the parent State for past services ; but the scale will then begin
to turn in her favor : and the obligation for future services will
be on the side of Great Britain. It will be the interest of the
latter to keep us without a fleet, and, by this means, to continue
to regulate our trade as before. But, in thus withholding the
means of protection which we have within our own reach, she
will chiefly consult her own advantage, and oblige herself much
more than us. At that era, to enjoy the privilege of enriching
herself by the direction of our commerce, and, at the same time,
to derive supports, from our youthful vigor and strength, against
all her enemies, and thereby to extend her conquests over them,
will give her reason to bless the times that gave birth to these
colonies.

By enlarging our views, and turning our thoughts to future
days, we must perceive, that the special benefits we receive from
the British nation, are of a temporary and transient nature:



jEi. 18.] THE FARMER REFUTED. 89

while, on the other hand, those it may reap from us, by an affec
tionate and parental conduct, will be permanent and durable;
and will serve to give it such a degree of stability and lasting
prosperity, as could not be expected in the common fluctuating
course of human affairs. Such reflections will teach us, that
there is no propriety in making any concessions to Great Britain,
which may be at all inconsistent with our safety.

You employ several contemptible artifices to varnish and re
commend your scheme. Your conduct, in every respect, affords
a striking instance of the depravity of human nature. You in
sinuate, that the Pennsylvania Farmer admits the right of Par
liament to regulate our trade in the same sense you do. The
very letter your extracts are taken from, is expressly levelled
against the revenue act, with regard to paper, glass, &c. The
design of that, and all his subsequent papers, is to prove, that
all duties, imposed upon the articles of commerce, for the pur
pose of raising a revenue, are to be considered in the same light
as what you call internal taxes, and ought equally to be opposed.

By the "legal authority to regulate trade," he means nothing
more, than what the Congress have allowed : an authority to
confine us to the use of our own manufactures ; to prescribe our
trade with foreign nations, and the like. This is the power he
speaks of as being " lodged in the British Parliament." And as
to general duties, he means such as the people of Great Britain
are to pay as well as ourselves. Duties, for the purpose of a
revenue raised upon us only, he calls special duties ; and says,
" they are as much a tax upon us as those imposed by the stamp
act."

The following passage will show the sentiments of this inge
nious and worthy gentleman ; and, at the same time, will serve
to illustrate what I have heretofore said.

" If you once admit," says he, " that Great Britain may lay
duties upon her exportations to us, for the purpose of levying money
on us only, she will then have nothing to do, but to lay duties
on the articles which she prohibits us to manufacture, and the
tragedy of American liberty is finished. We have been pro
hibited from procuring manufactures in all cases, any where but






90 HAMILTON'S WORKS. [J&r. 18.

from Great Britain (excepting linens, which we are permitted to
import directly from Ireland). We have been prohibited in
some cases from manufacturing for ourselves, and may be pro
hibited in others. "We are, therefore, exactly in the situation of
a city besieged, which is surrounded by the besiegers in every
part but one. If that is closed up, no step can be taken, but to
surrender at discretion. If Great Britain can order us to come to
her for the necessaries we want ; and can order us to pay what
taxes she pleases before we take them away, or when we land
them here ; we are as abject slaves as France and Poland can
show, in wooden shoes, and with uncombed hair.*

" Perhaps the nature of the necessities of dependent States,
caused by the policy of a governing one for her own benefit,
may be elucidated by a fact mentioned in history. When the
Carthaginians were possessed of the island of Sardinia, they
made a decree, that the Sardinians should not raise corn, nor get
it any other way than from the Carthaginians. Then, by impos
ing any duties they would upon it, they drained from the miser
able Sardinians any sums they pleased ; and, whenever that mis
erable and oppressed people made the least movement to assert
their liberty, their tyrants starved them to death or submission.
This may be called the most perfect kind of political necessity."

You would persuade us, also, that Mr. Pitt's sentiments
accord with yours, about the regulation of trade ; but this is as
false as the other. When he tells them " to exercise every
power but that of taking money out of our pockets," he does
not mean that they shall barely refrain from a manual operation
upon our pockets ; but that they shall exact money from us in
no way whatsoever. To tax the commodities Great Britain
obliges us to take from her only, is as much taking money out
of our pockets as to tax our estates ; and must be equally ex
cluded by Mr. Pitt's prohibition.

You all along argue upon a suppositions denial of the right
of Parliament to regulate our trade. You tell us, "It will



* The peasants of Fi-ance wear wooden shoes ; and the vassals of Poland are
remarkable for matted hair which never can be combed.



Mi. 18.] THE FARMER REFUTED. 91

never give up the right of regulating the trade of the colonies:"
and, in another place, " If we succeed in depriving Great Britain
of the power of regulating our trade, the colonies will probably
be soon at variance with each other. Their commercial interests
will interfere;* there will be no supreme power to interpose;
and discord and animosity must ensue."

I leave others to determine, whether you are most defective
in memory or honesty : but in order to show that you are start
ing difficulties where there are really none, I will transcribe, for
your perusal, part of the fourth resolve of the Congress. After
asserting the right of the several provincial legislatures to an
exclusive power of legislation "in all cases of taxation and in
ternal policy," they conclude thus: "But from the necessity of
the case, and a regard to the mutual interests of both countries,
we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British
Parliament, as are bona fide restrained to the regulation of our ex
ternal commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial ad
vantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the
commercial benefits of its respective members ; excluding every
idea of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on
the subjects in America without their consent."

It seems to me not impossible, that our trade may be so re
gulated, as to prevent the discord and animosity, at the prospect
of which you are so terrified, without the least assistance from
a revenue.

Thus have I not only disproved the existence of that parlia
mentary authority of which you are so zealous an abettor ; but
also shown, that the mode you have proposed for the accommo
dation of our disputes, would be destructive to American free
dom. My next business is, to vindicate the Congress by a few
natural inferences ; and such reflections on the state of our com
mercial connection with the mother country, as are necessary to
show the insignificancy of your objections to my former argu
ments on this head.



i



* I do not see any reason to believe this would be the case ; but as it is of no
importance to controvert it, I shall pass it over.



92 HAMILTON'S WORKS. [JET. IS.

Since it lias been proved, that the British Parliament has no
right, either to the legislation or taxation of America ; and since
neither could be ceded without betraying our liberties ; the Con
gress would have acted inconsistent with their duty to their
country had they done it. Their conduct, therefore, so far from
being reprehensible, was perfectly justifiable and laudable.

The regulation of our trade, in the sense it is now admitted,
is the only power we can, with justice to ourselves, permit the
British Parliament to exercise : and it is a privilege of so im
portant a nature, so beneficial and lucrative to Great Britain,
that she ought, in equity, to be contented with it, and not
attempt to grasp at any thing more. The Congress, therefore,
have made the only concession, which the welfare and pros
perity of America would warrant, or which Great Britain, in
reason, could expect.

All your clamors, therefore, against them for not having
drawn some proper line, are groundless and ridiculous. They
have drawn the only line which American freedom will autho
rize, or which the relation between the parent State and the
colonies requires.

It is a necessary consequence, and not an assumed point, that
the claim of Parliament to bind us ly statutes in all cases whatso
ever, is unconstitutional, unj ust, and tyrannical ; and the repeated
attempts to carry it into execution, evince a fixed, inveterate
design to exterminate the liberties of America.

Mr. Grenville, during his administration, was the projector of
this scheme. His conduct, as a minister, has been severely
arraigned by his successors in office, and by the nation in gen
eral : but, notwithstanding this, a measure which disgraces his
character more than any thing else has been steadily pursued
ever since.

The Stamp Act was the commencement of our misfortunes ;
which, in consequence of the spirited opposition made by us, was
repealed. The Revenue Act, imposing duties on paper, glass,
&c., came next, and was also partly repealed on the same ac
count. A part, however, was left to be the instrument of some
future attack. The present minister, in conjunction with a mer-



^ET. 18.] THE FARMER REFUTED. 93

cenary tribe of merchants, attempted to effect, by stratagem,
what could not be done by an open, undisguised manner of -pro
ceeding. His emissaries, every where, were set to work. They
endeavored, by every possible device, to allure us into the snare.
The Act, passed for the purpose, was misrepresented ; and we
were assured, with all the parade of pretended patriotism, that
our liberties were in no danger. The advantage we should
receive from the probable cheapness of English tea, was played
off with every exaggeration of falsehood ; and specious declama
tions on the criminality of illicit trade, served as a gilding for
the whole. Thus, truth and its opposite were blended. The
men, who could make just reflections on the sanctity of an oath,
were yet base enough to strike at the vitals of those rights which
ought to be held sacred by every rational being.

It so happened, that the first tea ship arrived at Boston.
The Assembly of that province, justly alarmed at the consequen
ces, made repeated applications to the consignees for the East
India Company, requesting them to send back the tea. They
as often refused to comply. The ship was detained till the time
was elapsed ; after which the tea must have been landed, and
the duties paid, or it would have been seized by the Custom
House. To prevent this, a part of the citizens of Boston assem
bled, proceeded to the ship, and threw the tea into the river.*

The scheme of the ministry was disappointed on all hands.
The tea was returned from all the colonies except South Caro
lina. It was landed there ; but such precautions were taken, as
equally served to baffle their attempt.

This abortion of their favorite plan, inflamed the ministerial
ire. They breathed nothing but vengeance against America.
Menaces of punishment resounded through both Houses of Parlia
ment. The Commons of Great Britain spoke more in the super
cilious tone of masters, than in the becoming language of fellow-
subjects. To all the judicious reasonings of a Burke, or Barre,
no other answer was returned, than the idle tale of lenity and






* I shall examine the justice and policy of this procedure in some future
publication.



94 HAMILTON'S WORKS. [JE T . 18.

severity. Much was said on their past forbearance, and of their
future resentment. This was the burthen of the song. The
Quixotte minister, too, promised to bring America to his feet.
Humiliating idea, and such as ought to be spurned by every
free-born American !

Boston was the first victim to the meditated vengeance. An
Act was passed to block up her ports and destroy her commerce,
with every aggravating circumstance that can be imagined. It
was not left at her option to elude the stroke by paying for the
tea ; but she was also to make such satisfaction to the officers of
his Majesty's revenue, and others who might have suffered, as
should be judged reasonable by the governor.

Nor is this all. Before her commerce could be restored, she
must have submitted to the authority claimed and exercised by
the Parliament.*

Had the rest of America passively looked on, while a sister



* This must be evident to every person who has read the Act. The prefatory
part of it, is in these words : " Whereas, dangerous commotions and insurrections
have been fomented and raised in the town of Boston, &c. ; in which commotions
and insurrections, certain valuable cargoes of tea, &c., were seized and destroyed:
And whereas, in the present condition of the said town and harbor, the commerce
of his Majesty's subjects cannot be safely carried on there, nor the customs payable
to his Majesty, duly collected, &c."

The commotions specified, are those in which the tea was destroyed : The com
merce obstructed, was that of the East India Company : And the customs which
could not be collected, were those on the tea. These are the evils the Act is intend
ed to punish and remove : and accordingly it provides, that " whenever it shall
appear to his Majesty, in his privy council, that peace and obedience to the laws
(i. e. the laws of Parliament) shall be so far restored in the said town of Boston,
that the trade of Great Britain may safely be carried on there, and his Majesty's
customs duly collected ;" then, his Majesty may, at his discretion, so far open the
port, as to him seems necessary. So that until the Bostonians shall submit to let
the trade of Great Britain be carried on upon her own terms, and suffer his Ma
jesty's customs (the duty upon tea, or any other Parliament may impose) to
be duly collected, they must remain in their present distressed situation : that
is, unless they resign their freedom, and put on the ignominious yoke tendered
them by Parliament, they are never to recover their lost trade. Hence it appears,
how weak, ungenerous, and contemptible, that objection is, which supposes the
Bostonians might have avoided their present calamities by paying for the tea.
The truth is, they had no alternative but submission to all the unjust claims of Par
liament,



^ET. 18.] THE FARMER REFUTED. 95

colony was subjugated, the same fate would gradually have
overtaken all. The safety of the whole depends upon the mu
tual protection of every part. If the sword of oppression be
permitted to lop off one limb without opposition ; reiterated
strokes will soon dismember the whole body. Hence, it was the
duty and interest of all the colonies to succor and support the
one which was suffering. It is sometimes sagaciously urged,
that we ought to commiserate the distresses of the people of Mas
sachusetts, but not intermeddle in their affairs, so far as perhaps
to bring ourselves into like circumstances with them. This
might be good reasoning, if our neutrality would not be more
dangerous than our participation : but I am unable to conceive,
how the colonies in general would have any security against op
pression, if they were once to content themselves with barely
pitying each other, while Parliament was prosecuting and enforc
ing its demands. Unless they continually protect and assist each
other, they must all inevitably fall a prey to their enemies.

Extraordinary emergencies require extraordinary expedients.
The best mode of opposition was that in which there might
be a union of councils. This was necessary to ascertain the
boundaries of our rights, and to give weight and dignity to our
measures, both in Great Britain and America. A Congress was
accordingly proposed, and universally agreed to.

You, sir, triumph in the supposed illegality of this body : but
granting your supposition were true, it would be a matter of no
real importance. When the first principles of civil society are
violated, and the rights of a whole people are invaded, the com
mon forms of municipal law are not to be regarded. Men may
then betake themselves to the law of nature ; and, if they but
conform their actions to that standard, all cavils against them
betray either ignorance or dishonesty. There are some events
in society, to which human laws cannot extend; but, when
applied to them, lose all their force and efficacy. In short, when
human laws contradict, or discountenance, the means which are
necessary to preserve the essential rights of any society, they
defeat the proper end of all laws, and so become null and void.

But you have barely asserted, not proved, this illegality. If



96 HAMILTON'S WORKS. [JET. 18.

by the term, you mean a contrariety to law, I desire you to pro
duce the law against it. I maintain there is none in being. IF
you mean that there is no law, the intention of which may
authorize such a convention, I deny this also. It has been
always a principle of the law, that subjects have a right to state
their grievances, and petition the king for redress; This is ex
plicitly acknowledged by the Act of the first of William and
Mary : and " all prosecutions and commitments for such petition
ing," are declared to be illegal. So far, then, the Congress was
a body founded in law ; for if subjects have such a right, they
may undoubtedly elect and depute persons from among them
selves to act for them.*

As to the particular agreements entered into, with respect to
our commerce, the law makes no provision for or against them :
they are perfectly indifferent in a legal sense. We may, or may
not, trade, as is most suitable to our own circumstances.

The deputies chosen in the several provinces, met at Phi
ladelphia according to appointment, and framed a set of re
solves, declarative of the rights of America : all which I have by
general arguments proved, are consonant to reason and nature ;
to the spirit of the British Constitution ; and to the intention of
our charters. They made the only concession (as I have also
shown) that their duty to themselves and their country would
justify, or that the connection between Great Britain and the
colonies demanded.

They solicited the King for a redress of grievances : but,
justly concluding, from past experience; from the behavior
and declarations of the majority in both Houses of Parliament ;
and from the known character and avowed designs of the min
ister ; that little or no dependence was to be placed upon bare
entreaties ; they thought it necessary to second them by restric
tions on trade.

In my former defence of the measures of the Congress, I

* All lawyers agree, that the spirit and reason of a law, is one of the principal
rules of interpretation ; if so, it cannot be doubted, that when a people are ag
grieved, and their circumstances will not allow them unitedly to petition in their
own persons, they may appoint representatives to do it for them.



JET. 18.] THE FARMER REFUTED. 97

proved, in a manner you never will be able to invalidate, that
petitions and remonstrances would certainly be unavailing. I
will now examine your frivolous and prevaricating reply.

You answer thus: "In the commotions occasioned by the
Stamp Act, we recurred to petitions and remonstrances: our
grievances were pointed out, and redress solicited with temper
and decency. They were heard ; they were attended to ; and
the disagreeable Act repealed. The same mode of application
succeeded, with regard to the duties laid upon glass, painters'
colors, &c. You say, indeed, that our addresses on this occasion
were treated with contempt and neglected. But, I beseech you,
were not our addresses received, read, and debated upon ? And
was not the repeal of those Acts the consequence ? The fact you
know is as I state it. If these Acts were not only disagreeable to
the Americans, but were also found to militate against the com
mercial interests of Great Britain, it proves what I asserted
above ; that duties which injure our trade, will soon be felt in
England ; and then there will be no difficulty in getting them
repealed."

I entirely deny the fact to be as you state it ; and you are
conscious it is not. Our addresses were not heard, attended to,
and the disagreeable Act repealed in consequence of them. If
this had been the case, why was no notice taken of them in
the repealing Act ? Why were not our complaints assigned as
the inducement to it ? On the contrary, these are the express
words of the first repeal, to which the. second is also similar ;
" Whereas the continuance of the said Act would be attended
with many inconveniences, and may be productive of consequences-
greatly detrimental to the commercial interests of Great Britain:
May it therefore please your most excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent, &c., that from and after the first
day of May, 1766, the above mentioned Act, and the several
matters and things therein contained, shall be, and is, and are,
hereby repealed and made void, to all intents and purposes
whatsoever."

The inconveniences and the ill consequences to Great Britain
are the only reasons given for the revocation of the Act. How

B 7



98 HAMILTON'S WORKS. [^T. 18.

then can you pretend to say it was in compliance with our peti
tions ? You must think the complaisance of your readers very
great to imagine they will credit your assertions at the expense
of their own understandings.

Neither is the use you make of the assigned reasons at all
just. The consequences, so detrimental to the commercial inter
ests of Great Britain, are not such as would have resulted from
the natural operation of the Act, had it been submitted to ; but
from the opposition made by us, and the cessation of imports
which had taken place.

A non-importation (to which you have so violent an aversion)
was the only thing that procured us redress on preceding occa
sions. We did not formerly, any more than now, confine our
selves to petitions only, but took care to adopt a more prevailing
method ; to wit, a suspension of trade.

But what proves to a demonstration that our former petitions
were unsuccessful, is, that the grand object they aimed at was
never obtained. This was, an exemption from Parliamentary
taxation. Our addresses turned entirely upon this point. And
so far were they from succeeding, that immediately upon the re
peal of the Stamp Act, a subsequent Act was passed, declaring
the right of Parliament to bind us by statutes in all cases what
soever. This declaration of the unlimited, universal authority of
Parliament, was a direct denial of the leading claim held up in
our petition, and of course a rejection of the petition itself.

The same observations are applicable to the Kevenue Act,
which, had our addresses been successful, would have been
wholly, not partially, revoked ; and we should not, at this time,
have had any occasion to renew our complaints, but should have
been in a state of security and tranquillity.

In my former reflections on this head, I urged many consider
ations to show, that there is less reason now than ever to expect
deliverance by means of remonstrance and entreaty. And, in
deed, if we consider the vindictive spirit diffused through the
words and actions of our oppressors, we must be convinced of
this. It impeaches the understandings of the ministry and the
Parliament in the grossest manner, to suppose they have re-






MT. 18.] THE FARMER REFUTED. 99

newed their attempts, and taken such violent methods to carry
them into execution, merely to have the pleasure of undoing the
whole, in condescension to our prayers and complaints. The
taxation of America is an object too near at heart to be re
signed unless from necessity ; and, if they would not have aban
doned the principle, there could be no reason to expect they
would have desisted from the exercise of it in the present in
stance. For the duty upon tea is in itself very trifling ; and,
since that is opposed, they could not hope to vary the mode in