|
The
American Prohibitory Act of 1775 “It throws thirteen colonies out of the royal protection, levels all distinctions, and makes us independent in spite of our supplications and entreaties...It may be fortunate that the act of independency should come from the British Parliament rather than the American Congress.” —John
Adams on the Prohibitory Act. “That as to the king, we had been bound to him by allegiance, but that this bond was now dissolved by his assent to the late Act of Parliament by which he declares us out of his protection.” —Proceedings from the Second Continental Congress |
 |
The American Prohibitory Act of 1775 declared “all manner of (the American colonies’) trade and commerce is and shall be prohibited;” that any ships found trading “shall be forfeited to his Majesty, as if the same were the ships and effects of open enemies;” and that “for the encouragement of the officers and seamen of his Majesty’s ships of war” that “seamen, marines, and soldiers on board shall have the sole interest and property of all ships, vessels, goods and merchandise, which they shall seize and take.” John Adams would later call it the “piratical act, or plundering act.” This fateful Act declared all Americans to be outlaws beyond the king’s protection at the very moment when, across the Atlantic, conservative leaders in America were working feverishly to craft a settlement to present to the king and Parliament that would end the intermittent fighting between colonial and royal forces, protect the colonists from unconstitutional parliamentary legislation while at the same time would stop short of a declaration of independence. The American Prohibitory Act ended any chance for reconciliation—indeed, this Act marked the point of fracture in an increasingly dramatic exchange between the Americans and the British Crown and Parliament. Four months before the Act was issued, the drama had begun to escalate in August of 1775 when the king issued a proclamation declaring the colonies to be in a state of “open rebellion”—this was the first official recognition of the rebellion in America. |
| Two
months later, in October 1775, the king declared, before Parliament,
that the rebellion in America had “become more general and is
manifestly carried on for the purpose of establishing an independent
empire”—despite the fact that the Americans had not yet made any
statement declaring that their aim was independence. News of this October speech was not to reach America until
January of 1776. Most
importantly, the king’s assumption that the thirteen American colonies
had already formed a united coalition seeking only independence was
entirely mistaken. In
November 1775, under the conservative leadership of John Dickinson, the
Pennsylvania Assembly issued the following instructions forbidding the
Pennsylvania delegates in Congress to vote for independence should the
issue arise: “Though the oppressive measures of the British Parliament
and administration have compelled us to resist their violence by force
of arms, yet we strictly enjoin you that you, in behalf of this colony,
dissent from and utterly reject any propositions, should such be made,
that may cause or lead to a separation from our mother country”
(English Historical Documents, pp. 170).
Following Pennsylvania’s lead, New York, Maryland, Delaware,
and South Carolina quickly delivered similar instructions to their
delegates in Congress. When
news of the Prohibitory Act arrived in February 1776, the whole
landscape of the debate in Congress shifted dramatically and
conclusively. The
implications of the Prohibitory Act were clear to colonial leaders on
both sides of the issue.
The
following excerpt is from a letter written in early 1776 by Joseph Hewes,
a North Carolina merchant and, as of December 1775, a prominent opponent
of independence: “The Act of Parliament prohibiting all trade and
commerce between Great Britain and the colonies has been lately brought
here by a Mr. Temple from London...I fear it will make the breach
between the two countries so wide as never more to be reconciled...I see
no prospect of reconciliation. Nothing is left now but to fight it out” (letter to Samuel
Johnston, dated March 20, 1776). John Adams, who had been an early
proponent of independence, saw The Prohibitory Act in much the same way:
“It throws thirteen colonies out of the royal protection, levels all
distinctions, and makes us independent in spite of our supplications and
entreaties...It may be fortunate that the act of independency should
come from the British Parliament rather than the American Congress”
(letter to Horatio Gates, dated March 23, 1776).
On May 10th of 1776 the Second Continental Congress issued a Resolution
that, again, shows the central role the Prohibitory Act played in
tipping the scales toward independence.
The Resolution begins by stating that “Whereas his Britannic
Majesty has, by a late Act of Parliament, excluded the inhabitants of
these united colonies from the protection of his Crown” and ends with
the following: “Resolved, that it be recommended to the respective
assemblies of the united colonies...to adopt such government as
shall...best conduce to the happiness and safety and their constituents
in particular and American in general”. Direct reference to The Prohibitory Act would turn up a few
months later in the Declaration of Independence itself: “He has
abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and
waging War against us,” and also, perhaps more revealingly, in the
historic debate on independence held at the Second Continental Congress
from June 8th through June 10th of
1776. The following is from
Thomas Jefferson’s notes on the proceedings of the debate: ...The
delegates from Virginia moved in obedience to instructions from their
constituents that the Congress should declare that these United Colonies
are and of right ought to be free and independent states...and that all
political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and
ought to be totally dissolved... ...That
no gentleman had argued against the policy or the right of separation
from Britain, nor had supposed it possible we should ever renew our
connection; that they had only opposed its being now declared... ...That
as to the king, we had been bound to him by allegiance, but that this
bond was now dissolved by his assent to the late Act of Parliament by
which he declares us out of his protection... While it was Thomas Paine’s Common Sense that proved crucial in mobilizing public opinion in favor of independence, no document played a more decisive role in the debate over independence at the Second Continental Congress than the American Prohibitory Act. |