A Brief History of the United StatesMcMaster, John Bach
History
A Brief History of the United States
McMaster, John Bach
United States -- History
5. The boundaries of the province of Quebec were extended to the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers. As Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia claimed
parts of this territory, they regarded the Quebec Act as another act of
tyranny. [16]
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.--Because of the passage of these laws, a
Congress suggested by Virginia and called by Massachusetts met in
Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia in September, 1774, and issued a
declaration of rights and grievances, a petition to the king, and
addresses to the people of Great Britain, to the people of Canada, and to
the people of the colonies. It also called a second Congress to meet on
May 10, 1775, and take action on the result of the petition to the king.
SUMMARY
1. After the French and Indian War Great Britain determined to enforce the
laws of trade.
2. It also decided that the colonies should bear a part of the cost of
their defense, and for this purpose a stamp tax was levied.
3. The right of Parliament to levy such a tax was denied by the colonists
on the ground that they were not represented in Parliament.
4. The attempt to enforce the tax led to resistance, and a congress of the
colonies (1765) issued a declaration of rights and grievances.
5. The tax was repealed in 1766, but Parliament at the same time asserted
its right to tax.
6. The Townshend Acts (1767) tried to raise a revenue by import duties on
goods brought into the colonies. At the same time the arrival of the
troops for defense of the colonies caused new trouble; in Boston the
people and the troops came to blows (1770).
7. The refusal of the colonists to buy the taxed articles led to the
repeal of all the taxes except that on tea (1770).
8. The colonists still refused to buy taxed tea, whereupon Parliament
enabled the East India Company to send over tea for sale at a lower price
than before.
9. The tea was not allowed to be sold. In Boston it was destroyed.
10. As a punishment Parliament enacted the five Intolerable Acts.
11. The First Continental Congress (1774) thereupon petitioned for
redress, and called a second Congress to meet the next year.
FOOTNOTES
[1] That is, compel the colonists to furnish quarters--rooms or houses--
for the troops to live in. Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I,
pp. 439-440.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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