Benjamin Franklin, James Burgh, and the Authorship of "The Colonist's Advocate" Letters
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3462319 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carla H Hay (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1975 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 111 |
| Publication date | 1975-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The William and Mary Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-5597 • E-ISSN: 1933-7698 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1922597 |
| OpenAlex | W2334312303 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
HE winter of I769-I770 was an important one for AngloAmerican friends of liberty in London. Not only did repeated refusal of House of Commons to seat devil John Wilkes seem to challenge fundamental right of electorate to choose their own representatives-inspiring popular protests, a petition movement, and a demand for parliamentary reform-but question of Townshend revenue program had come to a crisis in Parliament. Since its inception in I767 that program had been a source of discord between colonies and mother country, and it was widely known that when Parliament reconvened in January I770, ministry would recommend repeal of most of customs duties. To those who sympathized with colonists partial repeal was unacceptable. They objected that anything less than total repeal would undermine American boycott of British goods initiated to protest duties and would tacitly sustain reprehensible principle of taxation without representation. controversy over Townshend program evoked, as part of campaign for total repeal, a series of letters that were published in Public Advertiser of London from January 4 to March 2, I770, over pseudonym, The Colonist's Advocate. These letters succinctly recapitulated arguments against taxing colonies. Calling them the most considerable effort waged in press on behalf of total repeal, Verner W. Crane has attributed them to Benjamin Franklin, who, although in poor health, spent much time lobbying and writing against Townshend duties.' That Franklin was The Colonist's Advocate is subject, however, to serious question. Until Crane argued otherwise, these important letters had long been attributed to James Burgh. Burgh was a dissenting Scottish schoolmaster whose academy was
American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Scottish History and National Identity
| Citations per year | 0.06 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1979 - 2012 (34) |
| Highly cited | No |