For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

On July 4th 1776 a group of representatives at the second Continental Congress finalized and signed a document that would forever alter the course of history in Britain’s North American Colonies. This Document is known as the Declaration of Independence and contains a statement of cessation but also a list of grievances addressed to the King George III of England. These complaints laid forth by the colonists were grave indeed, and had become so intolerable that breaking free from their loyalty to Britain was the only remaining action that these men felt could be taken. One of these charges was, “For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.”(1) Their complaint stemmed from the fact that by order of the King and Parliament on more than one occasion representative government within particular colonies had been shut down via certain Acts from Britain.

The first of the Acts that were passed that took the step of shutting down the colonist’s representative committees and councils was the New York Suspending Act of 1767. This Act was passed on July 2, 1767 as part of the Townshend Acts:
“That from and after the first day of October, one thousand seven hundred and sixty seven, until provision shall have been made by the said assembly of New York for furnishing his Majesty's troops within the said province,. . . it shall not be lawful for the governor,. . . or for the council, within the colony,. . . of New York in America, to pass, or give his or their assent to, or concurrence in, the making or passing of any act of assembly; or his or their assent to any order, resolution, or vote, in concurrence with the House of representatives for the time being within the said colony,. . . or for the said house of representatives to pass or make any bill, order, resolution, or vote . . .”(2)
The Townshend Acts included new duties placed on imports; the money derived from this duty was then used to pay the British officials appointed to the provinces. It also included a reorganization of Customs, to make sure that the Navigation Act, Townshend duties, and Sugar Acts were being correctly charged and followed. It also contained the New York Suspending Act of 1767 due to the New York colony not following the Quartering Act of 1765, which demanded that the colonies pay for the Quartering and supplying of British Troops stationed within that colony. In the end, although quite unhappy by the measures parliament had taken, the colonists passed a resolution and funded the troops.

Another act passed later as one of the Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts suspended the elected representative committees in the Colony of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Government Act of 1774 was passed by Parliament on May 20th of that year:
“That from and after the first day of August, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-four, so much of the charter, granted by their majesties King William and Queen Mary to the inhabitants of the said province . . ., and all and every clause, matter, and thing, therein contained, which relates to the time and manner of electing the assistants or counselors for the said province, be revoked,. . . and that the offices of all counselors and assistants, elected and appointed in pursuance thereof, shall from thenceforth cease and determine: . . . the council, or court of assistants of the said province for the time being, shall be . . . thereunto nominated and appointed by his Majesty, his heirs and successors, from time to time,. . .”(3)
To this act though, the reaction of the colonists was not one of compliance as it had been with the previous New York act. In this time there were protests throughout the colony; one of the more common was to have groups of townsfolk and farmers gather before the courthouses and protest to such excess that the judges could not come to sit for any sessions. Another more dangerous tactic of the enraged people was to threaten the crown appointed officials with clubs. These sorts of protests often held threats of bodily harm and destruction of property, and the colonists would demand the resignation of these officials and their return to Boston.(4) One of these crown Appointees a Timothy Paine from Worchester reported to Governor Gage of Massachusetts:
“people’s spirits are so raised they seem determined to risque their lives and everything dear to them in opposition, and to prevent any person from executing any commission he may receive under the present administration.”(5)

It is these two Acts in particular that led the second Continental Congress to discuss this suspension of legislatures amongst their lists of complaints to the crown. It was the acts of parliament revoking the right to meet, speak, and be able to guide law in relation to their own livelihoods that made this one of the Charges the Declaration focused on. The colonists understood that if they were ever going to be able to have any control over their own lives and future determination of law that they could not continue under a parliament that continued to revoke their constitutional rights to assembly and representation, rights they thought every man should have, they envisioned a nation of the free in their creation of the Declaration. In the words of Comedian John Stewart, “Still, knowing the inherent contradiction between their noble words and the reality of a slave-owning nation, Jefferson and the Founders wisely decided to strike from the Declaration of Independence the phrase or your money back.”(6)

Endnotes:
1. Declaration of Independence
2. Brainard, Rick, “Causes of the American Revolution: The Townshend Duties” http://http-server.carleton.ca/~pking/docs/440docs1.htm
3. The Avalon Project at Yale Law School, “The Massachusetts Government Act; May 20, 1774” http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/amerrev/parliament/mass_gov_act.htm
4. Nash, Gary B. The Unknown American Revolution: The unruly birth of democracy and the struggle to create America. New York: Penguin Books, 2005, 178-183
5. Ibid., 179-180
6. Stewart, John, Karlin, Ben, Javerbaum, David ed. America (The Book): A Citizens Guide to Democracy Inaction. New York, Boston: Warner Books, 2004

Bibliography:

Nash, Gary B. The Unknown American Revolution: The unruly birth of democracy and the struggle to create America. New York: Penguin Books, 2005

Stewart, John, Karlin, Ben, Javerbaum, David ed. America (The Book): A Citizens Guide to Democracy Inaction. New York, Boston: Warner Books, 2004

Brainard, Rick, “Causes of the American Revolution: The Townshend Duties” http://http-server.carleton.ca/~pking/docs/440docs1.htm

The Avalon Project at Yale Law School, “The Massachusetts Government Act; May 20, 1774” http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/amerrev/parliament/mass_gov_act.htm

Wanda White