colonies contended that taxation and representation were
inseparable, and that having no voice in the administration of affairs,
they were free from any taxation, but that which was self-imposed, for
local purposes. So far, however, from paying any heed to the
remonstrances of the colonists, the Imperial Parliament became more
exacting and tyrannical. Not only were the necessaries of life taxed in
America, for the benefit of the red-tapists and other place-holders of
the Imperial government, but a stamp Act was passed through the
Imperial Parliament, ordaining that instruments of writing--bonds,
deeds, and notes--executed in the colonies, should be null and void,
unless executed upon paper stamped by the London Stamp Office. It was
then that a coffin, inscribed with the word "_Liberty_" was carried to
the grave, in Portsmouth, Massachusetts, and buried with military
honours! Had the views of Governor Pownall, of Massachusetts, with
regard to the representation of the colonies in the British Parliament,
been adopted, no umbrage could have been taken at the imposition of
taxes, because the colonies would have been open to civil and military
preferment in the state equally with the residents of the United
Kingdom. It was, and is, an unfortunate mistake to look upon colonists
with contempt. Colonists, more even than the inhabitants of old
countries, inhale a spirit of independence. Often, lords of all they
survey, they call no man lord. They are the pioneers of their own
fortunes. They make glad the wilderness. They produce more than they
themselves require. But Great Britain was, at the time of which we
speak, perfectly infatuated. On the 4th of Sept. of the very year in
which the Quebec Act was granted, 1774, a Continental Congress was
held, of which Peter Randolph, of Virginia, was President, to
sympathize with the people of Boston, on account of their disabilities,
by reason of the tea riot.[5] But such Congresses produced no effect in
England. On the contrary, Massachusetts was more rigorously punished,
and was prevented from fishing on the Banks of Newfoundland. Is it
wonderful that the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker's Hill
followed? Is it wonderful that those who had assisted Wolfe in taking
Canada from the French, should have afterwards attempted to conquer
Canada for themselves? Is it wonderful that, on the 3rd of November,
1775, one of Washington's Brigadier Generals, Montgomery, should have
received the