8303. TAXATION, Parliamentary.—
We
[Virginia House of Burgesses] cannot, my
Lord, close with the terms of that Resolution
[Lord North's Conciliatory Proposition].
* * * because to render perpetual our exemption
from an unjust taxation, we must
saddle ourselves with a perpetual tax, adequate
to the expectations, and subject to the
disposal of Parliament alone; Whereas, we
have a right to give our money, as the Parliament
to theirs, without coercion, from time
to time, as public exigencies may require. We
conceive that we alone are the judges of the
condition, circumstances, and situation of our
people, as the Parliament are of theirs. It
is not merely the mode of raising, but the freedom
of granting our money, for which we
have contended. Without this, we possess no
check on the royal prerogative; and what
must be lamented by dutiful and loyal subjects,
we should be stripped of the only
means, as well of recommending this country
to the favors of our most gracious Sovereign,
as of strengthening those bonds of amity with
our fellow-subjects, while we would wish to
remain indissoluble.—
Address to Governor Dunmore.
Ford ed., i, 456.
(1775)
