Camps and Firesides of the Revolution | ||
47. Do not Tax the Colonies
BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1766)[121]
Q. WHAT is your name, and place of abode?
A. Franklin, of Philadelphia.
Q. Do the Americans pay any considerable taxes among themselves?
A. Certainly, many, and very heavy taxes.
Q. For what purposes are those taxes laid?
A. For the support of the civil and military establishments
Q. Are not all the people very able to pay those taxes?
A. No. The frontier counties, all along the continent, having been frequently ravaged by the enemy and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very little tax. And therefore, in consideration of their distresses, our[122] late tax laws do expressly favor those counties, excusing the sufferers; and I suppose the same is done in other governments.
Q. What was the temper of America toward Great Britain before the year 1763?
A. The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the crown, and paid, in their courts, obedience to the acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or armies, to keep them in subjection. They were governed by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper; they were led by a thread.
They had not only a respect, but an affection for Great Britain; for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard; to be an Old England man was of itself a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us.
Q. What is their temper now?
A. O, very much altered.
Q. In what light did the people of America use to consider the Parliament of Great Britain?
A. They considered the Parliament as the great bulwark and security of their liberties and privileges,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
[Description: Portrait of Benjamin Franklin, by Peale, circa 1790.]Q. And have they not still the same respect for Parliament?
A. No, it is greatly lessened.
Q. To what cause is that owing?
A. To a concurrence of causes; the restraints lately laid on their trade by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves, and then demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps, taking away, at the same time, trials by juries, and refusing to receive and hear their humble petitions.
Q. Don't you think they would submit to the Stamp Act, if it was modified, the obnoxious parts taken out, and the duty reduced to some particulars of small moment?
A. No, they will never submit to it.
Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would it induce the assemblies of America to acknowledge the rights of Parliament to tax them, and would they erase their resolutions?
A. No, never.
Q. Are there no means of obliging them to erase those resolutions?
A. None that I know of; they will never do it, unless compelled by force of arms.
Q. Is there a power on earth that can force them to erase them?
A. No power, how great soever, can force men to change their opinions.
Q. Do they consider the post-office as a tax, or as a regulation?
A. Not as a tax, but as a regulation and conveniency; every assembly encouraged it, and supported
Q. When did you receive the instructions you mentioned?
A. I brought them with me, when I came to England, about fifteen months since.
Q. When did you communicate that instruction to the minister?
A. Soon after my arrival, while the stamping of America was under consideration, and before the bill was brought in.
Q. Would it be most for the interest of Great Britain to employ the hands of Virginia in tobacco, or in manufactures?
A. In tobacco, to be sure.
Q. What used to be the pride of the Americans?
A. To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain.
Q. What is now their pride?
A. To wear their old clothes over again, till they can make new ones.
Camps and Firesides of the Revolution | ||