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Franklin
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Aug. 14, 1775. Members of rebel Congress packed their bags and headed home for advice from their constituents this week, after voting for a War Department and then engaging themselves in an intense round of debates on exactly how they were to pay for the army their department is supposed to run.
The debates also revealed concerns many delegates have about their authority to run the war and engage in foreign affairs without the unanimous consent of the colonies. In an attempt to urge consensus among themselves, Pennsylvania delegate Dr. Benjamin Franklin presented Congress a draft entitled “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union.” His draft was rejected, but most of the delegates admitted that the colonies have to consider the idea of Confederacy. Before it adjourned, the rebel Congress established a Continental post office, naming Benjamin Franklin Postmaster General.
Congress also named Dr. Benjamin Church Surgeon General of the Continental Army. Dr. Church, a delegate from Massachusetts, was instrumental in the formation of the Massachusetts Sons of Liberty. He is also credited with organizing the rebel alerts at Lexington and Concord.
A CONVERSATION WITH MR. ANONYMOUS
George III
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: July, 1775. The London Coffee House, on Front Street in Philadelphia, overlooks a row of wharves and warehouses built along the Delaware River, where the coffee house receives a good portion of its business. Merchants, traders, dockworkers, captains and crews of the great ships lying at anchor frequent the London, where under a thick cloud of tobacco smoke and over the sweet and pungent smells of spilt rum and Madeira wine, they might be served a dinner of pork with a party of friends at one of the large tables near the center of the establishment’s main room.
More patrons are crowded around smaller tables along the London’s walls, where they indulge in heated conversations about independence and the war about to happen. Still other groups are huddled together behind doors of the London’s upstairs rooms. They are recent guests in Philadelphia. Every afternoon around 3 o’clock they walk from the State House and make their way to several of the city’s taverns where they eat and converse more urgently than the other patrons, because as delegates to the rebel Congress they are responsible for the war that’s about to happen.
Mr. A, or Anonymous, may be found in any of these rooms. We might also see him with the British in Boston or at rebel headquarters at Cambridge. His comments are the reflections of men who agree and who disagree with each other about the war and independence, many for motives not likely to be discussed in public or put down in print.
Mr. A., the British and their American colonies got along fairly well for a century and a half. How did this recent conflict come about?
It began years ago when the royal governors began losing control over here and Parliament paid no attention to them. The Provincial legislatures pretty much ran things for themselves until George Grenville was named Prime Minister by George III in 1763. Grenville better understood how much England depended on the colonies than his predecessors did.
We understand it is the other way around.
Maybe a hundred years ago it was. Today, the colonies provide England with roughly 20 percent of her imports and they purchase 40 percent of her exports. Grenville realized if England lost control of her trade over here, it could cripple her financially. Grenville wants England to reinforce her sovereignty over these people. This contest isn’t as much about taxes or representation, as it is about power and authority.
Is that why Grenville persuaded Parliament to pass the Stamp Act?
Parliament wants to maintain a large army west of the colonies to hold the French at bay and keep the settlers off Indian lands that are set out by treaties. England’s war chest is pretty thin. Grenville argued that the colonies should take on some of the expense. The Stamp Act was a method he devised for paying.
And the colonies responded by forming a Congress and declaring the Act unconstitutional.
Interesting enough, the Molasses or Sugar Act passed back in 1733 could have been called unconstitutional, but it was the Stamp Act that caused the riots and brought the colonies together.
Why the Stamp Act and not the Sugar Act?
The Sugar Act didn’t affect all the colonies. The tax was mostly imposed on molasses which is used in rum and there are no distilleries south of Pennsylvania. The Stamp act was universal. It hit everyone’s pocketbook.
We understand the riots over here brought down Grenville’s ministry.
They helped, but Grenville was on his way out even before the riots. He offended George III when he advised him not to recommend his mother to the regency council because he felt the House of Commons wouldn’t accept her. King George took his advice and then was embarrassed when Parliament revised a bill to include her. The King tossed Grenville out and brought Rockingham in.
What is the Regency Council?
It is a group of people selected by Parliament to rule England if the King becomes too ill.
Rockingham was also a disappointment to George III, wasn’t he?
Rockingham was a compromise between Pitt, who favors reconciliation with the colonies, and Grenville, who believes in a military solution. Rockingham is young and, for better or worse, he heads the Whig party. He’s also sympathetic to the colonies. He actually argued for reconciliation, but Pitt apparently wanted his job and didn’t back him.
Then George III fired Rockingham and put Pitt in power.
I’ve wondered, along with others, why Pitt took the job. Why he would leave the House of Commons for that of the Lords. Pitt is revered by all of Britain as the “Great Commoner.” His power is rooted in the Commons.
Parliament repealed the Stamp Act under Pitt’s ministry.
Yes, but under a Declaratory Act that reasserts Parliament’s sovereignty over the colonies, including the right to tax at a later time; in 1767 to be exact, when the Townshend Acts were passed and the colonies boycotted British products.
Townshend was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
He proposed an import tax on wine, fruits, paper products, lead and glass. Items that weren’t consumed by the general public and he thought shouldn’t raise too much ire over here.
Townshend died recently.
Yes, and King George appointed Lord North to succeed him because North was adamant about collecting those taxes
Apparently the boycott was successful because the Townshend Acts were repealed.
Not all that successful. Parliament still asserts its right to tax, and the tea duties remain on the
