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List of Infringements
& Violations of Rights
A 1772
Publication by Samuel Adams
Reprinted
Below
Published at http://KeepAndBearArms.com/Infringe/List.asp
November 20, 2003
In 1772, future
signer of the Declaration of Independence Samuel
Adams published a 43-page pamphlet officially titled Votes and Proceedings of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston.
The publication was designed to address grievances with
the Crown and stir people into active resistance to
tyranny. It was submitted at a "Meeting of the
Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of
Boston" on November 20, 1772 -- 231 years ago today.
Adams was good at
setting brushfires in the hearts of men. Even in his own
time he was considered an extremist and a rabble rouser --
a patriot who is credited with helping bring about the Boston
Tea Party.
One of the
sections of the Proceedings of the Freeholders
publication was called A State of the Rights of the
Colonists (a.k.a. Rights
of the Colonists) and consisted of four
parts. Three of the parts are published widely on the
internet. The fourth, A List of Infringements
& Violations of Rights,
is not. No complete reprint of the List of
Infringements can be found on the internet -- not even
in the voluminous Library of Congress online archives. The
U.S. Government Printing Office's Fourth
Amendment web page says "the first statement of
freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures appeared
in The Rights of the Colonists and a List of Infringements
and Violations of Rights." It was important then, and
having it available is important now -- because many of
the grievances of 1772 are now grievances of modern
America, as you will see when you read the text below.
This textual
version was taken from Merrill Jensen's Tracts of the
American Revolution 1763-1776, pages 241-251 (1967,
The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.; Library of Congress
Catalog Card Number 66-26805). Scanned images of the List
of Infringements in Jensen's book are archived here: Title
Page, Date of
Publication Page, Pages 241,
242, 243,
244, 245,
246, 247,
248, 249,
250, 251.
We have located a
true First Edition copy of the complete 43-page booklet in
a private collection and are making inquiries to the owner
about getting scanned images. For now, this version
will have to do. According to Jensen, this is a copy from
the original in which "certain punctuation [was]
revised for clarity." (Page 35) As Jon Roland at Constitution.org
says, back then "punctuation was mainly done by typesetters rather than by the
authors" anyway. The spellings used
back then are preserved, and the emphasis is as
Jensen printed it.
Angel Shamaya
KeepAndBearArms.com
11/20/2003
Update, Nov.
21, 2003: We talked with the private owner of
the original and it turns out he is a gun prohibitionist
who refuses to help us for that reason. He says he
"would ban all handguns in the United States" if
he could. He says the original is held by a library or two
and that we "can get the information there." We
will.
We've also been
informed that the book "has been republished by Hackett press in paperback (Sep. 2003 - ISBN 0872206939). A hardcover edition (0872206947) is due to be published Feb. 2004."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0872206939
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0872206947
A List of Infringements & Violations of Rights.
We cannot help thinking, that an enumeration of some of the most open infringments of our rights, will by every candid
Person be Judged sufficient to Justify whatever measures have been already taken, or may be thought proper to be taken, in order to obtain a redress of the Grievances under which we labour. Among many others we Humbly conceive, that the following will not fail to excite the attention of all who consider themselves interested in the happiness and freedom of mankind in general, and of this continent and province in particular.
1st. The British Parliament have assumed the power of legislation for the Colonists in all cases whatsoever, without
obtaining the consent of the Inhabitants, which is ever essentially necessary to the right establishment of such a legislative.
2d. They have exerted that assumed power, in raising a Revenue in the Colonies without their consent; thereby depriving
them of that
right which every man has to keep his own earnings in his
own hands untill he shall in person, or by his
Representative, think fit to part with the whole or any
portion of it. This infringement is the more
extraordinary, when we consider the laudable care which
the British House of Commons have taken to reserve
intirely and absolutely to themselves the powers of giving
and granting moneys. They not only insist on originating
every money bill in their own house, but will not even
allow the House of Lords to make an amendment in these
bills. So tenacious are they of this privilege, so jealous
of any infringement of the sole & absolute right the
people have to dispose of their own money. And what
renders this infringement the more grievous is, that what
of our earnings still re mains in our own hands is in a
great measure deprived of its value, so long as the
British Parliament continue to claim and exercise this
power of taxing us; for we cannot Justly call that our property
which others may, when they please take away from
us against our will.
In this respect
we are treated with less decency and regard than the
Romans shewed even to the Provinces which They had
conquered. They only determined upon the sum which
each should furnish, and left every Province to raise it
in the manner most easy and convenient to themselves.
3d. A number of
new Officers, unknown in the Charter of this Province,
have been appointed to superintend this Revenue, whereas
by our Charter the Great & General Court or Assembly
of this Province has the sole right of appointing all
civil officers, excepting only such officers, the election
and constitution of whom is in said charter expressly
excepted; among whom these Officers are not included.
4th. These
Officers are by their Commission invested with powers
altogether unconstitutional, and entirely destructive to
that security which we have a right to enjoy; and to the
last degree dangerous, not only to our property; but to
our lives: For the Commissioners of his Majestys customs
in America, or any three of them, are by their Commission
impowered, "by writing under their hands and seals to
constitute and appoint inferior Officers in all and
singular the Port within the limits of their commissions.
Each of these petty officers so made is intrusted with
power more absolute and arbitrary than ought to be lodged
in the hands of any man or body of men whatsoever; for in
the commission aforementioned, his Majesty gives &
grants unto his said Commissioners, or any three of them,
and to all and every the Collectors Deputy Collectors,
Ministers, Servants, and all other Officers serving and
attending in all and every the Ports and other places
within the limits of their Commission, full power and
authority from time to time, at their and any of
their wills and pleasures, as well By Night as by day to
enter and go on board any Ship, Boat, or other Vessel,
riding lying or being within, or coming into any Port,
Harbour, Creek or Haven, within the limits of their
commission; and also in the day time to go into any house,
shop, cellar, or any other place, where any goods wares or
merchandizes lie concealed, or are suspected to lie
concealed, whereof the customs & other duties, have
not been, or shall not be, duly paid and truly satisfied,
answered or paid unto the Collectors, Deputy Collectors,
Ministers, Servants, and other Officers respectively, or
otherwise agreed for; and the said house, shop, warehouse,
cellar, and other place to search and survey, and all and
every the boxes, trunks, chests and packs then and there
found to break open.
Thus our homes
and even our bed chambers, are exposed to be ransacked,
our boxes chests & trunks broke open ravaged and
plundered by wretches, whom no prudent man would venture
to employ even as menial servants; whenever they are
pleased to say they suspect there are in the house
wares etc. for which the dutys have not been paid.
Flagrant instances of the wanton exercise of this power,
have frequently happened in this and other sea port Towns.
By this we are cut off from that domestick security which
renders the lives of the most unhappy in some measure
agreable. Those Officers may under colour of law
and the cloak of a general warrant, break thro' the sacred
rights of the Domicil, ransack mens houses, destroy
their securities, carry off their property, and with
little danger to themselves commit the most horred
murders.
And we complain
of it as a further grievance, that notwithstanding by the
Charter of this Province, the Governor and the Great and
General Court or Assembly of this Province or Territory,
for the time being shall have full power and authority,
from time to time, to make, ordain and establish all
manner of wholesome and reasonable laws, orders, statutes,
and ordinances, directions and instructions, and that if
the same shall not within the term of three years after
presenting the same to his Majesty in privy council be
disallowed, they shall be and continue in full force and
effect, untill the same shall be re pealed by the Great
and General Assembly of this Province. Yet the Parliament
of Great Britain have rendered or attempted to render,
null and void a law of this Province made and passed in
the Reign of his late Majesty George the first, intitled
"An Act stating the Fees of the Custom-house Officers
within this Province" and by meer dint of power, in
violation of the Charter aforesaid, established other and
exorbitant fees, for the same Officers; any law of the
Province to the contrary notwithstanding.
5th. Fleets and
Armies have been introduced to support these
unconstitutional Officers in collecting and managing this
un constitutional Revenue; and troops have been quarter'd
in this Metropolis for that purpose. Introducing and
quartering standing Armies in a free Country in times of
peace without the consent of the people either by
themselves or by their Representatives, is, and always has
been deemed a violation of their rights as freemen; and of
the Charter or Compact made between the King of Great
Britain, and the People of this Province, whereby all the
rights of British Subjects are confirmed to us.
6th. The Revenue
arising from this tax unconstitutionally laid, and
committed to the management of persons arbitrarily
appointed and supported by an armed force quartered in a
free City, has been in part applyed to the most
destructive purposes. It is absolutely necessary in a mixt
government like that of this Province, that a due
proportion or balance of power should be established among
the several branches of legislative. Our Ancestors
received from King William & Queen Mary a Charter by
which it was understood by both parties in the contract,
that such a proportion or balance was fixed; and therefore
every thing which renders anyone branch of the Legislative
more independent of the other two than it was originally
designed, is an alteration of the constitution as settled
by the Charter; and as it has been untill the
establishment of this Revenue, the constant practise of
the General Assembly to provide for the support of
Government, so it is an essential part of our
constitution, as it is a necessary means of preserving an equilibrium,
without which we cannot continue a free state.
In particular it
has always been held, that the dependence of the Governor
of this Province upon the General Assembly for his
support, was necessary for the preservation of this equilibrium;
nevertheless his Majesty has been pleased to apply
fifteen hundred pounds sterling annually out of the
American revenue, for the support of the Governor of this
Providence independent of the Assembly, whereby the
ancient connection between him and this people is
weakened, the confidence in the Governor lessened and the
equilibrium destroyed, and the constitution essentially
altered.
And we look upon
it highly probable from the best intelligence we have been
able to obtain, that not only our Governor and
Lieuvetenant Governor, but the Judges of the Superior
Court of Judicature, as also the Kings Attorney and
Solicitor General are to receive their support from this
Grievous tribute. This will if accomplished compleat our
slavery. For if taxes are raised from us by the Parliament
of Great Britain without our consent, and the men on whose
opinions and decisions our properties liberties and lives,
in a great measure depend, receive their support from the Revenues arising from these taxes, we cannot, when we think on the depravity of mankind, avoid looking with horror on the danger to which we are exposed? The British Parliament have shewn their wisdom in making the Judges there as independent as possible both on the Prince and People, both for place and support: But our Judges hold their Commissions only during pleasure; the granting them salaries out of this Revenue is rendering them dependent on the Crown for their support. The King upon his first accession to the Throne, for giving the last hand to the independency of the Judges in England, not only upon himself but his Successors by recommending and consenting to an act of Parliament, by which the Judges are continued in office, notwithstanding the demise of a King, which vacates all other Commissions, was applauded by the whole Nation. How alarming must it then be to the
In habitants of this Province, to find so wide a difference made
between the Subjects in Britain and America, as the rendering the Judges here altogether dependent on the Crown for their support.
7th. We find ourselves greatly oppressed by Instructions sent to our Governor from the Court of Great Britain, whereby the first branch of our ,legislature is made merely a ministerial
engine. And the Province has already felt such effects from these Instructions, as We think Justly intitle us to say that they threaten an entire destruction of our liberties, and must soon, if not checked, render every branch of our Government a useless burthen upon the people. We shall point out some of the
alarming effects of these Instructions which have already taken place.
In consequence of Instructions, the Governor has called and adjourned our General Assemblies to a place highly
inconvenient to the Members and grately disadvantageous to the
interest of the Province, even against his own declared intention.
In consequence of Instructions, the Assembly has been
prorogued from time to time, when the important concerns of the Province required their Meeting.
In obedience to
Instructions, the General Assembly was Anno 1768 dissolved
by Governor Bernard, because they would not consent to rescind
the resolution of a former house, and thereby
sacrifise the rights of their constituents.
By an
Instruction, the honourable his Majesty Council are forbid
to meet and transact matters of publick concern as a
Council of advice to the Governor, unless called by the
Governor; and if they should from a zealous regard to the
interest of the Province so meet at any time, the Governor
is ordered to negative them at the next Election of
Councellors. And al though by the Charter of this
Province the Great & General Court have full power and
authority to impose taxes upon the estates and persons of
all and every the proprietors and inhabitants of this
Province, yet the Governor has been forbidden to give his
consent to act imposing a tax for the necessary support of
government, unless such persons as were pointed out In the
said instruction, were exempted from paying their Just
proportion of said tax.
His Excellency
has also pleaded Instructions for giving up the provincial
fortress, Castle William into the hands of troops, over
whom he had declared he had no controul (and that at a
time when they were menaceing the Slaughter of the
Inhabitants of the Town, and our Streets were stained with
the blood which they had barbariously shed). Thus our
Governor, appointed and paid from Great Britain with money
forced from us, is made an instrument of totally
preventing or at least of rendering, every attempt of the
other two branches of the Legislative in favor of a
distressed and wronged people; And least the complaints
naturally occasioned by such oppression should excite
compassion in the Royal breast, and induce his Majesty
seriously to set about relieving us from the cruel bondage
and insults which we his loyal Subjects have so long
suffered, the Governor is forbidden to consent to the
payment of an Agent to represent our grievances at the
Court of Great Britain, unless he the Governor consent to
his election, and we very well knew what
the man must be to whose appointment a Governor in
such circumstances will consent.
While we are
mentioning the infringement of the rights of this Colony
in particular by means of Instructions, we cannot help
calling to remembrance the late unexampled suspension of
the legislative of a Sister Colony, New York by
force of an Instruction, untill they should comply with an
Arbitrary Act of the British Parliament for quartering
troops, designed by military execution, to enforce the
raising of a tribute.
8th. The
extending the power of the Courts of Vice Admirality to so
enormous a degree as deprives the people in the Colonies
in a great measure of their inestimable right to tryals by
Juries: which has ever been Justly considered as
the grand Bulwark and security of English property.
This alone is
sufficient to rouse our jealousy. And we are again obliged
to take notice of the remarkable contrast, which the
British Parliament have been pleased to exhibit between
the Subjects in Great Britain & the Colonies. In the
same Statute, by which they give up to the decision of one
dependent interested Judge of Admirality the estates and
properties of the Colonists, they expressly guard the
estates & properties of the people of Great Britain;
for all forfeitures & penalties inflicted by the
Statute of George the Third, or any other Act of
Parliament relative to the trade of the Colonies, may be
sued for in any Court of Admiralty in the Colonies; but
all penalties and forfeitures which shall be incurred in
great Britain, may be sued for in any of his Majestys
Courts of Record in Westminster or in the Court of
Exchequer in Scotland, respectively. Thus our Birth Rights
are taken from us; and that too with every mark of
indignity, insult and contempt. We may be harrassed and
dragged from one part of the Continent to the other (which
some of our Brethren here and in the Country Towns already
have been) and finally be deprived of our whole property,
by the arbitrary determination of one biassed, capricious
Judge of the Admirality.
9th. The
restraining us from erecting Stilling Mills for
manufacturing our Iron the natural produce of this
Country, Is an infringement of that right with which God
and nature have invested us, to make use of our skill and
industry in procuring the necessaries and conveniences of
life. And we look upon the restraint laid upon the
manufacture and transportation of Hatts to be altogether
unreasonable and grievous. Although by the Charter all
Havens, Rivers, Ports, Waters &c. are expressly
granted the Inhabitants of the Province and their
Successors, to their only proper use and behoof forever,
yet the British Parliament passed an Act, whereby they
restrain us from carrying our Wool, the produce of our own
farms, even over a ferry; whereby the Inhabitants have
often been put to the expence of carrying a Bag of Wool
near an hundred miles by land, when passing over a River
or Water of one quarter of a mile, of which the Province
are the absolute Proprietors, would have prevented all
that trouble.
10th. The Act
passed in the last Session of the British
Parliament, intitled, An Act for the better preserving
his Majestys Dock Yards, Magizines, Ships, Ammunition and
Stores, is, as we apprehend a violent infringement of
our Rights. By this Act any one of us may be taken
from his Family, and carried to any part of Great
Britain, there to be tried whenever it shall be pretended
that he has been concerned in burning or otherwise
destroying any Boat or Vessel, or any Materials for
building etc. any Naval or Victualling Store etc.
belonging to his Majesty. For by this Act all Persons in
the Realm, or in any of the places thereto belonging
(under which denomination we know the Colonies are meant
to be included) may be indicted and tryed either in any
County or Shire within this Realm, in like manner and form
as if the offence had been committed in said County, as
his Majesty and his Successors may deem Most expedient.
Thus we are not only deprived of our grand right to tryal
by our Peers in the Vicinity, but any Person
suspected, or pretended to be suspected, may be hurried to
Great Britain, to take his tryal in any County the King or
his Successors shall please to direct; where, innocent or
guilty he is in great danger of being condemned; and
whether condemned or acquitted he will probably be ruined
by the expense attending the tryal, and his long absence
from his Family and business; and we have the strongest
reason to apprehend that we shall soon experience the
fatal effects of this Act, as about the year 1769 the
British Parliament passed Resolves for taking up a number
of Persons in the Colonies and carrying them to Great
Britain for tryal, pretending that they were authorised so
to do, by a Statute passed in the Reign of Henry the
Eighth, in which they say the Colonies were included,
although the Act was passed long before any Colonies were
settled, or even in contemplation.
11th. As our
Ancestors came over to this Country that they might not
only enjoy their civil but their religeous rights, and
particularly desired to be free from the Prelates, who in
those times cruilly persecuted all who differed in
sentiment from the established Church; we cannot see
without concern the various attempts, which have been made
and are now making, to establish an American Episcopate.
Our Episcopal Brethren of the Colonies do enjoy, and
rightfully ought ever to enjoy, the free exercise of their
religeon, we cannot help fearing that they who are so
warmly contending for such an establishment, have views
altogether inconsistent with the universal and peaceful
enjoyment of our christian privileges. And doing or
attempting to do any thing which has even the remotest
tendency to endanger this enjoyment, is Justly looked upon
a great grievance, and also an infringement of our Rights,
which is not barely to exercise, but peaceably &
securely to enjoy, that liberty wherewith Christ has made
us free.
And we are
further of Opinion, that no power on Earth can justly give
either temporal or spiritual Jurisdiction within this
Province, except the Great & General Court. We think
therefore that every design for establishing the
Jurisdiction of a Bishop in this Province, is a design
both against our Civil and Religeous rights.
And we are well informed, that the more candid and
Judicious of our Brethren of the Church of England in this
and the other Colonies, both Clergy and Laity, conceive of
the establishing an American Episcopate both unnecessary
and unreasonable.
12th. Another
Grievance under which we labour is the frequent alteration
of the bounds of the Colonies by decisions before the King
and Council, explanatory of former grants and Charters.
This not only subjects Men to live under a constitution to
which they have not consented, which in itself is a great
Grievance; but moreover under color, that the right of
Soil is affected by such declarations, some Governors,
or Ministers, or both in conjunction, have pretended to
Grant in consequence of a Mandamus many thousands of Acres
of Lands appropriated near a Century past; and rendered
valuable by the labours of the present Cultivators and
their Ancestors. There are very notable instances of
Setlers, who having first purchased the Soil of the
Natives, have at considerable expence obtained
confermation of title from this Province; and on being
transferred to the Jurisdiction of the Province of New
Hampshire have been put to the trouble and cost of a
new Grant or confermation from thence; and after all this
there has been a third declaration of Royal Will, that
they should thence forth be considered as pertaining To
the Province of New York. The troubles, expences
and dangers which hundreds have been put to on such
occasions, cannot here be recited; but so much may be
said, that they have been most cruelly harrassed, and even
threatned with a military force, to dragoon them into a
compliance, with the most unreasonable demands.
Afterthought: Bartleby's website says
Benjamin Franklin wrote the Preface of the full pamphlet
of which the List of Infringements was a part -- in the
London printing of 1773. [Bartleby reference: "1773.
The Votes and Proceedings of the Freeholders and other
Inhabitants of the town of Boston. London. (Preface by
Franklin.)" See: http://www.bartleby.com/225/0600.html]
Constitution.org published Franklin's preface here: http://www.constitution.org/bcp/right_col.htm#franklin.
We'd love to have a copy of the London/Franklin edition,
if you know any collectors of American historical
documents or can find it in a library.
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