The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
That these acts prohibit us from carrying, in
quest of other purchasers, the surplus of our tobaccos, remaining after
the consumption of Great Britain is supplied: so that we must leave
them with the British merchant, for whatever he will please to allow
us, to be by him re-shipped to foreign markets, where he will reap the
benefits of making sale of them for full value. That, to heighten still
the idea of Parliamentary justice, and to show with what moderation
they are like to exercise power, where themselves are to feel no
part of its weight, we take leave to mention to his Majesty, certain
other acts of the British Parliament, by which they would prohibit
us from manufacturing, for our own use, the articles we raise on our
own lands, with our own labor. By an act passed in the fifth year of
the reign of his late Majesty, King George the second, an American
subject is forbidden to make a hat for himself, of the fur which he
has taken, perhaps, on his own soil; an instance of despotism, to
which no parallel can be produced in the most arbitrary ages of British
history. By one other act, passed in the twenty-third year of the same
reign, the iron which we make, we are forbidden to manufacture; and,
heavy as that article is, and necessary in every branch of husbandry,
besides commission and insurance, we are to pay freight for it to Great
Britain, and freight for it back again, for the purpose of supporting,
not men, but machines, in the island of Great Britain. In the same
spirit of equal and impartial legislation, is to be viewed the act
of Parliament, passed in the fifth year of the same reign, by which
American lands are made subject to the demands of British creditors,
while their own lands were still continued unanswerable for their
debts; from which, one of these conclusions must necessarily follow,
either that justice is not the same thing in America as in Britain,
or else, that the British Parliament pay less regard to it here than
there. But, that we do not point out to his Majesty the injustice
of these acts, with intent to rest on that principle the cause of
their nullity; but to show that experience confirms the propriety
of those political principles, which exempt us from the jurisdiction
of the British Parliament. The true ground on which we declare these
acts void, is, that the British Parliament has no right to exercise
authority over us.
That these exercises of usurped power have not been confined to
instances alone, in which themselves were interested; but they have
also intermeddled with the regulation of the internal affairs of the
colonies. The act of the 9th of Anne for establishing a post office in
America, seems to have had little connection with British convenience,
except that of accommodating his Majesty's ministers and favorites with
the sale of a lucrative and easy office.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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