Charles Townshend spearheaded the Townshend Acts, but died before their detrimental effects became apparent.

The Townshend Acts were a series of acts passed beginning in 1767 by the Parliament of Great Britain relating to the British colonies in North America. The acts are named for Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who proposed the program. Historians vary slightly in which acts they include under the heading "Townshend Acts", but five laws are frequently mentioned: the Revenue Act of 1767, the Indemnity Act, the Commissioners of Customs Act, the Vice Admiralty Court Act, and the New York Restraining Act.¹

The purpose of the Townshend Acts was to raise revenue in the colonies to pay for governors and judges who would be independent of colonial control, to create a more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations, to punish the province of New York for failing to comply with the 1765 Quartering Act, and to establish the precedent that the British Parliament had the right to tax the colonies.² The Townshend Acts met with resistance in the colonies, prompting the occupation of Boston by British troops in 1768, which eventually resulted in the Boston Massacre of 1770.

Ironically, on the same day as the massacre in Boston, Parliament began to consider a motion to partially repeal the Townshend duties.³ Most of the new taxes were repealed, but the tax on tea was retained. The British government continued in its attempt to tax the colonists without their consent, however, which led to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution.

Provisions

Raising revenue

In 1766, the Chatham Ministry decided to seek additional revenue from the British American colonies.⁴ Because the colonies had strenuously objected to the direct (or "internal") taxes of the 1765 Stamp Act, Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, devised a plan to place indirect (or "external") taxes on the colonists by taxing goods imported into the colonies.⁵ The new taxes were enumerated in the Revenue Act of 1767,⁶ which consisted of a series of duties on various imports, such as lead, paper, paint, glass, and tea. These were items that were not produced in America and that the colonists were only allowed to buy from Great Britain.⁷

The Revenue Act was passed in conjunction with the Indemnity Act,⁸ which was intended to make the tea of the British East India Company more competitive with smuggled Dutch tea.⁹ The Indemnity Act repealed taxes on tea imported to England, allowing it to be re-exported more cheaply to the colonies. This tax cut in England would be partially offset by the new Revenue Act taxes on tea in the colonies.¹⁰ The Revenue Act also reaffirmed the legality of writs of assistance, or general search warrants, which gave customs officials broad powers to search houses and businesses for smuggled goods.¹¹

Maintaining the British Empire in America was expensive, and Townshend did not expect that the revenue generated by these acts would meet those expenses. He did hope, however, that once the precedent for taxing the colonists had been established, the rates could gradually be raised until the colonies paid for themselves.¹² The revenue was to be used to pay military expenses, and also to pay the salaries of some colonial governors and judges. Previously, the colonial assemblies had paid these salaries, but Parliament hoped to take the "power of the purse"¹³ away from the colonies. According to historian John C. Miller, "Townshend ingeniously sought to take money from Americans by means of parliamentary taxation and to employ it against their liberties by making colonial governors and judges independent of the assemblies."¹⁴

Enforcing compliance

To better collect the new taxes, the Commissioners of Customs Act of 1767¹⁵ established the American Board of Customs Commissioners, modeled on the British Board of Customs. The American Customs Board was created because of the difficulties the British Board faced in enforcing trade regulations in the distant colonies.¹⁶ Five commissioners were appointed to the board, which was headquartered in Boston.¹⁷ The American Customs Board would generate considerable hostility in the colonies towards the British government. According to historian Oliver M. Dickerson, "The actual separation of the continental colonies from the rest of the Empire dates from the creation of this independent administrative board."¹⁸

Another act that was a part of Townshend's program, but which was passed after his death, was the Vice Admiralty Court Act of 1768.¹⁹ This act created new vice admiralty courts in Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston to aid in enforcement of the trade laws.²⁰

Townshend also faced the problem of what to do about the New York Provincial Assembly, which had refused to comply with the 1765 Quartering Act. The New York Restraining Act,²¹ which was a part of the Townshend Acts,²² suspended the power of the Assembly until it complied with the Quartering Act.

Reaction

Townshend knew that his program would be controversial in the colonies, but he argued that "The superiority of the mother country can at no time be better exerted than now."²³ The Townshend Acts did not create an instant uproar like the Stamp Act had done two years earlier, but before long opposition to the program had become widespread.²⁴

Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania

The most influential colonial response to the Townshend Acts was a series of twelve essays by John Dickinson entitled "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania", which began appearing in December 1767.²⁵ Eloquently articulating ideas already widely accepted in the colonies,²⁶ Dickinson argued that there was no difference between "internal" and "external" taxes, and that any taxes imposed on the colonies by Parliament for the sake of raising a revenue were unconstitutional.²⁷ Dickinson warned colonists not to concede to the taxes just because the rates were low, since this would set a dangerous precedent.²⁸

Dickinson sent a copy of his "Letters" to James Otis of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, informing Otis that "whenever the Cause of American Freedom is to be vindicated, I look towards the Province of Massachusetts Bay".²⁹ The Massachusetts House of Representatives began a campaign against the Townshend Acts by first sending a petition to King George asking for the repeal of the Revenue Act, and then sending a letter to the other colonial assemblies, asking them to join the resistance movement.³⁰ Upon receipt of the Massachusetts Circular Letter, other colonies also sent petitions to the king.³¹

In Great Britain, Lord Hillsborough, who had recently been appointed to the newly created office of Colonial Secretary, was alarmed by the actions of the Massachusetts House. In April 1768 he sent a letter to the colonial governors in America, instructing them to dissolve the colonial assemblies if they responded to the Massachusetts Circular Letter. He also sent a letter to Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard, instructing him to have the Massachusetts House rescind the Circular Letter. By a vote of 92 to 17, the House refused to comply, and Bernard promptly dissolved the legislature.³²

Merchants in the colonies, some of them smugglers, organized economic boycotts to put pressure on their British counterparts to work for repeal of the Townshend Acts. Boston merchants organized the first non-importation agreement, which called for merchants to suspend importation of certain British goods effective 1 January 1769. Merchants in other colonial ports, including New York City and Philadelphia, eventually joined the boycott.³³ In Virginia, the non-importation effort was organized by George Washington and George Mason. When the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a resolution stating that Parliament had no right to tax Virginians without their consent, Governor Lord Botetourt dissolved the assembly. The members met at Raleigh Tavern and adopted a boycott agreement known as the "Association".³⁴

Unrest in Boston

Paul Revere's engraving of British troops landing in Boston in 1768.

The newly created American Customs Board was seated in Boston, and so it was there that the Board concentrated on strictly enforcing the Townshend Acts.³⁵ The acts were so unpopular in Boston that the Customs Board requested naval and military assistance. Commodore Samuel Hood complied by sending the fifty-gun warship HMS Romney, which arrived in Boston Harbor in May 1768.³⁶

On 10 June 1768, customs officials seized the Liberty, a sloop owned by leading Boston merchant John Hancock, on allegations that the ship had been involved in smuggling. Bostonians, already angry because the captain of the Romney had been impressing local sailors, began to riot. Customs officials fled to Castle William for protection. With John Adams serving as his lawyer, Hancock was prosecuted in a highly publicized trial by a vice-admiralty court, but the charges were eventually dropped.³⁷

Given the unstable state of affairs in Massachusetts, Hillsborough instructed Governor Bernard to try to find evidence of treason in Boston. Parliament had determined that the Treason Act 1543 was still in force, which would allow Bostonians to be transported to England to stand trial for treason. Bernard could find no one who was willing to provide reliable evidence, however, and so there were no treason trials.³⁸ The possibility that American colonists might be arrested and sent to England for trial produced alarm and outrage in the colonies.³⁹

On 8 June 1768, Hillsborough instructed General Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief, North America, to send "such Force as You shall think necessary to Boston".⁴⁰ Samuel Adams organized an emergency, extralegal convention of towns and passed resolutions against the imminent occupation of Boston, but on 1 October 1768, the first of four regiments of the British Army began disembarking in Boston, and the Customs Commissioners returned to town.⁴¹ The "Journal of Occurrences", an anonymously written series of newspaper articles, chronicled clashes between civilians and soldiers during the military occupation of Boston, apparently with some exaggeration.⁴² Tensions rose after Christopher Seider, an eleven year old boy, was killed by a customs employee on 22 February 1770.⁴³ Although British soldiers were not involved in that incident, resentment against the occupation escalated in the days that followed, resulting in the killing of five civilians in the so-called Boston Massacre of 5 March 1770.⁴⁴ After the massacre, the troops were withdrawn to Castle William.⁴⁵

Partial repeal

Ironically, on 5 March 1770—the same day as the Boston Massacre—Lord North, the new Prime Minister, presented a motion in the House of Commons that called for partial repeal of the Townshend Revenue Act.⁴⁶ Although some in Parliament advocated a complete repeal of the act, North disagreed, arguing that the tea duty should be retained to assert "the right of taxing the Americans".⁴⁷ After debate, the Repeal Act⁴⁸ received the Royal Assent on 12 April 1770.⁴⁹

Historian Robert Chaffin argued that little had actually changed:

It would be inaccurate to claim that a major part of the Townshend Acts had been repealed. The revenue-producing tea levy, the American Board of Customs and, most important, the principle of making governors and magistrates independent all remained. In fact, the modification of the Townshend Duties Act was scarcely any change at all.⁵⁰

The Townshend duty on tea was retained when the 1773 Tea Act was passed, which allowed the East India Company to ship tea directly to the colonies. The Boston Tea Party soon followed, which set the stage for the American Revolution.

Notes

References

• Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. New York: McKay, 1966; revised 1974. ISBN 0-8117-0578-1.
• Chaffin, Robert J. "The Townshend Acts crisis, 1767–1770". The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Jack P. Greene, and J.R. Pole, eds. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1991; reprint 1999. ISBN 1-55786-547-7.
• Dickerson, Oliver M. The Navigation Acts and the American Revolution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1951.
• Knollenberg, Bernhard. Growth of the American Revolution, 1766–1775. New York: Free Press, 1975. ISBN 0-02-917110-5.
• Labaree, Benjamin Woods. The Boston Tea Party. Originally published 1964. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1979. ISBN 0930350057.
• Jensen, Merrill. The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.
• Miller, John C. Origins of the American Revolution. Stanford University Press, 1959.
• Reid, John Phillip. In a Rebellious Spirit: The Argument of Facts, the Liberty Riot, and the Coming of the American Revolution. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-271-00202-6.

Further reading

• Barrow, Thomas C. Trade and empire: the British customs service in colonial America, 1660–1775. Harvard University Press, 1967.
• Breen, T. H. The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 019518131X; ISBN 9780195181319.
• Knight, Carol Lynn H. The American colonial press and the Townshend crisis, 1766–1770: a study in political imagery. Lewiston: E. Mellen Press, 1990.
• Thomas, Peter D. G. The Townshend duties crisis: the second phase of the American Revolution, 1767–1773. Oxford University Press, 1987.
• Ubbelohde, Carl. The Vice-Admiralty Courts and the American Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960.

External links

• Text of the Townshend Revenue Act
• Documents on the Townshend Acts and Period 1767-1768

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