American History Essay

Origins and Progress of American Revolution

Peter Oliver

Peter Oliver, who was born in Boston in 1713 and educated at Harvard, detested protests against the reform of British imperial policy. A wealthy member of the legal profession, Oliver was a part of the British system: beginning in 1756, he served as a judge of the superior court of Massachusetts. In addition, the first great Stamp Act crowd action (August 14, 1765, in Boston) was directed against the property of Andrew Oliver, his brother (see text p. 145). Once the Revolution broke out, Oliver went to Britain, fully expecting to return to Massachusetts once the "rebellion" had been put down. However, Oliver never returned; he died in Britain in 1791. He expressed his thoughts about the causes of the Revolution in his "Origin & Progress of the American Rebellion." This work, written in the early 1780s, was not published until the twentieth century.

I am now come to the Year 1767, a Year fraught with Occurrences, as extraordinary as 1765, but of a different Texture. Notwithstanding the Warnings that the Colonies had repeatedly given, of their determined Resolution to throw off the Supremacy of the british Parliament, yet the then Ministry chose to make another Trial of Skill; never adverting to the ill Success of former Attempts. They might have known, that the Contest had reached so great an Heighth, that the Colonists would never descend one Step untill they had first ascended the last Round of the Ladder. . . . It required no great Degree of second Sight to calculate Consequences. But the Ministry confiding in their own good Intentions, and placing too much Confidence in the Gratitude of the Colonists to the parent State (which by the Way they did not possess a Spark of, neither is it to be but seldom Expected to find it inhabit any where but in the private Breast, and too seldom there; to the Disgrace of human Nature), they procured a new Act to be passed, laying Duties upon Tea, Glass, Paper, and Painters Colours. This Act was not more unreasonable than many other Acts which had been submitted to for many Years past, and which, even at this Time, they made no Objection to. But the Colonists had succeeded in their first Experiment of Opposition, and their new Allies in Parliament increased their Importance.

As to the Glass in particular, the Duty was so trifling, that it would not have enhanced the Price of it to the Purchaser; for there were so many Sellers who aimed at a Market for their Commodities, and the Merchants had so great a Profit upon their Goods, that they could render the Duty of little or no Importance in their Sales; and this was actually the Case. For the Glass, during the Continuance of the Act, was sold at the same Price which it commanded before the Commencement of the Act. The true Reason of Opposition was this. The Inhabitants of the Colonies were a Race of Smugglers. . . .

The Smugglers then, who were the prevailing Part of the Traders in the Capitals of the several Provinces, found it necessary for their Interest, to unite in defeating the Operation of the Act; and Boston appeared in the Front of the Battle. Accordingly they beat to Arms, and manœuvred in a new invented Mode. They entred into nonimportation Agreements. A Subscription Paper was handed about, enumerating a great Variety of Articles not to be imported from England, which they supposed would muster the Manufacturers in England into a national Mob to support their Interests. Among the various prohibited Articles, were Silks, Velvets, clocks, Watches, Coaches and Chariots; and it was highly diverting, to see the names and marks, to the Subscription, of Porters and Washing Women. But every mean and dirty Art was used to compass all their bad Designs. One of those who handed about a Subscription Paper being asked, whether it could be imagined that such Tricks would effectuate their Purposes? He replyed "Yes! It would do to scare them in England:" and perhaps there never was a Nation so easy to be affrighted: witness the preceding Repeal of the Stamp Act.

In order to effectuate their Purposes to have this Act repealed also, they formed many Plans of Operation. Associations were convened to prevent the Importation of Goods from Great Britain, and to oblige all those who had already sent for them, to reship them after their arrival. This was such an Attack upon the mercantile Interest, that it was necessary to use private evasive Arts to decieve the Vulgar. Accordingly, when the Goods arrived, they were to be in Warehouses, which were to be guarded by a publick Key, at the same Time the Owners of the Stores and Goods had a Key of their Own. This amused the Rabble, whom the Merchants had set to mobbing; and such were the blessed Effects of some of those Merchants Villainy, that Bales and Trunks were disgorged of their Contents and refilled with Shavings, Brickbats, Legs of Bacon and other Things, and shipped for England; where some of them were opened on the King's Wharves or Quays, and the Fraud discovered. Many of those Merchants also continued to import the prohibited Goods, in Disguise; of which a bold Printer of Boston detected them in his publick Papers; for which they, out of Revenge, in 1768, attempted to murder him; but narrowly escaping with his Life he fled to England, as the civil Power of the Country was not sufficient to protect any one who was obnoxious to the Leaders of the Faction. . . .

Mr. [James] Otis's black Regiment, the dissenting Clergy, were also set to Work, to preach up Manufactures instead of Gospel. They preached about it and about it; untill the Women and Children, both within Doors and without, set their Spinning Wheels a whirling in Defiance of Great Britain. The female Spinners kept on spinning for 6 Days of the Week; and on the seventh, the Parsons took their Turns and spun out their Prayers and Sermons to a long Thread of Politicks, and to much better Profit than the other Spinners; for they generally cloathed the Parson and his Family with the Produce of their Labor. This was a new Species of Enthusiasm, and might be justly termed, the Enthusiasm of the Spinning Wheel.

An American is an adept in the Arts of Shrewdness. In these he is generally an Overmatch for a Briton, although he may sometimes fail in the Execution. As an Instance of each, take the following Anecdote of a Deacon of one [of] the dissenting Congregations in Boston, who imported large Quantities of Woolens from England. Hogarth drew his Line of Beauty for the Leg of a Chair; so this Person had sat so long in a Deacon's Seat, that the Muscles of his Face were so contracted into the Line of Sanctity, that he passed himself upon the World as a Man of great Reputation for Honesty. He was also a great Stickler for the Manufactures of America; and in the Heighth of his pious Zeal for the good old Cause, wrote to his Correspondent in London about american Grievances; and informed him, that unless they were redressed, they not only could, but they would redress them their selves by making Cloths from their own Produce. As a Proof that they could do it, he sent Patterns of fine broad Cloths, which he said were manufactured in America. His Correspondent was surprized on seeing the Patterns, and shewed them to the Manufacturer of whom he had bought them. He also was surprized; but, on examination, told the Merchant that those were the very Cloths he had sold him to ship to America—such are the blessed Effects of Cant and Hypocrisy. . . .

All this Struggle and Uproar arose from the selfish Designs of the Merchants. They disguised their Private Views by mouthing it for Liberty. The Magick of this Sound echoed through the interior Parts of the Country, and the deluded Vulgar were charmed with it—like the poor harmless Squirrel that runs into the Mouth of the Rattlesnake, the Fascination in the Word Liberty threw the People into the harpy Claws of their Destroyers; and for what? But to gratifie the artfull Smugglers in carrying on their contraband Tea Trade with the Dutch, to make their deluded Consumers purchase at their Prices who were the Venders; for the act of Parliament had reduced the Duties upon it from 12 d p [Pence per] Pound to three Pence, with a View to prevent Smugling; which would effectually have prevented it, had the Act been in Force a few Years, and would have broke up the Nests of those worse than Highway Men; who, for many Years, had kept the Province in a Ferment, and created Uneasiness in the parent State.

As for the People in general, they were like the Mobility of all Countries, perfect Machines, wound up by any Hand who might first take the Winch; they were like the poor Negro Boy, who, in the Time of the late Stamp Act, was bid by his Master, in the Evening, to fetch something from his Barn; but did not move at the command. His Master spoke to him with Severity, and asked him why he did not go as he was bid? The poor Wretch replied, with Tears in his Eyes, "me fraid Massah Tamp Act he catch me." Thus the common People had had that Act, and all the Acts of Parliament since, dressed up by their seditious Leaders, either with raw Head and bloody Bones, or with Horns, Tails, and cloven Feet, which were sufficient to affright their weak Followers. And as for Men of Sense, who could see through the Delusion, it would have been imprudent for them to have interposed; for the Government was in the Hands of the Mob, both in Form and Substance, and it was in vain to combat a Whirlwind or a Hurricane.