Nonimportation agreements and movements arose as a response to
the Townshend Acts.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE [ edit ]
Discuss the colonial reaction to the Townshend Acts
KEY POINTS [ edit ]
Charles Townshend was aware that the Townshend Acts would be controversial in the colonies,
but was prepared to push the Acts through.
As a result of the Townshend Acts, boycott movements aimed at limiting British imports became
widespread, though they were not to the economic benefit of the colonies.
Writers and activists such as James and Mercy Otis, and Samuel and John Adams emerged as a
partial result of the acts.
TERMS [ edit ]
Massachusetts Circular Letter
The Massachusetts Circular Letter was a statement written by Samuel Adams and passed by the
Massachusetts House of Representatives in February 1768 in response to the Townshend Acts.
John Dickinson
An American lawyer and politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware.
He was a militia officer during the American Revolution, a Continental Congressman from
Pennsylvania and Delaware, a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, President
of Delaware and President of Pennsylvania
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Reaction
Charles Townshend, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, knew that his program to try to
raise revenue and convince the colonists of the rightful authority of the British to impose
taxation would be controversial in the colonies, but he argued that, "The superiority of the
mother country can at no time be better exerted than now." The set of laws known as the
Townshend Acts did not create an instant uproar as the Stamp Act had done two years
earlier, but before long, opposition to the program had become widespread. Townshend did
not live to see this reaction, having died suddenly in September 1767.
Boycotts
Merchants in the colonies, some of them also smugglers, organized economic boycotts to put
pressure on their British counterparts to work for repeal of the Townshend Acts. Boston
merchants organized the first non­importation agreement, which called for merchants to
suspend importation of certain British goods effective on January 1, 1769. Merchants in
other colonial ports, including New YorkCity and Philadelphia, eventually joined the boycott.
In Virginia, the non­importation effort was organized byGeorge Washington and George
Mason. When the VirginiaHouse of Burgesses passed a resolution stating thatParliament had
no right to tax Virginians without their consent, Governor Lord Botetourt dissolved
the assembly. The members met at Raleigh Tavern and adopted a boycott agreement known
as the "Association. "
The non­importation movement was not as effective as promoters had hoped.
British exports to the colonies declined by 38 percent in 1769, but there were many
merchants who did not participate in the boycott.The boycott movement began to fail by
1770, and came to an end in 1771. Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania
John Dickinson
The most influential colonial response to the Townshend Acts was a series of twelve essays
by John Dickinson entitled "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania," which began appearing
in December 1767. Eloquently articulating ideas already widely accepted in the colonies,
Dickinson argued that there was no difference between "internal" and "external" taxes, and
that any taxes imposed on the colonies by Parliament for the sake of raising a revenue were
unconstitutional. Dickinson warned colonists not to concede to the taxes just because the
rates were low, since this would set a dangerous precedent. Dickinson sent a copy of his
"Letters" to James Otis of Massachusetts, informing Otis that "whenever the Cause of
American Freedom is to be vindicated, I look towards the Province of Massachusetts Bay."
Colonies Confront King and Parliament
The Massachusetts House of Representatives began their own campaign against the
Townshend Acts by first sending a petition to King George asking for the repeal of the
Revenue Act, and then sending a letter to the other colonial assemblies, asking them to join
the resistance movement. Upon receipt of the Massachusetts Circular Letter, other colonies
followed suit and sent their own petitions to the king. Virginia and Pennsylvania also sent
petitions to Parliament, but the other colonies did not, believing that it might be interpreted
as an admission of Parliament'ssovereignty over them.
Parliament refused to consider the petitions of Virginia and Pennsylvania. In Great Britain,
Lord Hillsborough, who had recently been appointed to the newly created office of Colonial
Secretary, was alarmed by the actions of the Massachusetts House. In April, 1768, he sent a
letter to the colonial governors in America, instructing them to dissolve the colonial
assemblies if they responded to the Massachusetts Circular Letter. He also sent a letter to
Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard, instructing him to have the Massachusetts House
rescind the Circular Letter. By a vote of 92 ­ 17, the House refused to comply, and Bernard
promptly dissolved the legislature.
John Dickinson
Portrait of John Dickinson