British Loyalists Before the Revolution
Gouverneur Morris Tells Why he Opposed the Agitation Against Britain
Sep 26, 2009
When Parliament and King George III closed the port of Boston in response to the destruction of tea in Boston Harbour (what we now call the Boston Tea Party), colonists from Massachusetts tried to convince the other colonies to stop trading with England all together. Gouverneur Morris of New York wrote a letter to John Penn, a lawyer and legislator in North Carolina, about what was happening in the northern colonies.
Gouverneur Morris Concerned About the Colonial Agitators
Gourvernerur (a name, not a position) Morris was born to a wealthy and aristocratic family in New York in 1752. When the colonists began taking their rhetoric for separation from England into action, he believed their actions were premature. He was just twenty-two years old in early 1774 when he wrote about his concerns. “…the lower orders of mankind,” he wrote to Penn, “are more easily led by specious appearances than those of a more exalted station.”
Yes, he considered himself as part of that exalted station. He goes on: “…the heads of the mobility” [by which he means the mob] “grow dangerous to the gentry.” Morris seems to be concerned about losing his position of prominence in society should those pushing for separation from Great Britain win the day. “How to keep them [the lower classes] down” was the question on Morris’ mind.
Morris believed that people from his own station in life were leading the masses astray with talk of "freedom and religion...only watchwords." From the letter it is difficult to know if Morris believed the agitation toward independence was due to real feelings of separation from the mother country, or if it was a manufactured movement, something without real and deep grassroots support.
Morris Saw Things as the Gentry Vs. the Common Man
Morris observed a city meeting on May 19, 1774, a meeting that disturbed him. “In short, they fairly contended about the future forms of our government, whether it should be founded upon aristocratic or democratic principles.” Morris watched from a balcony, as the people of property and tradesmen stood separately.
The spirit of the unwritten British constitution was only slightly in evidence at this meeting. Yet that constitution, if adhered to, “will give wealthy people a superiority this time, but would they secure it they must banish all schoolmasters and confine all knowledge to themselves.” The mob was beginning to think and reason, which Morris saw as a negative thing, being urged upon the mob by a few men of his own station. He seems to have thought that these men were deceiving the people with their talk of stopping trade with Britain and of what form of government the colonies would eventually have.
The final analysis that flowed from Morris’ pen was, “…if the disputes with Great Britain continue we shall be under the worst of all possible dominions; we shall be under the domination of a riotous mob.”
Who Should Control Trade in the British Empire?
It was the home country—Britain—Morris thought, who should be controlling trade, not the American colonies. “…the right of regulating trade to be vested in Great Britain, where alone is found the power of protecting it…this is the only possible mode of union. …Can it be said that we are competent to the regulating of trade? The position is absurd, for this affects every part of the British Empire, every part of the habitable earth. Is all [parts of the Empire] are to make laws of trade, there must be a collision of these different authorities….”
Much of what Morris wrote in this letter showed agreement with some of the positions of those agitating for independence. They show that he had sympathy for limited government, for local control of taxation and security, and of local legislative bodies. Morris would later support the war for independence. But in 1774, his views were typical of the landed gentry: Stay with Great Britain, and submit to its rightful authority.
Source: The Annals of America, Vol. 2, pages 251-253, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968
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