“Friends and countrymen, The critical time is now come”
John Dickinson
November 8 1765
Friends and countrymen, The critical time is now come
THE critical Time is now come, when you are reduced to the Necessity of forming a Resolution, upon a Point of the most alarming Importance that can engage the Attention of Men. Your Conduct at this Period must decide the future Fortunes of yourselves, and of your Posterity—must decide, whether Pennsylvanians, from henceforward, shall be Freemen or Slaves. So vast is the Consequence, so extensive is the Influence of the Measures you shall at present pursue. May God grant that every one of you may consider your Situation with a Seriousness and Sensibility becoming the solemn Occasion; and that you may receive this Address with the same candid and tender Affection for the public Good by which it is dictated.
We have seen the Day on which an Act of Parliament, imposing Stamp Duties on the British Colonies in America, was appointed to take Effect; and we have seen the Inhabitants of these Colonies, with an unexampled Unanimity, compelling the Stamp-Officers throughout the Provinces to resign their Employments. The virtuous Indignation with which they have thus acted, was inspired by the generous Love of Liberty, and guided by a perfect Sense of Loyalty to the best of Kings, and of Duty to the Mother Country. The Resignation of the Officers was judged the most effectual and the most decent Method of preventing the Execution of a Statute, that strikes the Axe into the Root of the Tree, and lays the hitherto flourishing Branches of American Freedom, with all its precious Fruits, low in the Dust.—
That this is the fatal Tendency of that Statute, appears from Propositions so evident, that he who runs may read and understand. To mention them is to convince. Men cannot be happy, without Freedom; nor free, without Security of Property; nor so secure, unless the sole Power to dispose of it be lodged in themselves; therefore no People can be free, but where Taxes are imposed on them with their own Consent, given personally, or by their Representatives. If then the Colonies are equally intitled to Happiness with the Inhabitants of Great-Britain, and Freedom is essential to Happiness, they are equally intitled to Freedom. If they are equally intitled to Freedom, and an exclusive Right of Taxation is essential to Freedom, they are equally intitled to such Taxation.
What further Steps you can now take, without Injury to this sacred Right, demands your maturest Deliberation.
This document appears in the Compendium: Chapter 4
Annotation:
John Dickinson’s broadside urged Pennsylvanians to resist the Stamp Act, which imposed a tax on printed materials in the American colonies without their consent. Dickinson warned that the colonists faced a choice between preserving their liberty and submitting to oppressive British policies, encouraging them to unite in defense of their rights. Distributed in Philadelphia during the growing resistance to the Stamp Act, the broadside helped mobilize colonial opposition to British taxation and asserted the importance of political freedom.
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Text Source: https://www.americasearliestmuseums.org/node/5126
IF you comply with the Act, by using Stamped Papers, you fix, you rivet perpetual Chains upon your unhappy Country. You unnecessarily, voluntarily establish the detestable Precedent, which those who have forged your Fetters ardently wish for, to varnish the future Exercise of this new claimed Authority. You may judge of the Use that will be made of it, by the Eagerness with which the Pack of Ministerial Tools have hunted for Precedents to palliate the Horrors of this Attack upon American Freedom. After all their infamous Labour, they could find nothing that even their unlimited Audacity could dare to call Precedents in this Case, but the Statute for establishing a Post-Office in America, and the Laws for regulating the Forces here, during the late War.
These Instances were greedily seized upon, and the Press groaned with Pamphlets to prove, that they would justify the Taxation of America by Great-Britain.— But no sooner were these boasted Examples produced to public View, and examined, than the Absurdity of applying them to the present Occasion, appeared so glaring, that they became more the Subject of Ridicule, than of Argument.—
Your Compliance with this Act, will save future Ministers the Trouble of reasoning on this Head, and your Tameness will free them from any Kind of Moderation, when they shall hereafter meditate any other Taxations upon you.
They will have a Precedent furnished by yourselves, and a Demonstration that the Spirit of Americans, after great Clamour and Bluster, is a most submissive servile Spirit.— Ministers will rejoice in the Discovery, and as no Measure can be more popular at Home, than to lessen the Burthens of the People there, by laying Part of the Weight on you, they will of Course be tempted by that Motive, and emboldened by your Conduct, to make you “Hewers of Wood, and Drawers of Water.”
The Stamp Act, therefore, is to be regarded only as an Experiment of your Disposition. If you quietly bend your Necks to that Yoke, you prove yourselves ready to receive any Bondage to which your Lords and Masters shall please to subject you. Some Persons perhaps may fondly hope, it will be as easy to obtain a Repeal of the Stamp Act after it is put in Execution, as if the Execution of it is avoided. But be not deceived. The late Ministry publickly declared, “that it was intended to establish the Power of Great-Britain to tax the Colonies.” Can we imagine then, that when so great a Point is carried, and we have tamely submitted, that any other Ministry will venture to propose, or that the Parliament will consent to pass, an Act to renounce this Advantage? No! Power is of a tenacious Nature: What it seizes it will retain.
Rouse yourselves therefore, my dear Countrymen. Think, oh! think of the endless Miseries you must entail upon yourselves, and your Country, by touching the pestilential Cargoes that have been sent to you. Destruction lurks within them.— To receive them is Death—is worse than Death—it is SLAVERY!— If you do not, and I trust in Heaven you will not use the Stamped Papers, it will be necessary to consider how you are to act. Some Persons are of Opinion, that it is proper to stop all Business that requires written Instruments, subject to Duties.
Against this Proposal there are many weighty Objections. In the first Place, it will be nearly the same Acknowledgment of the Validity of the Stamp Act, and of its legal Obligation upon you, as if you use the Papers. It will also be extremely injurious to Individuals, and I apprehend the Inconveniences arising from the Stoppage of Business will be so great, that many People, whose immediate Interest may have too much Influence on their Judgment, may be induced to believe, that this Obstruction will be more pernicious than the Execution of the Stamp Act; and thus I am afraid, that a mistaken Zeal to avoid the Execution, may really produce it. How long can this Stoppage be endured? Or how long must it be continued? Until we can obtain Relief, by a Repeal of the Law, perhaps some may say. If this should happen, you cannot expect to hear of the Repeal in less than three or four Months. But if you act in this Manner, in my Opinion, you will never hear of it. For as soon as the News of your stopping all Business arrives in Great-Britain, the Parliament, Ministry and People, will be convinced of two Things: first, that you are intimidated to the utmost Degree; and secondly, that your Method of eluding the Act will at length compel you to comply with it.— They will therefore give themselves no further Trouble about you, unless it be to send over a few Regiments, to quicken the Execution.
For these Reasons, and many more, it appears to me the wisest and the safest Course for you to proceed in all Business as usual, without taking the least Notice of the Stamp Act. If you behave in this spirited Manner, you may be assured, that every Colony on the Continent will follow the Example of a Province so justly celebrated for its Liberty. Your Conduct will convince Great-Britain, that the Stamp Act will never be carried into Execution, but by Force of Arms; and this one Moment’s Reflection must demonstrate, that she will never attempt.
As to any Penalties that may be incurred, it will be vain to think of extorting them from the whole Continent, or from a whole Province. It may be objected, perhaps, that our Ships will be liable to Seizure, if their Clearances be not upon Stamped Papers; but I believe no Lawyer will say, that this would be a legal Reason for such Seizures. However, we need be under no Apprehension of this Kind; for proceeding in that Way, would be in Fact a Declaration of War against the Colonies, that at this Time would by no Means suit the Mother Country.—
Thus, my Friends and Countrymen, have I plainly laid before you my Sentiments on your present affecting Situation; and may Divine Providence inspire you with Wisdom to act in such a Manner, as will most advance that Happiness I ardently wish you may enjoy.
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