BY WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778): An English statesman and orator, "the Great Commoner." He made several brilliant speeches in defense of the American colonies. This selection is from an eloquent speech delivered in the House of Commons, January 16, 1766, in which he condemned the Stamp Act, and argued that England had no right to tax the colonies.
Gentlemen, sir, have been charged with giving birth to sedition1 in America. They have spoken their sentiments with freedom against this unhappy act, and that freedom has become their crime. Sorry I am to hear the liberty of speech in this house imputed as a crime. But the imputation shall not discourage me. It is a liberty I mean to exercise. No gentleman ought to be afraid to exercise it. It is a liberty by which the gentleman who calumniates2 it might have profited. He ought to have desisted from his project.
The gentleman tells us America is obstinate; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest. I come not here armed1 Sedition: rebellion; discontent against government. 2 Calumniates: accuses falsely of a crime; slanders.
at all points, with law cases and acts of Parliament, with the statute-book doubled down in dog"s-ears, to defend the cause of liberty. But the defense of liberty, upon a general principle, upon a constitutional principle, is a ground on which I stand firm; on which I dare meet any man.
The gentleman tells us of many who are taxed and are not represented-the India Company, merchants, stockholders, manufacturers. Surely many of these are represented in other capacities, as owners of land, or as freemen of boroughs1. It is a misfortune that more are not equally represented. But they are all inhabitants, and as such are they not virtually2 represented? Many have it in their option3 to be actually represented. They have connections with those that elect, and they have influence over them. The gentleman mentioned the stockholders: I hope he does not reckon the debts of the nation as a part of the national estate.
The gentleman asks, "When were the colonies emancipated4?"But I desire to know when they were made slaves? But I dwell not upon words. When I had the honor of serving his majesty, I availed myself of the means of information which I derived from my office; I speak, therefore, from knowledge. My materials were good, I was at pains to collect, to digest, to consider them; and I will be bold to affirm that the profits to Great Britain from the trade of the colonies, through all its1 Boroughs: English towns which send members to parliament. 2 Virtually: practically.
3 Option: power of choosing; choice. 4 Emancipated: set free.
branches, is two millions a year. This is the fund that carried you triumphantly through the last war1.
A great deal has been said without doors of the power, of the strength, of America. It is a topic that ought to be cautiously meddled with. In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this country can crush America to atoms. I know the valor of your troops. I know the skill of your officers. There is not a company of foot that has served in America out of which you may not pick a man of sufficient knowledge and experience to make a governor of a colony there. But on this ground, on the Stamp Act2, when so many here will think it a crying injustice, I am one who will lift up my hands against it.
In such a cause your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like the strong man. She would embrace the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitution along with her. Is this your boasted peace? Not to sheath the sword in its scabbard3, but to sheath it in the bowels of your countrymen?
Will you quarrel with yourselves now the whole House ofBourbon4 is united against you; while France disturbs your fisheries in Newfoundland, embarrasses your slave trade to Africa, and withholds from your subjects in Canada their property stipulated5 by treaty; while the ransom for the1The last war: the French and Indian war (1754-1763).
2Stamp Act: an act of the British parliament (1765) imposing a duty on all the paper and parchment used in the American colonies.
3Scabbard: the case in which the blade of a sword is kept. 4 House of Bourbon: a family of French kings.
5 Stipulated: agreed on.
Manillas is denied by Spain, and its gallant conqueror1 basely traduced2 into a mean plunderer,-a gentleman whose noble and generous spirit would d honor to the proudest grandee3 of the country?
The Americans have not acted in all things with prudence and temper; they have been wronged. They have been driven to madness by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness you have occasioned? Rather let prudence and temper come first from this side. I will undertake for America that she will follow the example. There are two lines in a ballad of Prior4"s, of a man"s behavior to his wife, so applicable to you and your colonies that I cannot help repeating them:-"Be to her faults a little blind, Be to her virtues very kind."Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the House what is my opinion. It is, that the Stamp Act be repealed absolutely, totally, and immediately. That the reason for the repeal be assigned, because it was founded on an erroneous principle.
1Its gallant conqueror, etc.: Sir William Draper (1721-1787), a British officer who commanded as colonel at the capture of Manilla from the Spaniards in 1763.
2Traduced: slandered.
3Grandee: man of high rank; nobleman.
4Matthew Prior (1664-1721): an English poet and diplomatist.