WEBVTT NOTE 48. Partial Repeal of the Townshend Duties 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.840 Volume 3, Chapter 48, Partial Repeal of the Townsend Duties 2 00:00:05.840 --> 00:00:11.040 We have seen that the British colonial policy took a sharp turn to the right when the Cabinet 3 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:17.720 was reshuffled in the autumn of 1767 upon the death of Charles Townsend. 4 00:00:17.720 --> 00:00:24.520 The arch-imperialist Bedford faction strengthened its post in the Cabinet, and the Tories north 5 00:00:24.520 --> 00:00:28.800 and Hillsborough assumed critical positions in the ministry. 6 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:34.440 Domination by the Tory right was confirmed and intensified with the departure of the 7 00:00:34.440 --> 00:00:42.880 erratic centrist Chatham, William Pitt and Shelburne from the government in October 1768. 8 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:49.460 The Bedfordites and other Tory factions now greatly consolidated their control under the 9 00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:54.200 nominal leadership of the weak Duke of Grafton. 10 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:59.880 The Whigs staunchly attempted to delve into the causes of the American disorders, but 11 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:06.240 Lord North succeeded in focusing Parliament's attention on the resistance in Britain and 12 00:01:06.240 --> 00:01:11.520 on the supposed need to assert imperial power over the colonies. 13 00:01:11.520 --> 00:01:19.400 Hillsborough, North and Bedford pushed through resolutions denouncing Boston, pledging Parliament 14 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:25.200 and support to all measures needed to impose supremacy on the Americans and urging the 15 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:33.320 transportation of James Otis and other American leaders to England to be tried for treason. 16 00:01:33.320 --> 00:01:39.640 Lord Hillsborough, furthermore, had bolder plans for crushing the Americans. They especially 17 00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:46.800 included imposing a royally appointed council on Massachusetts and cancellation of the Massachusetts 18 00:01:46.800 --> 00:02:02.800 In addition, the Mutiny Act was to be strengthened to allow quartering of troops in private houses. 19 00:02:02.800 --> 00:02:05.840 The Tories were now in control. 20 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:11.860 The only gain to the liberal opposition was the accession of the Chathamites, who always 21 00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:16.020 tended to be liberal when Chatham was out of power. 22 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:22.280 In contrast, Grenville's opposition was characteristically to attack the government for weakness and 23 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:26.200 appeasement when dealing with the Americans. 24 00:02:26.200 --> 00:02:33.640 In the cabinet, only the liberals Camden and Conway opposed the harsh plans of Lord Hillsborough. 25 00:02:33.640 --> 00:02:39.760 So extreme were Hillsborough's proposals, however, that even King George balked at imposing 26 00:02:39.760 --> 00:02:41.960 them. 27 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:48.960 Several economic developments in Great Britain during early 1769 soon swung the ministry 28 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:56.000 to decide on the repeal of the Townsend duties. There was, in the first place, the threatening 29 00:02:56.600 --> 00:03:03.600 Wilkite agitation and the mammoth Wilkite petition movement, joined in by the radicals, 30 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:10.600 Whigs and Chattemites, which challenged the government and which was at least partly linked 31 00:03:10.600 --> 00:03:13.240 with the American Cause. 32 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:20.720 Secondly, the war crisis with Spain and France over the Falkland Islands coupled with troubles 33 00:03:20.720 --> 00:03:26.880 in unhappy Ireland made the government anxious to find some peaceful solution to the problems 34 00:03:26.880 --> 00:03:28.840 in America. 35 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:36.360 Beset by conflict at home and abroad, Britain was now anxious to secure her colonial flank. 36 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:42.880 3. British merchants and manufacturers were beginning to complain bitterly as a result 37 00:03:42.880 --> 00:03:49.960 of the success of the spreading non-importation boycott in America. Total American imports 38 00:03:49.960 --> 00:04:00.640 from Britain had fallen from over 2.15 million pounds in 1768 to under 1.35 million pounds 39 00:04:00.640 --> 00:04:02.440 the following year. 40 00:04:02.440 --> 00:04:05.500 All of this was a potent combination. 41 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:14.140 The result was a decision by the Grafton Ministry in May 1769 to repeal all the Townsend taxes 42 00:04:14.140 --> 00:04:17.080 except the duty on tea. 43 00:04:17.080 --> 00:04:22.480 Repeal would be moved in the forthcoming 1770 session of parliament. 44 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:27.460 The crucial and fateful vote in the cabinet was how far to go. 45 00:04:27.460 --> 00:04:34.460 The liberals, led by Grafton, Camden and Conway, advocated total repeal of the Townsend duties. 46 00:04:35.020 --> 00:04:41.340 The Tories, led by North, Hillsborough and the Bedfordites, insisted on keeping the tax 47 00:04:41.340 --> 00:04:48.340 on tea, and they prevailed in the cabinet by a one-vote majority. North's arguments 48 00:04:48.340 --> 00:04:54.460 were shrewd enough. The other goods taxed were products of British manufacture, so that 49 00:04:54.460 --> 00:05:00.640 that the duties lowered the sales of British manufacturers and merchants, and also dangerously 50 00:05:00.640 --> 00:05:08.680 stimulated the emergence of competing manufacturers in the colonies. But tea was not of English 51 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:14.240 manufacture, and certainly could not be grown in America. Furthermore, tea furnished by 52 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:20.980 far the major part of the revenue from the Townsend duties. North's arguments were also 53 00:05:20.980 --> 00:05:27.580 is so cunningly strategic. Retention of the T-tax would continue to assert Parliament's 54 00:05:27.580 --> 00:05:34.340 sovereign right to impose such taxation, and the removal of all the duties except that on 55 00:05:34.340 --> 00:05:41.620 T would split the American resistance movement, weaken its resolve, and wreck the boycott 56 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:48.460 without yielding the principal or the major towns in tax. The policy would thus deprive 57 00:05:48.460 --> 00:05:53.160 by the radical American leadership of its mass base. 58 00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:59.400 The tactlessness of the proposed repeal was accentuated by Hillsborough's letter to the 59 00:05:59.400 --> 00:06:03.960 colonial assemblies announcing the cabinet decision. 60 00:06:03.960 --> 00:06:09.740 Stress was laid on a provocative assertion of the power of parliament rather than on 61 00:06:09.740 --> 00:06:13.960 a desire for conciliation with the colonies. 62 00:06:13.960 --> 00:06:21.840 When Parliament opened again in early January 1770, the debate over repeal became part 63 00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:28.420 and parcel of a determined liberal opposition mounted against the ministry. The opposition 64 00:06:28.420 --> 00:06:34.720 was also based on taking up the cause against Wilkes's expulsion from Parliament. The Whigs 65 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:40.600 and the Chattamites launched the attack, and the ensuing polarization of opinion led to 66 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:46.120 to the resignation of the liberal-oriented cabinet members, beginning with Camden and 67 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:50.680 ending with the Duke of Grafton, the Prime Minister himself. 68 00:06:50.680 --> 00:06:57.960 The determined opposition push failed and precipitated the backlash of a counterrevolution, 69 00:06:57.960 --> 00:07:04.680 with all the Tory forces in England banding together in a new unity born of fear for their 70 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:21.600 Lord North added the Prime Ministerial Post to his own offices at the end of January, 71 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:26.400 and this cemented Tory rule by coalescing the Tory factions. 72 00:07:26.400 --> 00:07:31.960 Unity was completed some months later by the death of Grenville, which permitted the old 73 00:07:31.960 --> 00:07:52.080 On March 5, coincidentally the day of the Boston Massacre, Lord North moved the repeal 74 00:07:52.080 --> 00:07:55.920 of all the Townsend taxes except the tea tax. 75 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:02.000 He scorned the idea of repealing the tea duty as appeasement of the colonies. 76 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:07.880 America must fall at the feet of Britain before any further conciliation would be made. 77 00:08:07.880 --> 00:08:14.440 Parliament agreed to the repeal the same day and final action was taken in mid-April. 78 00:08:14.440 --> 00:08:20.400 The Liberals, however, had not given up in their defense of Americans against Great Britain. 79 00:08:20.400 --> 00:08:27.880 The Whigs, led by Barlow, Tricothick and especially Edmund Burke, moved to censure British colonial 80 00:08:27.880 --> 00:08:35.560 policy when news of the Boston Massacre arrived in Britain. Burke charged that American rebelliousness 81 00:08:35.560 --> 00:08:44.120 was brought about precisely because of British severity and intransigence. Burke's and Chatham's 82 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:51.000 Center resolutions, however, failed by a wide margin and provoked threats of impeachment 83 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:58.480 or treason trials against Seville, Rockingham, Richmond and other Whig leaders. 84 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:06.640 During June and July 1770, the North Ministry consolidated its hard line against the colonies. 85 00:09:06.640 --> 00:09:12.360 The center of the British Navy in America was deliberately shifted from Halifax to Boston 86 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:13.680 Harbor. 87 00:09:13.680 --> 00:09:19.000 The fort at Castle William was permanently garrisoned with British instead of American 88 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:24.440 troops, although no troops were moved back into Boston itself. 89 00:09:24.440 --> 00:09:29.120 The Mutiny Act, however, was allowed to lapse without being renewed.