This Virginia Petition of the House of Burgesses to the House of Commons marks Virginia's formal protest to Parliament regarding the new Sugar Act taxes and the
rumored Stamp Act taxes. Parliament passed the Sugar Act
in order to raise revenue, reduce the national debt and boost the
British economy, by strictly enforcing
tax collections on trade and imposing various onerous trade
regulations. This greatly angered the colonists who did not believe that
Parliament had the
constitutional right to tax them. The measures also caused great damage to colonial economies. You can read the Virgnia Petition of the House of Burgesses
to the House of Commons below.
And you can read more about the Sugar Act here.
December 18, 1764
To the Honourable the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of Great Britain in Parliament assembled:
The Remonstrance of the Council and Burgesses of Virginia. It appearing
by the printed votes of the House of Commons of Great Britain in
Parliament
assembled that in a committee of the whole House, the 17th day of March
last, it was resolved that towards defending, protecting, and securing
the British
colonies and plantations in America, it may be proper to charge certain
stamp duties in the said colonies and plantations; and it being
apprehended that
the same subject, which was then declined, may be resumed and further
pursued in a succeeding session, the Council and Burgesses of Virginia,
met in General
Assembly, judge it their indispensable duty, in a respectful manner but
with decent firmness, to remonstrate against such a measure, that at
least a cession
of those rights, which in their opinion must be infringed by that
procedure, may not be inferred from their silence, at so important a
crisis.
They conceive it is essential to British liberty that laws imposing
taxes on the people ought not to be made without the consent of
representatives chosen
by themselves; who, at the same time that they are acquainted with the
circumstances of their constituents, sustain a proportion of the burden
laid on them.
This privilege, inherent in the persons who discovered and settled these
regions, could not be renounced or forfeited by their removal hither,
not as vagabonds
or fugitives, but licensed and encouraged by their prince and animated
with a laudable desire of enlarging the British dominion, and extending
its commerce.
On the contrary, it was secured to them and their descendants, with all
other rights and immunities of British subjects, by a royal charter,
which hath been
invariably recognized and confirmed by his Majesty and his predecessors
in their commissions to the several governors, granting a power, and
prescribing a
forum of legislation; according to which, laws for the administration of
justice, and for the welfare and good government of the colony, have
been hitherto
enacted by the Governor, Council, and General Assembly, and to them
requisitions and applications for supplies have been directed by the
Crown. As an instance
of the opinion which former sovereigns entertained of these rights and
privileges, we beg leave to refer to three acts of the General Assembly
passed in the
32d year of the reign of King Charles II (one of which is entitled An
Act for raising a Public Revenue for the better Support of the
Government of his Majesty's
Colony of Virginia, imposing several duties for that purpose) which they
thought absolutely necessary, were prepared in England, and sent over
by their then
governor, the Lord Culpepper, to be passed by the General Assembly, with
a full power to give the royal assent thereto; and which were
accordingly passed,
after several amendments were made to them here. Thus tender was his
Majesty of the rights of his American subjects; and the remonstrants do
not discern by
what distinction they can be deprived of that sacred birthright and most
valuable inheritance by their fellow subjects, nor with what propriety
they can be
taxed or affected in their estates by the Parliament, wherein they are
not, and indeed cannot, constitutionally be represented. And if it were
proper for the
Parliament to impose taxes on the colonies at all, which the
remonstrants take leave to think would be inconsistent with the
fundamental principles of the
constitution, the exercise of that power at this time would be ruinous
to Virginia, who exerted herself in the late war, it is feared, beyond
her strength,
insomuch that to redeem the money granted for that exigence her people
are taxed for several years to come; this with the large expenses
incurred for defending
the frontiers against the restless Indians, who have infested her as
much since the peace as before, is so grievous that an increase of the
burden will be
intolerable; especially as the people are very greatly distressed
already from the scarcity of circulating cash amongst them, and from the
little value of
their staple at the British markets.
And it is presumed that adding to that load which the colony now labours
under will not be more oppressive to her people than destructive of the
interests of
Great Britain; for the plantation trade, confined as it is to the mother
country, hath been a principal means of multiplying and enriching her
inhabitants;
and if not too much discouraged, may prove an inexhaustible source of
treasure to the nation. For satisfaction in this point, let the present
state of the
British fleets and trade be compared with what they were before the
settlement of the colonies; and let it be considered that whilst
property in land may be
acquired on very easy terms, in the vast uncultivated territory of North
America, the colonists will be mostly, if not wholly, employed in
agriculture; whereby
the exportation of their commodities of Great Britain, and the
consumption of their manufactures supplied from thence, will be daily
increasing. But this most
desirable connection between Great Britain and her colonies, supported
by such a happy intercourse of reciprocal benefits as is continually
advancing the
prosperity of both, must be interrupted, if the people of the latter,
reduced to extreme poverty, should be compelled to manufacture those
articles they have
been hitherto furnished with from the former.
From these considerations it is hoped that the honourable House of
Commons will not prosecute a measure which those who may suffer under it
cannot but look
upon as fitter for exiles driven from their native country, After
ignominiously forfeiting her favours and protection, than for the
prosperity of Britons
who have at all times been forward to demonstrate all due reverence to
the mother kingdom, and are so instrumental in promoting her glory and
felicity; and
that British patriots will never consent to the exercise of
anticonstitutional power, which even in this remote corner may be
dangerous in its example to
the interior parts of the British Empire, and will certainly be
detrimental to its commerce.
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