Declaratory Act
- The "Declaratory Act" may also refer to the Dependency of Ireland on Great Britain Act 1719.
The Declaratory Act (citation 6 George III, c. 12) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain in 1766, during America's colonial period, one of a series of resolutions passed attempting to regulate the behavior of the colonies. It stated that Parliament had the right to make laws for the colonies in all matters.
Background
Colonial legislatures organized what is now known as the Stamp Act Congress in response to the Stamp Act of 1765 which called into question the right of a distant power to tax them without proper representation. Thus Parliament was faced with colonies who refused to comply with their act. The repealing of the Stamp Act came about due to a number of reasons, one of which was the protestations that had occurred in the colonies. Perhaps more important though were the protests that arose in Great Britain from the manufacturers who were suffering from the colonies' non-importation agreement.[1] Normally the economic activity in the colonies wouldn't have caused such an outcry, but the English economy was still suffering from its post-war depression from the French and Indian War. Another reason that the Stamp Act was repealed was the fact that George Grenville, the Prime Minister who had enacted the Stamp Acts, had been replaced by Rockingham. Rockingham was more favorable towards the colonies, and furthermore he was rather antagonistic to any policy that Grenville had enacted. Rockingham invited Benjamin Franklin to speak to Parliament about colonial policy, and he portrayed the colonists as in opposition to internal taxes (which were derived from internal colonial transactions) like the Stamp Act called for, but not external taxes (which were duties laid on imported commodities).[2] Parliament then agreed to repeal the Stamp Act on the condition that the Declaratory Act was passed. On March 18, 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and passed the Declaratory Act.
In other words, the Declaratory Act of 1766 allowed Parliament to make laws and changes to the colonial government.
Reaction
The Declaratory Act asserted that Parliament "had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America...in all cases whatsoever." The phrasing of the act was intentionally unambiguous, and although many in Parliament felt that taxes were implied in this clause, some other Parliament members and many of the colonialists did not. The colonists were outraged:
"When in 1767 this modernised British Parliament, committed by now to the principle of parliamentary sovereignty unlimited and unlimitable, issued a declaration that a parliamentary majority could pass any law it saw fit, it was greeted with an out-cry of horror in the colonies. James Otis and Sam Adams in Massachusetts, Patrick Henry in Virginia and other colonial leaders along the seaboard screamed "Treason" and "Magna Carta"! Such a document, they insisted, demolished the essence of all their British ancestors had fought for, took the very savour out of that fine Anglo-Saxon liberty for which the sages and patriots of England had died".[3]
Thus the Declaratory Act can be seen as a predecessor to future acts that would further incite the anger of the American colonists and eventually lead up to the American Revolutionary War.
See also
- British Empire
- Colonial America
- Stamp Act
- Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham
- Townshend Acts
References
- The History Place - Prelude to Revolution
- Benjamin Franklin's Examination Before the House of Commons, 1766
- Edwin Mims, Jr., The Majority of the People (New York: Modern Age Books, 1941), p. 71.
External links
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Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Declaratory Act". Image Credit.
