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Parliament · Law & Order

Parliament fixes one unruly harbour; receives one revolution

Four acts designed to isolate and punish Boston instead unified twelve colonies, convened a Continental Congress, and put muskets on the road to Concord.

By the Fuxed Desk • 6 min read • Grievance ★★★★★ Catastrophic
What wasn’t broken
Before March 1774, colonial resistance was localised: Massachusetts had the grievance, the harbour, and the ruined tea. The other twelve colonies were watching, not marching.
The "fix"
Parliament passed the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act — collectively designed to strangle Boston's economy, abolish elected Massachusetts self-governance, shield Crown officers from local juries, and billet troops at will, until obedience was restored.
The result
Within five months delegates from twelve colonies assembled in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress, adopted the Continental Association boycott, and resolved to reconvene if grievances went unredressed — which they did, precipitating Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775. Fuxed

The proximate cause was not obscure: on 16 December 1773 colonists deposited 342 chests of East India Company tea into Boston Harbour. Parliament responded with the Boston Port Act, closing the harbour to all commerce from 1 June 1774 until the town paid full compensation and demonstrated, to the Crown's satisfaction, that trade could be conducted peaceably.1 The logic was surgical: punish the guilty port; spare everyone else.

The Massachusetts Government Act of 20 May went further.2 It abolished the colony's elected council and replaced it with a Crown-appointed body serving at the King's pleasure; gave the Royal Governor sole authority to appoint and remove judges, sheriffs, and marshals; and restricted town meetings to one a year without consent. The colonists had been ungovernable. Parliament's solution was to abolish the governing.

The Administration of Justice Act, passed the same day, let the Governor move trials of Crown officers to another colony or to Britain if he judged an "indifferent trial" impossible locally.3 Colonists called it the Murder Act. The Quartering Act of 2 June extended billeting to uninhabited houses and outbuildings wherever troops were deemed necessary.4 Lord North's ministry considered the package targeted and proportionate. The colonies considered it a declaration of war by other means.

Samuel Adams's Boston Committee of Correspondence dispatched a circular on 13 May 1774, framing the Port Act not as a local punishment but a continental threat: "This attack, though made immediately upon us, is doubtless designed for every other colony who will not surrender their sacred rights and liberties into the hands of an infamous ministry."5 Twelve colonies agreed; Virginia adopted non-importation resolutions in August.6

On 5 September 1774, delegates convened at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. They condemned the acts, and on 20 October ratified the Continental Association — a comprehensive boycott enforced by committees in every county and town. These committees were not advisory. They were, in the event, the administrative skeleton of a new government. Parliament had sought to restore order by abolishing self-governance in one colony; it had instead prompted twelve to construct new institutions in common.

The Congress resolved to reconvene on 10 May 1775 if grievances remained. They did. On 19 April 1775 British regulars marched to Concord to seize colonial arms. The Second Continental Congress convened on schedule; eleven months later it declared independence. The harbour has been open ever since.1

This attack, though made immediately upon us, is doubtless designed for every other colony who will not surrender their sacred rights and liberties into the hands of an infamous ministry.— Boston Committee of Correspondence, 13 May 1774

References & Citations

  1. Yale Avalon Project — "Boston Port Act, March 31, 1774", avalon.law.yale.edu, 1774.
  2. Yale Avalon Project — "Massachusetts Government Act, May 20, 1774", avalon.law.yale.edu, 1774.
  3. Yale Avalon Project — "Administration of Justice Act, May 20, 1774", avalon.law.yale.edu, 1774.
  4. Yale Avalon Project — "Quartering Act, June 2, 1774", avalon.law.yale.edu, 1774.
  5. Yale Avalon Project — "Circular Letter of the Boston Committee of Correspondence, May 13, 1774", avalon.law.yale.edu, 1774.
  6. Yale Avalon Project — "Association of the Virginia Convention, August 1–6, 1774", avalon.law.yale.edu, 1774.

As Covered Elsewhere

Yale Avalon Project Boston Port Act, March 31, 1774 Read → Yale Avalon Project Circular Letter of the Boston Committee of Correspondence, May 13, 1774 Read → Yale Avalon Project Association of the Virginia Convention, August 1774 Read →