TOWNSHEND ACTS

The Townshend Acts, or Townshend Duties, tried to establish the British Parliament's right to tax the American colonies. Earlier attempts to impose duties, such as the Sugar Act (1764) and the Stamp Act (1765) had resulted in violent protests. In an attempt to avoid these controversies Chancellor of the Exchequer "Champagne Charlie," Charles Townshend, proposed a series of "indirect" taxes that would assert Parliament's right to tax the colonies. Townshend's duties made certain products that had to be imported from England, such as window glass, paper, lead, and artists' colors, more expensive for buyers. He also proposed a small three-pence tax on tea. Parliament passed the Townshend Duties in June 1767.

Since these items were considered luxury goods, purchased only by a small number of wealthy colonists, Townshend expected few, if any, protests from Americans. In order to ensure that the taxes were collected and smugglers were punished, however, the Chancellor appointed five new customs officials and dispatched them to Boston. He also created new Courts of Admiralty in the colonies, which could try accused smugglers without a jury, and established a Customs Board that could issue writs of assistance giving customs officers broad powers to search and seize colonists' property.

In advocating these measures, Townshend was acting on the advice of colonial representatives like Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). Franklin, who was no longer in touch with the mood in the colonies, believed that Americans objected only to direct taxes, such as the Stamp Act. He told Parliament that Americans would not object to duties that were imposed to regulate trade throughout the empire. Franklin was mistaken. His views were refuted by a fellow Pennsylvanian, landowner and lawyer John Dickinson in a pamphlet entitled Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania. Dickinson declared that Parliament's attempt to impose duties solely for the purpose of generating income was a direct threat to the well being of all Americans. He urged colonial assemblies to petition Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts.

Serious trouble erupted in Boston, where the new Customs Board had their offices, in 1768. Samuel Adams convinced the General Court of Massachusetts, the colonists' primary representative body, to write a Circular Letter for distribution to the other colonial assemblies, urging the representatives to petition Parliament for repeal of the Acts. The Massachusetts letter provoked a response from the new Secretary for American Affairs Wills Hill, Lord Hillsborough, who demanded that Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard either force the General Court to apologize or dissolve the assembly. Adams and the Court refused, and reported back to Governor Bernard that the refusal had passed overwhelmingly. Hillsborough was angered again when a Boston mob attacked the customs officers who had seized merchant John Hancock's ship Liberty on suspicion of smuggling. The Secretary ordered four British regiments to be stationed in Boston—a decision that led directly to the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770.

Despite the forceful actions of the British government, colonial opposition to British taxation stiffened throughout 1768 and 1769. On August 1, 1768, Samuel Adams convinced the General Court of Massachusetts to demand a boycott of British goods. Over the next year similar measures were adopted in New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. The boycott put tremendous pressure on British manufacturers, who relied on the colonial markets to buy their goods. It also promoted, for the short term, some American industries, particularly the weaving of homespun cloth. On March 5, 1770 King George III's new Prime Minister, Lord Frederick North, asked Parliament to repeal most of the Townshend Acts, with the exception of the tax on tea. The issue of the tea tax would not be addressed until after the Boston Tea Party of 1773.

TOWNSHEND ACTS

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