The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

124 THE FREEMAN FebruaryKing's majesty, by and with theadvice and consent of the lordsspiritual and temporal, and commonsof Great Britain, in parliamentassembled, had, hath, and ofright ought to have, full powerand authority to make laws andstatutes of sufficient force andvalidity to bind the coloniesin all cases whatsoever."21The theoretical issue was joined,but the crisis had passed - for themoment.This was the first Americancrisis. It was the first because forthe first time all the colonies weredrawn together in action and resistanceto Britain. Heretofore,they had been separate, linked onlyby their common allegiance toBritain; now, they had been linkedwithout that tie in common sentimentand for a common cause. Notonly that, but they had seen Britainfalter before their resolutionand back down.Several other points need to bemade about· this crisis. One is thatit was provoked by British action.Parliament was the innovatorabandoning precedent to tax th~colonies, extending itself to directtaxation, which hardly anyone inAmerica would admit was itsright. The colonists were defend-21 Greene, Ope cit., p. 85.ing; in an important sense, theywere conservative, for they wereattempting to preserve the rightsand privileges they had enjoyed.Another point is that the courseon which Parliament was bent waspotentially tyrannical. Force wasbeing assembled in America;Parliament was moving to takecolonial control of their domesticaffairs from them. Thirdly, thecolonists based their arguments onthe rights of Englishmen and theBritish constitution. They werenot rebelling; they were resistingwhat they perceived as unconstitutionalaction.The colonists drew a line beyondwhich they said Parliamentwas not to go. They denounced directtaxes imposed from without,and distinguished between internaland external taxation, the lattersome theorists held to be acceptable.Parliamentary leaderslearned from this debacle. Neveragain would they act so directlyon America. They would now tryby less direct means to accomplishtheir object. But the Americanshad been aroused; henceforth, everyact of Parliament would be examinedwith great care to see ifthere was in it a potentiality foroppression. Such acts were notlong in coming.IJNext: British Acts become Intolerable.