WEBVTT NOTE 38. The Nonimportation Movement Begins 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.840 Volume 3, Chapter 38 The Non-Importation Movement Begins 2 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:13.360 The arrogant encroachments of the Townsend Acts immediately rekindled American resistance to 3 00:00:13.360 --> 00:00:19.600 British oppression. With the exception of tea, much of which was handled by the British East India 4 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:27.120 Company, the commodities taxed by the Townsend Act were all manufactured products imported almost 5 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:41.120 The Americans therefore decided to employ the non-importation weapon, which had proved so effective in pressuring the British merchants to have the stamp tax repealed. 6 00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:48.120 A non-importation boycott promised to be the best means of fighting the towns and duties as well. 7 00:00:48.120 --> 00:00:54.520 Boston, the major port for reception of the newly taxed goods, was a natural point of 8 00:00:54.520 --> 00:01:01.400 origin for the resistance, and this vigilant and libertarian-oriented town did not disappoint 9 00:01:01.400 --> 00:01:04.100 anyone's expectations. 10 00:01:04.100 --> 00:01:12.940 The first public resistance came in the Boston town meeting of October 28, 1767, led by James 11 00:01:12.940 --> 00:01:14.880 Otis. 12 00:01:14.880 --> 00:01:20.080 The meeting drew up a lengthy list of British products that Americans were to pledge themselves 13 00:01:20.080 --> 00:01:27.080 not to purchase after the end of the year. Colonists were to patronize local manufacturing 14 00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:33.640 instead. Copies of the resolutions were sent to all the towns in Massachusetts and to the 15 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:40.640 principal towns in the other colonies. Twenty-four Massachusetts towns backed Boston's action 16 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:47.640 This original phase of the non-importation movement was organized by Massachusetts town meetings and pledged to the public not to consume certain British imports. These actions were partially spurred by a commercial depression triggered by the restrictions and the lack of access to the public. 17 00:02:10.640 --> 00:02:17.120 and Burdens of the Townsend Acts. Clearly, they would help those caught by the Depression 18 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:22.480 to retrench their expenses and hence their purchases of imported goods. 19 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:28.880 Massachusetts towns were not alone in following Boston's example. Rhode Island, in fact, 20 00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:35.400 not only followed, but went one better. On December 2, a Providence town meeting pledged 21 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:41.200 Most of the town's merchants not to import a list of imported goods after the first of 22 00:02:41.200 --> 00:02:42.840 the year. 23 00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:49.120 Such a pledge of a non-importation boycott by merchants was far more concrete and finely 24 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:57.840 edged and far easier to maintain than a vague and unwieldy pledge by the mass of consumers. 25 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:03.420 Providence's action was really the first effective move for a mercantile boycott to pressure 26 00:03:03.420 --> 00:03:11.580 for England for repeal. Any merchant failing to sign or to conform to the boycott was himself 27 00:03:11.580 --> 00:03:18.660 to be boycotted by the people. Two days later, Newport followed suit and then small Rhode 28 00:03:18.660 --> 00:03:26.080 Island towns. In Connecticut, town meetings led by Norwich adopted non-consumption agreements 29 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:32.780 after the pattern of Boston's. Historians have made much of the fact that popular resistance 30 00:03:32.780 --> 00:03:39.020 to the Townsend duties early took the form of boycott agreements, whereas resistance 31 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:46.020 to the Stamp Act had stressed armed rebellion. This has been interpreted as a significantly 32 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:53.560 conservative shift led by merchants fearful of popular mob actions. But this view ignores 33 00:03:54.300 --> 00:04:01.300 the crucial difference between the two threats. The Stamp Tax, being internal to all colonial 34 00:04:01.300 --> 00:04:09.100 All colonial transactions had to be fought by dismantling the new Stamp Act bureaucracy 35 00:04:09.100 --> 00:04:12.940 and then immobilizing the stamped paper. 36 00:04:12.940 --> 00:04:18.440 This could be done only by the armed action of the aroused people. 37 00:04:18.440 --> 00:04:25.400 But the towns and levees reverted to the more orthodox import duties, and early mob action 38 00:04:25.400 --> 00:04:27.560 would have been pointless. 39 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:34.560 What was needed now was mercantile action, smuggling in defiance of the duties and boycott 40 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:37.520 pressure on English merchants. 41 00:04:37.520 --> 00:04:42.880 Mob violence at that point would have been ineffectual and even absurd, and hence was 42 00:04:42.880 --> 00:04:45.440 not embarked upon. 43 00:04:45.440 --> 00:04:50.920 As would soon be seen, neither the American liberal leaders nor the public had become 44 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:56.320 more timid or conservative since the Stamp Crisis. 45 00:04:56.320 --> 00:05:02.320 Different methods of oppression simply called for different means of resistance. 46 00:05:02.320 --> 00:05:07.920 The change was one of tactics, not of spirit. 47 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:14.480 As in the case of the Stamp Act, popular local action was supplemented by petitions and resolutions 48 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:15.480 of the assemblies. 49 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:21.640 A clarion call was sounded in the form of a letter drawn up by the indefatigable Samuel 50 00:05:21.640 --> 00:05:25.960 Adams and presented to the Massachusetts General Court. 51 00:05:25.960 --> 00:05:33.580 Adopted on February 11, 1768, the missive was sent out as a circular letter to the assemblies 52 00:05:33.580 --> 00:05:36.740 of all the other colonies. 53 00:05:36.740 --> 00:05:41.680 The letter acknowledged the power of parliament to regulate the colonies, but categorically 54 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:46.760 denied any power of taxation, internal or external. 55 00:05:46.760 --> 00:05:53.600 Furthermore, not only the constitutional, but the natural rights of Americans were charged 56 00:05:53.600 --> 00:06:01.160 to have been violated by such a tax, because the doctrine of consent to taxation was an 57 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:08.760 unalterable right in nature, ingathered into the British Constitution. 58 00:06:08.760 --> 00:06:14.760 Hence the Townsend duties were spurned, along with any move to make executive, including 59 00:06:14.760 --> 00:06:21.840 judicial, offices independent of assembly appropriations, and United Action was called 60 00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:23.280 for. 61 00:06:23.280 --> 00:06:30.140 The Massachusetts circular letter was approved by the assemblies of New Hampshire, New Jersey, 62 00:06:30.140 --> 00:06:39.280 Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina during the spring and summer, 63 00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:46.040 and Virginia reinforced it by a circular letter of its own against British taxation. 64 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:52.280 Another powerful and widely influential statement of the American case against the towns and 65 00:06:52.280 --> 00:06:57.600 Townsend Duties was delivered by the eminent leader of the Pennsylvania liberals, the young 66 00:06:57.600 --> 00:06:59.960 lawyer John Dickinson. 67 00:06:59.960 --> 00:07:06.560 Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer appeared in the Pennsylvania Chronicle around the turn 68 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:11.000 of the year 1767-68. 69 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:17.360 It denied the right of any parliamentary taxation and hence of the Townsend Duties, although 70 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:35.120 Dickinson also called for a determined non-importation campaign to effect repeal of the Townsend taxes. 71 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:41.520 It soon became clear that official petitions and individual protest and even uncoordinated 72 00:08:11.520 --> 00:08:40.520 After several meetings, almost every merchant and trader of New York agreed to import no British goods after October 1, 1768, and on tail repeal of the Townsend duties, provided that Boston continued its boycott and Philadelphia concurred. 73 00:08:40.520 --> 00:09:07.520 The city of Philadelphia, scarcely hit by the trade depression, was more heavily ridden with Tories than any other city in the American colonies. Here the Tory machine of Joseph Galloway was in control and was able to overrule John Dickinson. 74 00:09:07.520 --> 00:09:15.480 During meetings in Philadelphia in March and April 1768, Dickinson eloquently reminded 75 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:20.920 the merchants of the numerous attempts by Great Britain to cripple the trade and the 76 00:09:20.920 --> 00:09:27.200 nascent manufacturing of the colonies. The towns and acts were an invasion of liberty, 77 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:34.540 and liberty, property and industry went hand in hand. Therefore, Dickinson urged the merchants 78 00:09:34.540 --> 00:09:42.700 is to forgo present advantage for principle and for long run self-interest, but the Philadelphia 79 00:09:42.700 --> 00:09:50.140 merchants taking their cue from Galloway remained unmoved and the great and imaginative project 80 00:09:50.140 --> 00:09:58.460 for a non-importation league of merchants from the leading American cities collapsed. 81 00:09:58.460 --> 00:10:03.140 Boston's betrayal was a severe blow to the colonial cause. 82 00:10:03.140 --> 00:10:08.820 Notwithstanding, nearly all the merchants of Boston fearlessly agreed on August 1 to 83 00:10:08.820 --> 00:10:14.700 go it alone and to discontinue imports of all goods from Great Britain for the entire 84 00:10:14.700 --> 00:10:22.140 year of 1769, as well as imports of all goods on the Townsend duty list until those duties 85 00:10:22.140 --> 00:10:23.140 were repealed. 86 00:10:23.140 --> 00:10:28.260 The heroic example of Boston's merchants inspired others. 87 00:10:28.260 --> 00:10:34.620 Soon, the merchants of Salem, Plymouth and other towns followed suit. 88 00:10:34.620 --> 00:10:42.300 On August 27, the New York merchants decided to go far beyond their Boston confrères. 89 00:10:42.300 --> 00:10:50.540 Almost unanimously, they agreed to cease all importation after November 1, 1768, and until 90 00:10:50.540 --> 00:10:56.840 All the Townsend duties were repealed. Any subscribing merchants violating the agreement 91 00:10:56.840 --> 00:11:04.200 would be publicly designated enemies to their country. Furthermore, the retail tradesmen 92 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:10.380 in New York signed an agreement to refuse to buy from any merchants who themselves refused 93 00:11:10.380 --> 00:11:16.780 to sign or follow the merchants' agreement. The merchants of Albany and other towns of 94 00:11:16.780 --> 00:11:24.820 The following April, New York's assembly on motion of Philip Livingston, merchant and 95 00:11:24.820 --> 00:11:31.060 leader of the liberal wing of the landed oligarchy, voted its thanks to the New York merchants 96 00:11:31.060 --> 00:11:34.900 for their patriotic decision for a boycott. 97 00:11:34.900 --> 00:11:42.180 Once again in the fall of 1768, the merchants of Philadelphia were on the spot. 98 00:11:42.180 --> 00:11:47.940 and once again they coolly ignored the pressure for a boycott and confined themselves to their 99 00:11:47.940 --> 00:11:53.980 own petitions, supporting a request to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly for repeal of 100 00:11:53.980 --> 00:12:02.420 the Townsend Act. Finally, however, the Philadelphia merchants pledged themselves to non-importation 101 00:12:02.420 --> 00:12:10.140 effective next spring if the Townsend Act had not then been repealed. With no sign of 102 00:12:10.140 --> 00:12:28.140 In mid-March of 1769, the great bulk of the Philadelphia merchants at last agreed to import virtually no goods from Great Britain after April 1, 1769, until the towns and duties should be repealed. 103 00:12:28.140 --> 00:12:35.140 Any violator would be publicly stigmatized as an enemy of the liberties of America. 104 00:12:35.140 --> 00:12:45.860 Thus, by the spring of 1769, the three great ports had joined in a boycott until repeal. 105 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:52.160 After a year of shilly-shallying, Philadelphia was at last permitting concerted American 106 00:12:52.160 --> 00:12:55.080 and Pressure upon Great Britain. 107 00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:57.840 The boycott movement was over the top.