chap. XVIII.} 1765. Oct. |
The difficult task of defining the rights and ‘setting forth the liberty’ which America ‘ought to enjoy,’ led the Assembly to debate for two weeks ‘on liberty, privileges, and prerogative.’ In these debates, Otis, of Boston, himself the father of the Congress, displayed great knowledge of the interests of America, and assisted to kindle the fires which afterwards lighted the country on its path to freedom.
It was proposed to ‘insist upon a repeal of all acts, laying duties on trade, as well as the Stamp Act.’ ‘If we do not make an explicit acknowledgment of the power of Britain to regulate our trade,’ said the too gentle Livingston, ‘she will never give up the point of internal taxation.’ But he was combated with great heat, till at last the Congress, by the hand of Rutledge, of South Carolina, erased from the declaration of rights the unguarded concession; and the restrictions on American commerce, though practically acquiesced in, were enumerated as grievances.
Still Gadsden and Lynch were not satisfied. With vigorous dialectics, they proceeded from a denial of the power of parliament in America, to deny the propriety of approaching either house with a petition. ‘The House of Commons,’ reasoned Gadsden, with the persevering earnestness of conviction, ‘refused to receive the addresses of the colonies, when the matter was pending; besides, we neither hold our rights from them nor from the Lords.’ But yielding to the majority, Gadsden suppressed his opposition; ‘for,’ said he, ‘union is most certainly all in all.’
