Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin Volume I Part 14

_A._ I do not know a single article imported into the _northern_ colonies but what they can either do without or make themselves.

_Q._ Don't you think cloth from England absolutely necessary to them?

_A._ No, by no means absolutely necessary; with industry and good management, they may well supply themselves with all they want.

_Q._ Will it not take a long time to establish that manufacture among them; and must they not, in the mean while, suffer greatly?

_A._ I think not. They have made a surprising progress already; and I am of opinion that, before their old clothes are worn out, they will have new ones of their own making.

_Q._ Can they possibly find wool enough in North America?

_A._ They have taken steps to increase the wool. They entered into general combinations to eat no more lamb; and very few lambs were killed last year. This course, persisted in, will soon make a prodigious difference in the quant.i.ty of wool. And the establis.h.i.+ng of great manufactories, like those in the clothing towns here, is not necessary, as it is where the business is to be carried on for the purposes of trade. The people will all spin and work for themselves, in their own houses.

_Q._ Can there be wool and manufacture enough in one or two years?

_A._ In three years I think there may.

_Q._ Does not the severity of the winter in the northern colonies occasion the wool to be of bad quality?

_A._ No, the wool is very fine and good. * * * *

_Q._ Considering the resolution of Parliament[20] _as to the right_, do you think, if the stamp-act is repealed, that the North Americans will be satisfied?

_A._ I believe they will.

_Q._ Why do you think so?

A. I think the resolutions of _right_ will give them very little concern if they are never attempted to be carried into practice. The colonies will probably consider themselves in the same situation in that respect with Ireland: they know you claim the same right with regard to Ireland, but you never exercise it. And they may believe you never will exercise it in the colonies any more than in Ireland, unless on some very extraordinary occasion.

_Q._ But who are to be the judges of that extraordinary occasion? Is not the Parliament?

_A._ Though the Parliament may judge of the occasion, the people will think it can never exercise such right till representatives from the colonies are admitted into Parliament; and that, whenever the occasion arises, representatives _will_ be ordered. * *

_Q._ Can anything less than a military force carry the stamp-act into execution?

_A._ I do not see how a military force can be applied to that purpose.

_Q._ Why may it not?

_A._ Suppose a military force sent into America, they will find n.o.body in arms; what are they then to do? They cannot force a man to take stamps who chooses to do without them. They will not find a rebellion: they may indeed make one.

_Q._ If the act is not repealed, what do you think will be the consequence?

_A._ A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and affection.

_Q._ How can the commerce be affected?

_A._ You will find that, if the act is not repealed, they will take very little of your manufactures in a short time.

_Q._ Is it in their power to do without them?

_A._ I think they may very well do without them.

_Q._ Is it their interest not to take them?

_A._ The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, mere conveniences, or superfluities. The first, as cloth, &c., with a little industry they can make at home; the second they can do without till they are able to provide them among themselves; and the last, which are much the greatest part, they will strike off immediately. They are mere articles of fas.h.i.+on, purchased and consumed because the fas.h.i.+on in a respected country; but will now be detested and rejected. The people have already struck-off, by general agreement, the use of all goods fas.h.i.+onable in mournings, and many thousand pounds worth are sent back as unsaleable.

_Q._ Is it their interest to make cloth at home?

_A._ I think they may at present get it cheaper from Britain, I mean of the same fineness and neatness of workmans.h.i.+p; but when one considers other circ.u.mstances, the restraints on their trade, and the difficulty of making remittances, it is their interest to make everything.

_Q._ Suppose an act of internal regulations connected with a tax, how would they receive it?

_A._ I think it would be objected to.

_Q._ Then no regulation with a tax would be submitted to?

_A._ Their opinion is, that when aids to the crown are wanted, they are to be asked of the several a.s.semblies, according to the old established usage; who will, as they always have done, grant them freely. And that their money ought not to be given away without their consent, by persons at a distance, unacquainted with their circ.u.mstances and abilities. The granting aids to the crown is the only means they have of recommending themselves to their sovereign; and they think it extremely hard and unjust that a body of men, in which they have no representatives, should make a merit to itself of giving and granting what is not their own, but theirs; and deprive them of a right they esteem of the utmost importance, as it is the security of all their other rights.

_Q._ But is not the postoffice, which they have long received, a tax as well as a regulation?

_A._ No; the money paid for the postage of a letter is not of the nature of a tax; it is merely a _quantum meruit_ for a service done: no person is compellable to pay the money if he does not choose to receive the service. A man may still, as before the act, send his letter by a servant, a special messenger, or a friend, if he thinks it cheaper and safer.

_Q._ But do they not consider the regulations of the postoffice, by the act of last year, as a tax?

_A._ By the regulations of last year, the rate of postage was generally abated near thirty per cent. through all America; they certainly cannot consider such abatement _as a tax_.

_Q._ If an excise was laid by Parliament, which they might likewise avoid paying by not consuming the articles excised, would they then not object to it?

_A._ They would certainly object to it, as an excise is unconnected with any service done, and is merely an aid, which they think ought to be asked of them and granted by them, if they are to pay it, and can be granted for them by no others whatsoever, whom they have not empowered for that purpose.

_Q._ You say they do not object to the right of Parliament in laying duties on goods to be paid on their importation: now, is there any kind of difference between a duty on the _importation_ of goods and an excise on their _consumption_?

_A._ Yes, a very material one: an excise, for the reasons I have just mentioned, they think you can have no right to lay within their country.

But the _sea_ is yours: you maintain, by your fleets, the safety of navigation in it, and keep it clear of pirates: you may have, therefore, a natural and equitable right to some _toll_ or duty on merchandises carried through that part of your dominions, towards defraying the expense you are at in s.h.i.+ps to maintain the safety of that carriage.

_Q._ Does this reasoning hold in the case of a duty laid on the produce of their lands _exported_? And would they not then object to such a duty?

_A._ If it tended to make the produce so much dearer abroad as to lessen the demand for it, to be sure they would object to such a duty: not to your right of laying it, but they would complain of it as a burden, and pet.i.tion you to lighten it. * * *

_Q._ Supposing the stamp-act continued and enforced, do you imagine that ill-humour will induce the Americans to give as much for worse manufactures of their own, and use them preferable to better of ours?

_A._ Yes, I think so. People will pay as freely to gratify one pa.s.sion as another, their resentment as their pride.

_Q._ Would the people at Boston discontinue their trade?

_A._ The merchants are a very small number compared with the body of the people, and must discontinue their trade if n.o.body will buy their goods.

_Q._ What are the body of the people in the colonies?