In December 1772, Governor Thomas Hutchinson, of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, went on vacation with his family in his country home
in Milton. While there, he spent most
his time preparing a speech for the upcoming new year to address the rights of
the colonists under the British Government in response to much of the political
upheaval that had occurred due to new policies and taxes coming from Parliament
ever since the mid-1760’s.
Thomas Hutchinson would deliver his speech when the General
Court, the legislative branch of the Massachusetts colonial government,
returned to session on January 6, 1773. Hutchinson
addressed the General Court and acknowledged to them his awareness of the
disorder of the government in Massachusetts over new policies coming directly
from the British Parliament without consent from the colonies. Governor Hutchinson had hoped that the
violence and upheaval within the colony would subside but it had by this time
become clear to him that the problem needed to be addressed if it were to be
resolved. In his speech, Hutchinson
argued:
“…When our predecessors first took
possession of this plantation, or colony, under a grant and charter from the
Crown of England, it was their sense, and it was the sense of the kingdom, that
they were to remain subject to the supreme authority of Parliament. This appears from the charter itself, and
other irresistible evidence.”
In other words, by moving from the mother country to unknown
lands, the colonists did not escape the duties owed to the mother country and
the laws that applied to the entire empire.
By accepting the protection of the mother country while settling in
distant lands, the colonists had long ago consented to adhere to the laws that
came forth from Parliament regardless of representation. In Hutchinson’s view, that had continued to
be the case from the time in which the colony had first settled, up until the
1770’s.
Governor Hutchinson feared that by offering the mother
country an ultimatum that the colonists either be allowed representation or
just be allowed to govern themselves independently would estrange the mother
country from its colonies, creating a whole new and separate government rather
than remaining part of the British Empire:
“I know of no
line that can be drawn between the supreme authority of Parliament and the
total independence of the colonies: it is impossible there should be two
independent Legislatures in one and the same state; for, although there may be
but one head, the King, yet the two Legislative bodies will make two
governments as distinct as the kingdoms of England and Scotland…”
His fear of the colonies breaking away from the mother
country in this regard stemmed from the idea that as an independent government the
colonists would lose the protection of a strong and stable country and could
easily be subjected to being over taken by other countries such as Spain or
France, at which point the colonists would lose their rights as Englishmen
altogether, and would have to adapt to the stricter rules and regulations that
might be put on the subjects of other countries. Hutchinson even felt that subjects in one
colony or empire did not all have access to the same rights and policies as
other subjects within an empire. He
argued that even within the democratic nature of election of representatives,
the colonists agreed to give up some of their rights to the individual elected;
whether it was they themselves who voted for that individual or if they were a
part of the minority who voted against him.
Once a man was elected into office to speak as the voice of the people,
the individual people gave up their rights to the one man who was elected to
act as the group voice for them. As not
every man elected would have the same ideas and motives, this would mean that
each colony would have different laws and ideas of what the rights of
Englishmen really were, all based off of their elected officials and the way
each colony adapted to them. Therefore,
what one colony may have the right or privilege to do may not be the same as
other colonies within the empire, and in extension, what the subjects in the
mother country had the rights and privileges to do, did not necessarily have to
be the same rights and privileges that were extended to the colonies.
Despite all of this, Governor Hutchinson did acknowledge
that governments do make mistakes, that no one governing entity is
perfect. As a result, he felt that to
question policies that came out of one’s government was healthy. He just did not agree with the mode of questioning
policies which the colonists had adopted: through violent rioting, and
questioning the superiority of the mother country over the colonies every time
there was a new policy they did not agree with.
Instead, Hutchinson argued, there had to be healthier and more
constitutional channels through which to question the offending policies:
“I have no desire, gentlemen, by
anything I have said, to preclude you from seeking relief, in a constitutional
way, of any cases in which you have heretofore, or may hereafter suppose that
you are aggrieved; and, although I should not concur with you in sentiment, I
will, notwithstanding, do nothing to lessen the weight which your
representations may deserve.”
In making this speech, Governor Hutchinson had hoped to have
adopted a middle ground between Parliament and the colonists: acknowledging to
Parliament that they still had full superiority over the colonies while
acknowledging the right of the colonists to question policies when they feel
their government has been in error.
Unfortunately for Governor Hutchinson, his speech was too little too
late. By this time, the colonists had
already traveled too far down the channel of independence, and Parliament had adopted
beliefs that if they ignored the upheaval in the colonies, it would eventually
blow over. Therefore, when Parliament
heard of Governor Hutchinson’s speech, instead of supporting him, they condemned
his speech for bringing a problem which they hoped would die away back to the
forefront of the minds of the colonists.
"The wicked Statesman, or the Traitor to his country, at the Hour of DEATH"
Depicting Thomas Hutchinson being tormented and judged by death while under his arm is a list representing the salary the governor collected from the Tea Tax
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