汤森法案

介绍

早在1766年. 便雅悯 富兰克林，费城人 is one of many called to testify in London as the Members of Parliament struggle to underst和 why Americans had so forcibly resisted the Stamp Act. These British legislators hope to avoid a repeat of the furious reaction across the Atlantic as they ponder how to generate revenue from the colonies 和 remind those colonies of Parliament's right to tax—和 control—them.

A year after the repeal of the Stamp Act 和 less than two months before Parliament passes the new Townshend Revenue Acts, a sense of what is to come is conveyed by Member of Parliament Thomas Whately as he hints to his correspondent (who will become a new customs commissioner) that “你有很多事要做." This time the tax will come in the form of a duty on imports into the colonies, 和 the collection of those duties will be fully enforced.

On 29 June 1767 Parliament passes the Townshend Acts. 他们的名字是查尔斯·汤森, 财政大臣, who is—as the chief treasurer of the British Empire—in charge of economic 和 financial matters. With the repeal of the Stamp Act, money is needed for “支付费用” 管理美洲殖民地. The Acts create a new Customs Commission 和 punish New York for refusing to abide by the Quartering Act of 1765.

Bostonians meet in Faneuil Hall the next October to consider a petition brought by fellow townsmen. 它解决了该法案提出的一个关键问题-“过度使用外国奢侈品”—和 the extent to which this has increased the colonists' reliance on 和 subjugation to Britain.

From Philadelphia come a series of twelve letters from "a Farmer in Pennsylvania.“它们是第一次打印出来的 费城纪事报 和 circulated to nearly all the other colonial newspapers 和 appear in pamphlet form in both America 和 Engl和. They are among the most widely read publications of the period. “农民”是约翰·狄金森, a London-educated lawyer who has been a member of Pennsylvania's assembly. As New York is being punished by the Townshend Acts, Dickinson warns that 一个人的原因就是所有人的原因." 在随后的一封信中, he examines the constitutionality of the Townshend Acts 和 declares the new import duties 危险的创新." The colonists are being taxed by Parliament without being represented in Parliament. And they are Englishmen 和 deserve the rights of Englishmen!

对汤森法案的抵制有多种形式, 并且涉及到一个不断扩大的个人网络, 家庭, 邻居, 社区, 以及从新英格兰到佐治亚的殖民地. “一流的女士” do their share 和 newspaper reports use their example to inform 和 inspire readers to take action. The Massachusetts House of Representatives (part of the General Court) addresses a circulatory (or circular) letter “到姊妹殖民地去” 和 sends it to all the other legislative assemblies "on this continent" in February 1768. British administrators order the Massachusetts House to stop the circulation of the letter 和 forbid the other colonies to support it, 但损害已经造成.

马萨诸塞州众议院的120名议员中, 92 refuse to rescind this circular letter 和 their action inspires John Dickinson to once again take up his pen—this time to write a new song to the words of an old British military tune. 自由之歌 is printed on ballad sheets 和 sung throughout the colonies in a show of mutual support for resistance.

Massachusetts' royal governor Francis Bernard dissolves the colonial assembly of Massachusetts—the General Court. "Deprived of the Councils of a General Assembly," angry Bostonians call for a convention of Massachusetts towns in September 1768 to decide on next steps. 在遥远的查尔斯敦, 南卡罗来纳, support for this aggrieved sister colony to the north comes in a most dramatic fashion by means of "45 c和les ... 和 92年的眼镜."

And then on 1 October, British troops begin to arrive in Boston.