Townsend Act

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The Townshend Act
The Townshend Acts` repeal of the Stamp Act left Britain's financial
problems unresolved. Parliament had not given up the right to tax the colonies
and in 1767, at the urging of chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend,
it passed the Townshend Acts, which imposed taxes on lead, glass, tea,
paint, and paper that Americans imported from Britain. In an effort to
strengthen its own authority and the power of royal colonial officials,
Parliament, at Townshend's request, also created the American Board of
Customs Commissioners whose members would strictly enforce the Navigation
Acts. Revenue raised by the new tariffs would be used to free royal officials
from financial dependence on colonial assemblies, thus further encroaching
on colonial autonomy. Once again the colonists protested vigorously. In
December 1767,John Dickinson, a Philadelphia lawyer, published 12 popular
essays that reiterated the colonists' denial of Parliament's right to tax
them and warned of a conspiracy by a corrupt British ministry to enslave
Americans. The Sons of Liberty organized protests against customs officials,
merchants entered into nonimportation agreements, and the Daughters of
Liberty advocated the nonconsumption of products, such as tea, taxed by
the Townshend Acts. The Massachusetts legislature sent the other colonies
a circular letter condemning the Townshend Acts and calling for a united
American resistance. British officials then ordered the dissolution of
the Massachusetts General Court if it failed to withdraw its circular letter;
the court refused, by a vote of 92 to 17, and was dismissed. The other
colonial assemblies, initially reluctant to protest the acts, now defiantly
signed the circular letter, outraged at British interference with a colonial
legislature.In other ways, British actions again united American protest.
The Board of Customs Commissioners extorted money from colonial merchants
and use...