He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

The American Declaration of Independence states “HE has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” The signers of the declaration of independence meant this particular passage as a denouncement of the increasing regulation of the colonies in the years leading up to its drafting. At the conclusion of the Seven Years war the British government was deeply in debt and looking for ways to get the American colonies to help foot the bill. One of the first attempts at gaining some of this revenue came in the form of the “Sugar Act” of 1764, which introduced more duties on some foreign imports and established a new superior Vice-Admiralty court in Halifax.[1] This new court would be used to try ship owners who broke or were suspected of breaking any of the new laws. The burden of proof lay with the accused in these courts, and so unless they could prove their innocence conclusively, their cargo was seized by the crown.[2] This was of course hugely unpopular and no fewer than eight colonies sent petitions to the King asking that it be repealed.
The Townsend acts of 1766 applied taxes to items imported from Britain, which helped fund Royal salaries in the colonies. In addition to these taxes, the acts introduced even more vice-admiralty courts to major port cities in the colonies such as Philadelphia and Boston. Ships were seized and tensions rose between British-appointed authorities and the locals in the colonies. Even patriot John Hancock had a much-publicized seizure of one of his ships.
Another failed attempt at colonial administration was the American Board of Customs, another brainchild of Charles Townsend which began in 1767. The commissioners of this board were striving “to make taxation of the colonies by parliament effective”.[3] This of course didn’t sit well with those colonists who considered taxation without representation unjust. Townsend intended to raise revenue in the colonies by adding new customs duties and the appropriate amount of new administration that would accompany them.[4] This struck to the heart of what the signers of the declaration of independence meant when they wrote of the “multitude of New Offices”. On November fifth, 1767, “three of the five commissioners… with eight other customs officers” landed in Boston.[5] Their unpopular tasks included supervising the collection of duties, enforcing laws of search and seizure, and suspending or removing officers in the ports.[6]
Such regulations as the Revenue Act (or “Sugar Act”) of 1764, and the Townsend acts of 1766, and the taxes and Vice-Admiralty courts they initiated. Both the taxes/duties and the courts were seen as taking money from the American people and giving it to the crown and it’s supporters without the proper governmental representation. In effect, the signers of the Declaration of Independence felt the British crown was harassing and robbing the American people.
[1] Carl Ubbelohde, The Vice-Admiralty Courts and the American Revolution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960), 49.
[2] Ibid, 50.
[3] Dora Mae Clark, “The American Board of Customs, 1767-1783” The American Historical Review, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Jul. 1940): 777.
[4] Ibid, 779.
[5] Ibid, 785.
[6] Ibid, 783.

David Mac Isaac

http://www.ushistory.org/