volume 3 chapter 34 aftermath of repeal the glorious victory over the stamp act
was of course celebrated throughout the american colonies houses were lit songs composed and toast
drunk to the english champions of repeal throughout the colonies the sons of liberty
triumphantly directed the celebrations and in later years were to celebrate the anniversaries
The victory was generally interpreted as a victory also for the right of the colonists to tax themselves.
Moreover, the vague declaratory act was not thought to assert the right of taxation over and above the right to legislation and regulation.
The various colonial assemblies drew up addresses of thanks to the king and parliament for the
repeal, but did not at all yield their constitutional stands.
But amidst their rejoicing, the more farsighted colonist saw the evils inherent in the Declaratory
Act, harbinger of taxation to come.
George Mason, a leading Virginia planter, replied sharply, intringently to a condescending
letter by leading English merchants warning the colonists to behave themselves and not
exalt over their victory.
The colonists answered Mason, We're tired of being treated as schoolboys who are to
do what your papa and mama bid you.
The Americans have been fighting for their birthright as freemen and have only gained
common justice. Mason reminded the merchants that the stoppage of trade brought by resistance
was a critical factor in repeal. He also detailed the infinite cost and trouble, perhaps including
international war, that total military enforcement would have brought. Mason also warned of the
The suspect vagueness of the Declaratory Act, which failed to exclude taxation from the
parliamentary domain. In Charleston, Christopher Gadsden and the Sons of Liberty, one of the
hardest-hitting and most uncompromising Sons groups in the colonies, were not taken in
by the General Rejoicing. In a prophetic speech to the Sons at Charleston's Liberty
Gadsen warned of the folly of relaxing their opposition in vigilance, or of indulging the
fallacious hope that Great Britain would relinquish her designs and pretensions.
Gadsen noted the ominous implications of the Declaratory Act, and the sons all joined hands
and swore to eternal defense against tyranny.
Furthermore, by mid-July, Silas Downer, a lawyer and secretary to the Providence Sons
of Liberty, was writing to the New York Sons urging the need for maintaining the Sons'
effective inter-colonial organization, as well as the intra-colonial one, especially
in view of the Declaratory Act and the consequent need for vigilance to preserve the rights
of Americans. But men like Downer, Mason and Gadsden, as well as writers in such papers
as the Boston Gazette, were voices crying in the wilderness. Americans were all too
willing to relax and abandon themselves to the general rejoicing at victory. The Sons
of Liberty organization largely evaporated, although the leaders continued to be active,
especially on ceremonial occasions.
Despite the general lull among Americans, a strong residue of revolutionary radicalism
remained from the Stamp Act crisis.
People began to call into question more examples of existing British tyranny.
For instance, in New York, some began to call for abolition of the Customs House and the
The Royal Post Office as being unconstitutional and oppressive.
And in Massachusetts, the Whigs cemented their political hold on the province.
The Council was purged of pro-Torres, and a blacklist of thirty-two supporters of the
Stamp Act in the Massachusetts House was drawn up, men whom John Adams scorned as stamp
Sam Adams' continuing popularity was shown by his receiving the largest vote of the four
Boston representatives, and the radical's purge cleansed the council of such Tories
as Hutchinson, the Olivers and Benjamin Lind.
The embittered Tories denounced the liberal victors as subverters and scum, while John
Adams exalted at the total triumph.
From this point on, the council, dominated by the wealthy liberal merchant James Bowden,
marched with the House on the side of American liberty.
In August 1766, trouble flared up with the British.
The Redcoats summarily cut down the Liberty Pole in New York City.
Swiftly, the Suns, though largely disbanded, rose to the occasion engaged in a protest
meeting of several thousand people.
During the meeting, British troops fired into the crowd, wounding several people.
Finally, the Suns triumphed by building another pole and refusing to allow the soldiers to
to patrol the streets, a minor incident perhaps, but indicative of strong, latent resistance
beneath the new surface of imperial harmony.
For the moment, however, relations with Britain would continue to look rosy, and the Rockingham
Ministry spurred on by...
For the moment, however, relations with Britain would continue to look rosy, and the Rockingham
The ministry, spurred on by Trichophic, Fuller and the English merchants, managed to lower
the molasses duty from three pence to one penny a gallon, another great boon to American
trade and prosperity.
Export duties on British West Indian sugar were removed, lowering its price on the American
mainland.
Still, American trade was at the same time hobbled by requiring that all colonial products
shipped to Northern Europe had to clear through British ports.
Free ports were open to colonial trade in the West Indies, but here Alderman Beckford,
the Fullers and the West Indian merchants, backed as usual by Pitt, sharply opposed the
The End of Their Monopolistic Privileges. Pitt's maneuverings on this issue, indeed, helped
to pull down the Rockingham administration. Pitt's enmity was also fueled by his vehement
opposition to Rockingham's long-run plans for the repeal of the crippling restrictions
on American trade embodied in the Navigation Acts. The Whig idol of peace and non-interference
was indeed doomed to be only an interlude, though a highly important one.
The King, more eager than ever to dump the Whigs, but anxious to avoid the resurgence
of Grenville, selected William Pitt to head the cabinet in August 1766.
The King could now select Pitt as head of a Tory imperialist cabinet, while the deluded
Americans would cheer the appointment of a supposed libertarian and champion of the colonies.
Pitt's maneuverings and intrigues had finally paid dividends. His appointment was in fact
hailed by the misguided Americans, but the colonists were not to remain under illusions
about William Pitt for very long.