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APPENDIX No. II.

The proceedings of Congress, rejecting Lord North's proposition, of the 20th of February, 1775, designed, indirectly, to coerce

an American revenue.

THE congress took the said resolution into consideration, and are thereupon of opinion:

"That the colonies of America are entitled to the sole and exclusive privilege, of giving and granting their own money; that this involves a right of deliberating, whether they will make any gift, for what purpose it shall be made, and what shall be its amount; that it is a high breach of this privilege, for any body of men, extraneous to their constitutions, to prescribe the purposes for which money shall be levied on them; to take to themselves the authority of judging of their conditions, circumstances, and situations, and of determining the amount of the contributions to be levied; and that, as the colonies possess a right of appropriating their gifts, so are they entitled, at all times, to inquire inte their application, to see that they be not wasted among the venal and corrupt, for the purpose of undermining the civil rights of the givers, nor yet be diverted to the support of standing armies, inconsistent with freedom and subversive of their quiet.

"To propose, therefore, as this resolution does, that the monies, given by the colonies, shall be subject to the disposal of parliament alone, is to propose, that they shall relinquish this right of inquiry, and put it in the power of others, to render their gifts ruinous, in proportion as they are liberal.

"That this privilege, of giving, or of withholding our monies, is an important barrier against the undue exertion of prerogative, which, if left altogether without control, may be exercised to our great oppression; and all history shows how efficacious is its intercession for redress of grievances, and re-establishment of rights, and how improvident it would be, to part with so powerful a mediator.

"We are of opinion, that the proposition, contained in this resolution, is unreasonable and insidious. Unreasonable; because, if we declare we accede to it, we declare, without reservation, we will purchase the favour of parliament, not knowing, at the same time, at what price they will please to estimate their favour. Insidious; because, individual colonies, having bid and bidden again, till they find the avidity of the seller too great, for all their powers to satisfy, are then to return into opposition, divided from their sister colonies, whom the minister will have previously detached, by a grant of easier terms, or by an artful procrastination of a definitive answer.

"That the suspension of the exercise of their pretended power of taxation being, expressly, made commensurate with the continuance of our gifts, these must be perpetual to make that so. Whereas, no experience has shown, that a gift of perpetual revenue secures a perpetual return of duty, or of kind disposition. On the contrary, the parliament itself, wisely attentive to the observation, is in the established practice of granting its supplies from year to year only.

"Desirous and determined as we are, to consider, in the most dispassionate view, every seeming advance, towards a reconciliation, made by the British parliament, let our brethren of Britain reflect, what would have been the sacrifice to men of free spirits, had even fair terms been proffered, as these insidious proposals were, with circumstances of insult or defiance. A proposition to give our money, accompanied with large fleets and armies, seems addressed to our fears, rather than to our freedom. With what patience, could Britons have received articles of a treaty, from any power on earth, when borne on the point of a bayonet, by military plenipotentiaries? We think the attempt unnecessary to raise upon us, by force or by threats, our proportional contributions to the common defence, when all know, and themselves acknowledge, we have fully contributed, whenever called upon to do so, in the character of freemen.

"We are of opinion it is not just, that the colonies should be required to oblige themselves to other contributions, while

Great Britain possesses a monopoly of their trade. This of itself lays them under heavy contribution. To demand therefore additional aids, in the form of a tax, is to demand the double of their equal proportion. If we contribute equally, with other parts of the empire, let us, equally with them, enjoy free commerce with the whole world: but while the restrictions on our trade shut to us the resources of wealth, is it just, we should bear all other burdens, equally with those to whom every resource, is open?

"We conceive, that the British parliament has no right to intermeddle with our provisions, for the support of civil government, or administration of justice. The provisions we have made are such as please ourselves, and are agreeable to our own circumstances. They answer the substantial purposes of government, and of justice; and other purposes than these should not be answered. We do not mean, that our people shall be burdened, with oppressive taxes, to provide sinecures for the idle or the wicked, under colour of providing for a civil list. While parliament pursue their plan of civil government, within their own jurisdiction, we, also, hope to pursue ours, without molestation.

"We are of opinion, the proposition is altogether unsatisfactory; because it imports only a suspension of the mode, not a renunciation of the pretended right, to tax us: because, too, it does not propose to repeal the several acts of parliament, passed for the purposes of restraining the trade, and altering the form of government of one of our colonies; extending the boundaries, and changing the government of Quebec; enlarging the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty and vice-admiralty; taking from us the right of a trial by jury of the vicinage, in cases affecting both life and property; transporting us into other countries, to be tried for criminal offences; exempting, by mock-trial, the murderers of colonists from punishment; and quartering soldiers on us, in times of profound peace. Nor do they renounce the power of suspending our own legislatures, and legislating for us themselves, in all cases whatsoever. On the contrary, to show they mean no discontinuance of injury, they pass acts, at the

very time of holding out this proposition, for restraining the commerce and fisheries of the provinces of New England; and for interdicting the trade of other colonies, with all foreign nations, and with each other. This proves unequivocally, they mean not to relinquish the exercise of indiscriminate legislation over us.

Upon the whole, this proposition seems to have been held up to the whole world, to deceive it into a belief, that there was nothing in dispute between us, but the mode of levying taxes; and that the parliament having been now so good as to give up this, the colonies are unreasonable, if not perfectly satisfied. Whereas, in truth, our adversaries still claim a right of demanding, ad libitum, and of taxing us themselves, to the full amount of their demand, if we do comply with it. This leaves us without any thing we can call property: but, what is of more importance, and what, in this proposal, they keep out of sight, as if no such point was now in contest between us, they claim a right to alter our charters, and establish laws, and leave us without any security for our lives or liberties.

"The proposition seems, also, to have been calculated, more particularly, to lull, into fatal security, our well-affected fellow subjects, on the other side of the water, till time should be given, for the operation of those arms, which a British minister pronounced would, instantaneously, reduce the cowardly sons of America, to unreserved submission. But, when the world reflects, how inadequate to justice are these vaunted terms; when it attends to the rapid and bold succession of injuries, which, during a course of eleven years, have been aimed at the colonies; when it reviews the pacific and respectful expostulations, which, during that whole time, were the sole arms we opposed to them; when it observes, that our complaints were either not heard at all, or were answered with new and accumulated injuries; when it recollects, that the minister himself, on an early occasion, declared, that he would never treat with America, till he had brought her to his feet;" that an avowed partisan of ministry has, more lately, denounced against us the dreadful

sentence delenda est Carthago;" and that this was done, in presence of a British senate, and being unreproved by them, must be taken to be their own sentiments, especially as the purpose has already, in part, been carried into execution, by their treatment of Boston, and burning of Charlestown; when it considers the great armaments, with which they have invaded us, and the circumstances of cruelty, with which these have commenced and prosecuted hostilities; when these things, we say, are laid together, and attentively considered, can the world be deceived into an opinion, that we are unreasonable? Or can it hesitate to believe with us, that nothing, but our own exertions, may defeat the ministerial sentence of death, or abject submission?"

APPENDIX No. III.

Some special transactions of Dr. Franklin, in London, on behalf of America.

WHILE the breach between Great Britain and the colonies was daily increasing, the enlightened and liberal, who loved peace, and the extension of human happiness, saw, with regret, the approaching horrors of a civil war, and wished to avert them. With these views, Dr. Fothergill, Mr. David Barclay, and Dr. Franklin, held sundry conferences, in London, on American affairs. The two former were English gentlemen of most amiable characters, and highly esteemed by the British ministry. The last was, by birth, an American; but a citizen of the world, who loved, and was beloved by all good men. He was also agent for several of the colonies. At one of their conferences held at the house of Dr. Fothergill, on the 4th of December, 1774, before the proceedings of congress had reached England, a paper drawn up by the last, at the request of the two first, was submitted to their

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