''The Petition to His Majesty, The Memorial to the House of Lords'' and ''The Remonstrance to the House of Commons'', commonly referred to collectively as the 1768 Petition, Memorial and Remonstrance (PMR), are a series of imprints that record a protest by the

Virginia House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses () was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America. From 1642 to 1776, the Hou ...

in April 1768 that was sent to the British government by then-acting Lieutenant Governor John Blair. The imprint had been owned by David Hartley, a sometime Member of Parliament and a long-time friend of Benjamin Franklin. He probably received it from G.W. Fairfax, a George Washington friend who returned to England in 1773. Hartley was the sole official British signatory to the 1783 Treaty of Paris, formally ending the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. Hartley had long supported freedoms for all Englishmen, at home and in the colonies—later reflected in the ''Declaration of Independence''. This Virginia protest elicited no formal response from the British government. However, in mid-1768, Virginia Governor General Sir Jeffrey Amherst was unceremoniously replaced by Lord Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, who promptly came to Virginia with a royal instruction "to reside constantly within the Colony" and to call for military aid if there was any "sudden commotion of the populace". Virginia had notified the other colonies of its PMR, seeking support for its positions. The letter with the

Massachusetts Circular Letter The Massachusetts Circular Letter was a statement written by Samuel Adams and James Otis Jr., and passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives (as constituted in the government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, not the current consti ...

stimulated further protests. By December 1769, all the American colonies had formally protested the taxation called for by the

Townshend Acts The Townshend Acts () or Townshend Duties were a series of British acts of Parliament enacted in 1766 and 1767 introducing a series of taxes and regulations to enable administration of the British colonies in America. They are named after Char ...

Background

In 1683, the Assembly of New York passed a

Charter of Liberties and Privileges The Charter of Liberties and Privileges was an act passed by the New York General Assembly during its first session in 1683 that laid out the political organization of the colony, set up the procedures for election to the assembly, created 12 counti ...

asserting that "supreme legislative power should forever be and reside in the Governor, council, and people, met in general assembly" and enumerated citizens's rights, including taxation voted only by the citizenry's representatives, trial by peers, exemption from martial law, exemption from the quartering of soldiers, and religious toleration. In a 1748 visit to New York, Massachusetts, Governor

William Shirley William Shirley (2 December 1694 – 24 March 1771) was a British colonial administrator who served as the governor of the British American colonies of Massachusetts Bay and the Bahamas. He is best known for his role in organizing the succ ...

wrote of the New York Assembly, "They seem to have left scarcely any part of His Majesty's prerogative untouched, and they have gone great lengths toward getting the Government, military as well as civil, into their hands." Boston's Samuel Adams suggested that colonial objections "should harmonize with each other". This 11 February 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter invited every colony to cooperate in resistance. The British ordered the Massachusetts Assembly to rescind the letter. It refused, and its royal governor dissolved it. This led Virginia to generate the PMR on 14 April 1768, and to announce it to sister colonies. Then, the 6th May New Jersey Assembly Petition to the King asserted "the Privilege of being exempt from any Taxation except as imposed … by themselves or Representatives". Soon, every colony protested. In 1766, the colonies tried non-importation agreements. These induced the Stamp Act repeal. In 1768, port cities and nearly every region adopted their own agreements. On 10 May 1773, the Tea Act granted a tea monopoly to the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. Philadelphians protested en masse in October. On 16 December, after Governor Thomas Hutchinson blocked an attempt to return the Dartmouth, still loaded, to England, activists boarded three tea ships and dumped 342 containers of tea into the harbor. On 17 June, Massachusetts called for "a meeting of Committees from the several Colonies on this Continent". Virginia supported the idea. In 1774, this happened—the First Continental Congress. Delegates included George Washington (Va.), Patrick Henry (Va.), John Adams (Ma.), Samuel Adams (Ma.), Joseph Galloway (Pa.), and John Dickinson (Pa.). Peyton Randolph (Va.) was chosen as its president.

References

Books

* Bailyn, Bernard. 1968. ''The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution''. * Campbell, Douglas. 1879. Historical Fallacies regarding Colonial New York. Address in Utica, N.Y. * Dickinson, John & Richard Henry Lee. 1769. Empire and Nation: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania and Letters from the Federal Farmer. * Gerlach, Larry R. 1976. Prologue to Independence. * Gipson, Lawrence Henry. 1954. ''The Coming of the Revolution, 1763-1775''. * Gladney, H.M. 2014. ''No Taxation without Representation: 1678 Petition, Memorial, and Remonstrance''. . * Guttridge, G.H. 1926. ''David Hartley, M.P.: An Advocate of Conciliation, 1774-1783''. U. California. . * Kammen, Michael G. 1975. ''Colonial New York: a History''. * Knollenberg, Bernhard. 1975. ''Growth of the American Revolution, 1766-1775'', . * Morgan, Edmund S. and Helen M. Morgan. 1953. ''The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution''. * Reid, John Phillip. 1986. ''Constitutional History of the American Revolution''. * Thomas, P.D.G. 1975. ''British Politics and the Stamp Act Crisis: First Phase of the American Revolution 1763-1767''. * Thomas, P.D.G. 1987. ''The Townshend Duties Crisis: the Second Phase of the American Revolution, 1767-1773''. * Thomas, P.D.G. 1991. ''Tea Party to Independence: the Third Phase of the American Revolution 1773-1776''. {{Authority control History of the Thirteen Colonies National human rights instruments United States documents 1768 in law 1768 in the Thirteen Colonies 1768 documents American political philosophy literature

Background

See also

References

Books