LETTERS
FROM
A FARMER in Pennsylvania,
TO THE INHABITANTS OF
THE BRITISH COLONIES

BY

JOHN DICKINSON

WITH AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
BY
R. T. H. HALSEY

NEW YORK
THE OUTLOOK COMPANY
1903

Copyright, 1903
By R. T. H. Halsey

TO THE MEMORY
OF ONE WHO LOVED HER COUNTRY
AND ALL THAT PERTAINED
TO ITS HISTORY

CONTENTS.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

[xiv]
[xv]
[xvi]
[xvii]

INTRODUCTION.

In the issue of the Pennsylvania Chronicle and Universal Advertiser of November 30th-December 3d, 1767, appeared the first of twelve successive weekly "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies," in which the attitude assumed by the British Parliament towards the American Colonies was exhaustively discussed. So extensive was their popularity that they were immediately reprinted in almost all our Colonial newspapers.

The outbursts of joy throughout America occasioned by the repeal of the Stamp Act had scarcely subsided when, the protracted illness of Lord Chatham having left the Ministry without a head, the indomitable Charles Townsend, to the amazement of his colleagues and unfeigned delight of his King, introduced measure after measure under the pretence that they were demanded by the necessities of the Exchequer; but in reality for the purpose of demonstrating the supremacy of the power of the Parliament of Great Britain over her colonies in America. Among these Acts were those which provided for the billeting of troops in the various colonies; others called for duties upon glass, lead, paint, oil, tea, etc. Of dire portent was the provision therein, that the revenues thus obtained be used for the maintenance of a Civil List in America, and for the payment of the salaries of the Royal Governors and Justices, salaries which had hitherto been voted by the various Assemblies. The Assembly of New York, having failed to comply strictly with the letter of the law in regard to the