The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

148 THE FREEMAN Marchstraints upon imports and exportsof sugar were particularly galling,and their·trade was hurt badly bylimitations on how wood productscould be sold. 2 The Quartering Actstill placed requirements on thecolonies involved which some ofthem refused to comply with. TheCurrency Act restricted the issuanceof paper money both uponcolonies which had responsibly re..;tired theirs in the past as well asthose which had not. And therewas the Declaratory Act with itsstrident claims about the unlimitedpowers of Parliament.The'Strategy of ResistanceThe colonists employed a varietyof tactics in their resistanceto British impositions during thedecade or so after 1763: some legal,some extra-legal, and othersillegal. These tactics ranged fromresolutions of legislatures, to petitionsto the government in England,to unauthorized conventionsand congresses, to boycotts, todemonstrations, all the way torioting and the intimidation of officialsby mobs. The use of some ofthese latter tactics in recent yearshas been justified on the groundsthat they were employed by ourvenerated forebears - an excusewhose merits would be dependentupon analogous conditions. It maybe of some use to examine the con-2 Ibid., pp. 207-08.ditions of the resort to violenceby some Americans of that earliertime, both for the light it will shedon their situation as well as whatit may tell us about the appropriatenessof this justification forcontemporary violence. By such anexamination, too, the issues betweenthecolonists and the Britishcan be sorted out.What tactics are appropriate issurely dependent on the options.available. To understand what optionswere available to the colonists,one needs to review the politicalsituation.The colonists did not fully controltheir governments. Far fromit, in most cases. Usually, the governorwas appointed from England(the charter colonies of Connecticutand Rhode Island were exceptions), and he quite often receivedinstructions from officials there.No more did the colonists ordinarilychoose the members of thegovernor's council. The assemblywas popularly elected, but its actionscould be severely circumscribed.It met on call from the governor,could have its acts vetoedby him, and was subject to beingdismissed or dissolved by the executive.There were even efforts tocontrol assemblies from England.For· example, the New York legislaturewas suspended for its failureto provide supplies for thetroops under the Quartering Act.