The Townshend Acts of 1767
Letters From a Pennsylvania Farmer #2: An Unconstitutional Tax
The Farmer from Pennsylvania began to show his true legal skill and training in this letter. He explicitly declared his opinion about one of the Townshend Acts, nicknamed for its sponsor, Charles Townshend, who was King George's Minister in Parliament. This act, officially known as the Duties on Tea, etc. (American Plantations) Act 1766, was lambasted as unconstitutional, destructive of liberty and worse than the hated and reviled Stamp Act. Dickinson went on to give a very good explanation for the difference between a duty that regulates trade and a tax that is specifically purposed to raise revenue.
Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies - Letter #2
Issue: Parliament has the Authority to regulate trade but it does not have the right to use those regulations to raise revenue.
Dickinson:
It is not a question of whether or not Parliament has the "legal authority to regulate the trade of Great Britain, and all her colonies." This has always been recognized as being something that is done for the common benefit of the Empire. BUT ... until the late Stamp Act these duties have never been assessed with the goal of raising revenue.
Problem: Parliament had clearly written in several of its latest acts that their purpose was to “raise revenue”. Another problem with this is that there was a sort of economic double jeopardy built into these acts because the same products that by law can only be bought from Great Britain are the ones that are also being taxed most heavily.
Dickinson:
The difference with these new "duties" is that in enacting them, Parliament is claiming authority that exceeds that of trade regulation. This has nothing to do with "the preservation or promotion of a mutually beneficial intercourse between the several constituent parts of the empire". Until now this is the only thing Parliament has ever asked of us, but these acts are "for the single purpose of levying money upon us." These new duties are no different in spirit or substance than the Stamp Act.
Solution: This form of taxation MUST be refused and resisted or it will never end.
Dickinson:
“Here then, my dear countrymen, rouse yourselves, and behold the ruin hanging over your heads. If you ONCE admit, that Great Britain may lay duties upon her exportations to us, for the purpose of levying money on us only ... the tragedy of American liberty is finished.”
The Farmers Warning
"[If] parliament can legally take money out of our pockets, without our consent … our boasted liberty is but …
aeterihil (A sound and nothing else.)"
Click here to read about The Pennsylvania Farmer's 1st Letter
Click here to read about The Pennsylvania Farmer's 3rd Letter
Source
Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies by John Dickinson, Esq.
