin's reports and about the position 135 00:15:32.940 --> 00:15:35.540 of Mr. Franklin himself. 136 00:15:35.540 --> 00:15:41.480 The radical and rebellious temper of the colonies was becoming clear, and Franklin's cool treatment 137 00:15:41.480 --> 00:15:48.020 of the Bristol merchants opposed to the Stamp Act called his whole attitude into question. 138 00:15:48.020 --> 00:15:55.260 The administration now realized that Stamp Act repeal must be the first order of colonial 139 00:15:55.260 --> 00:16:07.260 By the December opening of parliament then, it was clear that the most pressing problem before the government was the stamp tax. 140 00:16:07.260 --> 00:16:22.260 The Whigs, merchants, manufacturers, and London radicals formed the Liberal Party, facing the opposition of Grenville, Bedford, Halifax, Butte, the King's Friends, 141 00:16:22.260 --> 00:16:26.260 In short, all of the various Tory factions. 142 00:16:26.260 --> 00:16:29.760 The ideological battle raged in the press. 143 00:16:29.760 --> 00:16:34.760 Typical of the liberal view were articles by Rationalis. 144 00:16:34.760 --> 00:16:38.760 Rationalis warned that Britain's harsh measures might 145 00:16:38.760 --> 00:16:42.760 well drive the American colonies out of desperation 146 00:16:42.760 --> 00:16:45.560 into independence. 147 00:16:45.560 --> 00:16:49.960 He argued, as had Robert Walpole decades before, that 148 00:16:49.960 --> 00:16:58.680 refraining from taxing the colonies would leave them free to use the money to buy British goods 149 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:05.560 and advantage to both peoples. Rationalis cited Walpole's famous aphorism, 150 00:17:06.360 --> 00:17:12.760 deliberately neglecting to enforce taxes and regulations in the colonies, is taxing them more 151 00:17:42.760 --> 00:17:57.760 and called for suppression of the Stamp Act Rebellion. But the large block of Tory King's friends were willing to go along with the King's ministers, so Grenville did not put his views to a test in Parliament. 152 00:17:57.760 --> 00:18:05.040 Significantly, Charles Townsend and Lord George Sackville, conservative members of the Ministry, 153 00:18:05.040 --> 00:18:11.600 both called for enforcement of the Stamp Act, although doing so while speaking against Grenville's 154 00:18:11.600 --> 00:18:18.560 motion. Leaders for the government in the debates were London Alderman, Beckford and Baker, Rose 155 00:18:18.560 --> 00:18:26.960 Fuller and Sir George Seville in the Commons, and Grafton and Dartmouth in the Lords. Leading the 156 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:35.960 The Tory attacks were Bedford, Halifax, Sandwich, and North in the Lords, and Grenville in the Commons. 157 00:18:35.960 --> 00:18:42.960 Finally, the administration was successful. The House agreed to adjourn until January 14. 158 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:48.960 The parliamentary task of the Ministry was made all the harder by the untimely death 159 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:54.960 at the end of October of the influential Duke of Cumberland, the King's uncle, 160 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:57.960 and the Whigs' one friend at court. 161 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:02.960 It was Cumberland who had persuaded the king to choose the Rockingham ministry. 162 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:06.960 The ministry was now clearly shakier than ever, 163 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:11.960 and Newcastle began to press upon Rockingham without success, 164 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:16.960 his old disastrous tactic of fawning upon William Pitt. 165 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:19.960 Pitt, now pressured by both sides, 166 00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:24.960 continued to refuse to support any government dominated by Newcastle. 167 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:31.960 Indeed, Pitt gave strong indications of favoring the exercise of British sovereignty over the colonies. 168 00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:40.960 However, the fawning upon Pitt was intensified by Newcastle as a result of the growing defection of the King's friends, 169 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:46.960 who were rapidly learning with alarm of the great extent and depth of the colonial rebellion. 170 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:53.520 Thus, as the crucial January session of Parliament approached, the Whigs saw their two potential 171 00:19:53.520 --> 00:20:01.080 sets of allies, the Pittites and the King's friends, drifting strongly toward opposition 172 00:20:01.080 --> 00:20:03.200 to repeal. 173 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:08.800 Amidst the growing political crisis at home and in the colonies, the cabinet met on December 174 00:20:08.800 --> 00:20:13.400 27 to decide finally upon government policy. 175 00:20:13.400 --> 00:20:32.400 Rockingham, Lord Dartmouth, Henry Seymour Conway, and William Doudswell, Chancellor of the Exchequer and representative of the instinctively liberal wing of the country Gentry, came out four-square for outright and total repeal of the Stamp Act. 176 00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:38.400 There was no need to invite Newcastle, perhaps the most pro-American of them all. 177 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:43.680 The big surprise, however, was a determined drive by Attorney General Charles York, a 178 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:52.240 conservative renegade Whig, against any undignified concessions to the colonies. Whether or not 179 00:20:52.240 --> 00:21:01.460 the repeal was pushed, York insisted particularly on a declaratory act which would affirm conclusively 180 00:21:01.460 --> 00:21:07.660 The Unbounded Sovereign Power of Parliament Over the Colonies 181 00:21:07.660 --> 00:21:13.340 York also called for a penalty of high treason against anyone who might dare to attack the 182 00:21:13.340 --> 00:21:18.340 proclaimed sovereignty of Parliament in speech or in writing. 183 00:21:18.340 --> 00:21:23.820 York's stand was attacked by Conway and later by an angry Newcastle. 184 00:21:23.820 --> 00:21:29.460 Instead, Newcastle proposed the usual wig game, which had worked so well in the days 185 00:21:29.460 --> 00:21:47.340 The Declaration could then serve as a formal camouflage for the reality of conciliation, 186 00:21:47.340 --> 00:21:54.340 salutary neglect, and virtual de facto colonial independence from British rule. 187 00:21:54.340 --> 00:22:01.260 Rockingham himself was thinking along similar lines, but once again Pitt threw monkey wrench 188 00:22:01.260 --> 00:22:07.580 into the proceedings, calling for a firmer stand against the colonies and insisting on 189 00:22:07.580 --> 00:22:10.460 his personal control of the cabinet. 190 00:22:10.460 --> 00:22:15.860 Earl Temple trumpeted that Pitt agreed that the Americans must be crushed and, to make 191 00:22:15.860 --> 00:22:23.040 matters worse, Conway and Grafton, personally loyal to Pitt, although liberal, repeatedly 192 00:22:23.040 --> 00:22:34.920 In the meantime, Bute and the King's friends, violently disturbed at the colonists' disobedience, 193 00:22:34.920 --> 00:22:41.720 were secretly given the green light by the King himself to vote against his own ministry, 194 00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:47.220 which he was already preparing to dump. What the King desired as the Tory ideal of his 195 00:22:47.220 --> 00:22:54.220 In Parliament, the King's friends, without joining Grenville's organized opposition, would vote against repeal, thereby toppling the ministry and permitting the King to ignore the Grenvillites, whose leader he personally hated, informing his desired ministers. 196 00:23:17.220 --> 00:23:18.500 History. 197 00:23:18.500 --> 00:23:25.020 As the decisive January session of Parliament drew near, success of the repeal program seemed 198 00:23:25.020 --> 00:23:33.760 distant indeed, borne down by defections within and without, harassed by intrigue, alarmed 199 00:23:33.760 --> 00:23:41.180 at the mounting rebellion, the rockingham wigs yet coolly and rationally stayed firm 200 00:23:41.180 --> 00:23:49.820 on Principle, insisting on removing the oppression instead of sending force to crush the colonies. 201 00:23:49.820 --> 00:23:54.980 With only the merchants and manufacturers to support the Whigs, the power of the latter 202 00:23:54.980 --> 00:24:04.060 in Parliament was minimal, yet the Whigs refused to temporize and continued to press for repeal. 203 00:24:04.060 --> 00:24:09.940 Parliament opened on January 14, and the expected immediate assault on the Ministry was launched 204 00:24:09.940 --> 00:24:17.060 by the Grenvillites and some King's friends, demanding enforcement of the Stamp Act, as 205 00:24:17.060 --> 00:24:22.240 well as the sending of troops to the colonies to crush the rebellion and to impose the brutal 206 00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:31.240 model of British policy in conquered Ireland on the Americans. At this point, William Pitt, 207 00:24:31.240 --> 00:24:43.160 Ill and erratic as usual, exercised his charisma once more. Pitt, failed by illness and insanity, 208 00:24:43.160 --> 00:24:52.280 had not appeared in Parliament for two years. Now Pitt played his pivotal role to maximum dramatic 209 00:24:52.280 --> 00:24:59.080 effect after having kept everyone in the dark about his position. Staggering to his feet, 210 00:24:59.080 --> 00:25:06.440 Pitt stunned everyone with a fiery defense of the Americans and a scathing attack on 211 00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:13.760 Grenville. As to the late ministry, every capital measure they have taken has been entirely 212 00:25:13.760 --> 00:25:21.220 wrong. The Whigs were criticized by Pitt in an odd turnabout for hesitancy in treating 213 00:25:21.220 --> 00:25:28.960 the problem. As for the Americans, Pitt avered that they had all the natural rights of mankind 214 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:34.280 and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen. Only American assemblies have the right to 215 00:25:34.280 --> 00:25:42.600 tax the colonies. Any other dispensation would be slavery. Pitt concluded that this kingdom 216 00:25:42.600 --> 00:25:49.100 has no right to lay a tax upon the colonies, although sovereign over them in every field 217 00:25:49.100 --> 00:25:56.960 of legislation or regulation. Pitt therefore urged immediate repeal of the Stamp Act on 218 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:02.160 and the grounds that it was an unconstitutional tax on the colonies. 219 00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:08.560 The repeal was to be accompanied by a declaratory act asserting Parliament's sovereignty, limited 220 00:26:08.560 --> 00:26:13.100 by a lack of taxing power, over the Americans. 221 00:26:13.100 --> 00:26:19.560 After Grenville answered with one of his typical legalistic speeches, Pitt's reply rose to 222 00:26:19.560 --> 00:26:21.360 the heights of eloquence. 223 00:26:21.360 --> 00:26:28.760 I have been charged with giving birth to sedition in America. They have spoken their sentiments 224 00:26:28.760 --> 00:26:36.760 with freedom against this unhappy act, and that freedom has become their crime. The gentleman 225 00:26:36.760 --> 00:26:45.000 tells us America is obstinate. America is almost an open rebellion. I rejoice that America 226 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:51.880 America has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all feelings of liberty as voluntarily 227 00:26:51.880 --> 00:26:59.300 to submit and be slaves, would have been fit to make slaves of the rest. I come not here 228 00:26:59.300 --> 00:27:06.080 armed at all points with law cases to defend the cause of liberty. I am past the time of 229 00:27:06.080 --> 00:27:13.120 life to be turning to books to know whether I love liberty or not. Will you sheath your 230 00:27:13.120 --> 00:27:19.880 Your sword in the bowels of your brother, the Americans? You may coerce and conquer, 231 00:27:19.880 --> 00:27:26.160 but when they fall, they will fall like the strong man embracing the pillars of this Constitution 232 00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:33.560 and bury it in ruin with them. Pitt's brilliant speech was a mighty blow for the American 233 00:27:33.560 --> 00:27:40.760 cause, yet it is surely ironic that this, one of the few libertarian stands of Pitt's 234 00:27:40.760 --> 00:27:47.680 Rockingham's career was to make this Johnny-come-lately a supposedly libertarian hero to the American 235 00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:49.880 colonist. 236 00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:54.640 Rockingham's thankless role was forgotten, even though Pitt had refused to coordinate 237 00:27:54.640 --> 00:28:01.720 his moves with the ministry and even now continued to refuse cooperation with Rockingham. 238 00:28:01.720 --> 00:28:08.480 In fact, Pitt erratically continued to insist on Earl Temple's inclusion into the cabinet 239 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:38.480 as the price of his support. Even though Temple was ardently defending the Stamp Act in the House of Lords, still, Pitt had drastically changed his mind. Three weeks before, he was ready to impose British authority on the colonist. Now, he stood fast for repeal. What, apart from inherent instability, had changed him? The answer lies in the trichotic agitation 240 00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:45.040 among the merchants and manufacturers, shrewdly directed from behind the scenes by the Rockingham 241 00:28:45.040 --> 00:28:53.160 Ministry and spurred by the depression and the trade boycotts waged in the colonies. 242 00:28:53.160 --> 00:28:57.740 During December and January, the merchants' agitation received a great boost from the 243 00:28:57.740 --> 00:29:04.480 temporary suppression of American shipping because of the lack of stamped clearances 244 00:29:04.480 --> 00:29:09.240 and from the closing of the civil courts to British creditors. 245 00:29:09.240 --> 00:29:15.520 The English agitation for repeal was also joined to great effect in the public press. 246 00:29:15.520 --> 00:29:22.080 The leading Whig publicists in the campaign were William Burke, Edmund Burke, and particularly 247 00:29:22.080 --> 00:29:28.900 David Hartley, a lifelong friend and advisor of Seville's who had first urged Sir George 248 00:29:28.900 --> 00:29:34.460 the previous fall to press for complete and immediate repeal. 249 00:29:34.460 --> 00:29:43.180 Foremost in influencing Pitt was the unanimous clamor for repeal among the merchants. 250 00:29:43.180 --> 00:29:48.500 All his life Pitt had been the spokesman of the merchants, especially those engaged in 251 00:29:48.500 --> 00:29:51.260 West India planting. 252 00:29:51.260 --> 00:29:59.140 But now all the merchants, whether in America or West India trade, united to urge repeal. 253 00:29:59.140 --> 00:30:07.540 Of the fifty-two merchants sitting in Parliament in February 1766, forty-six voted for repeal. 254 00:30:07.540 --> 00:30:13.720 Of the Maverick Six, two were members of the King's Scots Bloc, two were agents of the 255 00:30:13.720 --> 00:30:21.060 East India Company, headed by the Tory Earl of Sandwich, and two were indebted to Grenville. 256 00:30:21.060 --> 00:30:27.620 Of the West Indian Planting Interest, Beckford, the Lascelles family, and the Fullers as well 257 00:30:27.620 --> 00:30:33.620 as well as the West Country Gentry were all ardent opponents of the Stamp Act. 258 00:30:33.620 --> 00:30:39.180 It was therefore clear to Pitt that there was only one way for him to re-attract his 259 00:30:39.180 --> 00:30:46.060 old mercantile West Country and West India support and to wean them from their attachment 260 00:30:46.060 --> 00:30:49.600 to the Whigs over the Stamp Act. 261 00:30:49.600 --> 00:30:56.600 That way was to make a grand stand play to shout louder than the Rockingham Whigs for 262 00:30:56.600 --> 00:31:02.640 for the American Cause. No matter that the Whigs had to engage in subtle and often silent 263 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:09.400 strategy to maneuver a repeal through Parliament. Never mind destruction of the Whigs' well-laid 264 00:31:09.400 --> 00:31:17.400 plans. By thundering dramatically in Parliament, Pitt could seem to be the heroic champion 265 00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:25.200 of American liberty and make the Rockingham seem pale and timorous by comparison. Such 266 00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:31.760 Such is precisely what Pitt did in his irresponsibly designed speech. 267 00:31:31.760 --> 00:31:36.840 Having tried and failed to induce Pitt to join the Cabinet, the Rockingham Ministry met 268 00:31:36.840 --> 00:31:41.860 on January 17 to decide the strategy for repeal. 269 00:31:41.860 --> 00:31:47.520 Within the Cabinet, a fierce struggle raged, with Attorney General York reluctant on repeal 270 00:31:47.520 --> 00:31:54.000 and insistent on the harshest possible declaratory act asserting the absolute sovereignty of 271 00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:00.880 of Parliament over the Colonies. York pressed alone for a specific declaration of a Parliament's 272 00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:06.880 right to tax the Colonies, but was overruled by Rockingham and the final version of the 273 00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:14.800 Declaratory Act. In the meantime, a flood of petitions for repeal by merchants and manufacturers 274 00:32:14.800 --> 00:32:23.520 was deluging Parliament. Their zeal was intensified by the sharp drop in exports to America caused 275 00:32:23.520 --> 00:32:30.900 by Post-War Depression, Trade Restrictions, and Boycotts by American Merchants. 276 00:32:30.900 --> 00:32:41.420 Exports to America had fallen by 700,000 pounds from 1764, a drop of over 25 percent. Furthermore, 277 00:32:41.420 --> 00:32:47.540 unemployment was now severe in the export industries, especially in shipping, and fears 278 00:32:47.540 --> 00:32:55.100 This grew of riots by the restless unemployed. Above all, Americans owed English merchants 279 00:32:55.100 --> 00:33:01.800 and financiers a mass of debt, and fears of default disturbed almost every merchant in 280 00:33:01.800 --> 00:33:09.280 England. Total American debt to England at this time has been estimated at nearly five 281 00:33:09.280 --> 00:33:17.100 million pounds. And all this to be sacrificed for the sake of a stamp tax designed to yield 282 00:33:17.100 --> 00:33:26.420 and annual revenue of only £60,000. Skillfully timed, petitions for repeal poured into Parliament 283 00:33:26.420 --> 00:33:34.940 on January 17 from the merchants of Bristol, Lancaster, Liverpool, Leeds and Halifax, from 284 00:33:34.940 --> 00:33:41.380 the manufacturers of Manchester, Leicester and Bradford, and from the wool manufacturers 285 00:33:41.380 --> 00:34:00.100 The Rockingham Ministry's almost exclusive stress on the economic reasons for repeal 286 00:34:00.100 --> 00:34:06.540 and its blurring and playing down of constitutional reasons, while perhaps effective in the short 287 00:34:06.540 --> 00:34:10.860 run, stored up great trouble for the future. 288 00:34:10.860 --> 00:34:18.100 William Pitt's speech was generally misinterpreted as only denying Parliament's power of internal 289 00:34:18.100 --> 00:34:26.220 taxation of the colonies, whereas Pitt, as well as the colonists, denied all taxation 290 00:34:26.220 --> 00:34:31.540 imposed by the mother country and agreed only to the latter's power to regulate the trade 291 00:34:31.540 --> 00:34:33.420 of the colonies. 292 00:34:33.420 --> 00:34:39.380 The Rockingham Ministry, anxious to appease its vehement opposition, decided to stress 293 00:34:39.380 --> 00:34:49.380 to suppress the weaker limits and to give the impression that the arbitrary, internal, external distinction was that of the colonist also. 294 00:34:49.380 --> 00:35:01.380 Thus, when Pitt and his friend George Cook tried to bring the petitions of the Stamp Act Congress, which clearly denied the right of all parliamentary taxation, 295 00:35:01.380 --> 00:35:07.380 before Parliament, the administration managed to suppress their hearing. 296 00:35:07.380 --> 00:35:20.380 In keeping with this soft-sell strategy of the 40 or so administration witnesses appearing before the House on the Stamp Act, the featured American was none other than Benjamin Franklin. 297 00:35:20.380 --> 00:35:27.660 The Whigs were not above using bribery, none other than Major Thomas James, the anti-American 298 00:35:27.660 --> 00:35:34.820 hard-line commander from New York, was bribed with a very large sum to testify in Commons 299 00:35:34.820 --> 00:35:38.100 in favor of repeal of the Stamp Act. 300 00:35:38.100 --> 00:35:46.400 The daft and witty Franklin pleased the administration, not only by stressing the economic consequences 301 00:35:46.400 --> 00:35:54.760 rather than moral or political rights, but also by raising and stressing the old arbitrary 302 00:35:54.760 --> 00:36:01.280 and flimsy distinction between internal and external taxation that he and his friend Richard 303 00:36:01.280 --> 00:36:09.680 Jackson had originated over two years before. Nor was that all. Franklin changed the terms 304 00:36:09.680 --> 00:36:31.680 A completely rejected and bizarre distinction of Franklin's and of a few of his cronies was elevated by the wily Franklin to become, in the eyes of the English, the official stand of the American colonies. 305 00:36:31.680 --> 00:36:39.200 On February 3rd, two weeks before introducing the Motion for Repeal, the Rockingham Ministry 306 00:36:39.200 --> 00:36:46.240 introduced some sugar-coating for the forthcoming pill, the Declaratory Act. 307 00:36:46.240 --> 00:36:51.100 This bill asserted full parliamentary authority over the colonies. 308 00:36:51.100 --> 00:36:57.080 The crucial question of whether the power extended in full or in part to taxation was 309 00:36:57.080 --> 00:37:02.880 was deliberately left ambiguous as sop to all factions. 310 00:37:02.880 --> 00:37:08.080 Here Rockingham overrode the objections of the arch-conservative Whigs, Attorney General 311 00:37:08.080 --> 00:37:14.040 York and his brother, the Earl of Hardwick, who urged that the right to tax the colonies 312 00:37:14.040 --> 00:37:16.620 be inserted into the bill. 313 00:37:16.620 --> 00:37:21.840 From the other side, Newcastle believed that the declaratory bill went too far. 314 00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:28.080 In Commons, Colonel Isaac Barre and William Pitt made a tactical error and tried to weaken 315 00:37:28.080 --> 00:37:30.200 the declaration. 316 00:37:30.200 --> 00:37:35.720 By losing, they gave the impression to all England that the bill did include the power 317 00:37:35.720 --> 00:37:38.120 to tax the colonies. 318 00:37:38.120 --> 00:37:44.560 The Declaratory Act passed Parliament overwhelmingly, with only Pitt and a few hard-hitting liberals 319 00:37:44.560 --> 00:37:51.620 opposed in the Commons, and Lord Camden leading the handful of opponents in the Lords. 320 00:37:51.620 --> 00:37:56.520 At this point, however, the Tory opposition counterattacked, with a resolution calling 321 00:37:56.520 --> 00:38:02.940 for armed enforcement of the Stamp Act in the colonies. On February 6, the Lords carried 322 00:38:02.940 --> 00:38:09.100 the resolution by three votes, and Bute's vote in favor was a clear signal of the King's 323 00:38:09.100 --> 00:38:17.180 true wishes. The vote, ominous to the administration, reflected an alliance of the Bedford, Grenville, 324 00:38:17.180 --> 00:38:23.500 and Bute Forces. The next day, the elated Grenville introduced a similar enforcement 325 00:38:23.500 --> 00:38:32.500 resolution into the House of Commons. Grenville's motion was roundly defeated by a vote of 274 326 00:38:32.500 --> 00:38:41.700 to 134. Its defeat indicated a critical turning point in the entire parliamentary struggle. 327 00:38:41.700 --> 00:38:47.980 The leading arguments in opposition to Grenville varied from those of the cynical Townsend, 328 00:38:47.980 --> 00:38:53.820 who favored force but first wanted troops to be built up in America, and of Pitt, to 329 00:38:53.820 --> 00:38:59.740 those of the impassioned Whig generals Conway and Howard, who threatened to maim or kill 330 00:38:59.740 --> 00:39:06.740 themselves before killing fellow men who were, in the words of Howard, contending for their 331 00:39:06.740 --> 00:39:08.260 liberty. 332 00:39:08.260 --> 00:39:14.080 The opposition had used poor tactics. The sight of their defeat on the enforcement issue 333 00:39:14.080 --> 00:39:20.940 staggered the politicians and paved the way for the repeal of the Stamp Act. The motion 334 00:39:20.940 --> 00:39:28.940 for repeal was introduced on February 21 and passed early the next morning by vote of 275 335 00:39:28.940 --> 00:39:36.240 to 167. This was the decisive, though not the final vote, and the people of England 336 00:39:36.240 --> 00:39:41.240 The government had feared an insurrection at home if repeal had not passed. 337 00:39:41.240 --> 00:39:48.240 The industrial towns had threatened to send mobs to Westminster to enforce their demands for repeal. 338 00:39:48.240 --> 00:39:57.240 As it was, the throng of merchants outside Parliament cheered Conway and Pitt and hissed and threatened George Grenville. 339 00:39:57.240 --> 00:40:02.240 The bells of London's churches rang all day at the happy news. 340 00:40:02.240 --> 00:40:20.560 The debate in the Lords opened on March 11. The lead for repeal was taken by Whigs, Lordes, 341 00:40:20.560 --> 00:40:29.120 Dartmouth, Newcastle, Grafton, Richmond, and Camden, and against by Halifax, Temple, Bute, 342 00:40:29.120 --> 00:40:39.180 in Bedford. The repeal passed the Lords by 105 to 71, with 33 Lords issuing a special 343 00:40:39.180 --> 00:40:45.820 public protest against it as weakness and surrender. The repeal was officially signed 344 00:40:45.820 --> 00:40:51.840 on March 18 to the accompaniment of more celebrations throughout the country. 345 00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:57.720 Despite this signal victory, as well as such other accomplishments for liberty as making 346 00:40:57.720 --> 00:41:04.880 In general warrants illegal and repealing the hated cider tax, the Rockingham Ministry was 347 00:41:04.880 --> 00:41:11.960 close to collapse. The King hated the repeal, and during the Revolutionary War was to recall 348 00:41:11.960 --> 00:41:20.280 it as his only political regret. Most of the King's friends had voted against the repeal. 349 00:41:20.280 --> 00:41:25.920 Pitt was refusing to back the administration. By his grand stand play, he had succeeded 350 00:41:25.920 --> 00:41:32.760 in Making Himself rather than the Ministry, the Hero of the Merchants and of the Americans.