The Intolerable Acts was an American label for the
laws sponsored by Lord North's ministry and enacted by the British
Parliament in 1774 in response to the Boston
Tea Party. Also called the Coercive Acts, they were a major
factor contributing to the outbreak of the American
Revolution.
Prime Minister Lord North introduced the first measure, the Boston Port Bill, on March 18, 1774;
it passed both houses of Parliament without serious opposition
and was signed by the King at the end of the month. The port
of Boston was ordered closed until restitution for the tea was
made and until royal officials were compensated for personal
damages; the Massachusetts capital was moved to Salem; and Marblehead
was made the customs port of entry.
The North ministry then sought to redress what it
considered to be defects in the administration of Massachusetts
Bay. The Massachusetts Bay Regulating Act
(May 20) made the Council royally appointed rather than elected
and made all law officers subject to the governor's appointment.
The Act increased the governor's
patronage powers, provided that juries be summoned by sheriffs
rather than elected, and banned all town meetings not authorized
by law or gubernatorial approval. To restrain the liberty-minded,
no town meetings in the colony could be held without royal approval,
and freemen could no longer elect juries.
To secure fair trials for British subjects and to
prevent rioting, North proposed the Impartial
Administration of Justice Act, permitting the governor
to move trials to other colonies or to England and to call for
aid from the British Army to put down civil disturbances. Both
measures were introduced on April 15, 1774. Despite strong opposition
to these acts from Edmund Burke, Isaac Barre, William Pitt (Lord
Chatham), and the Marquis of Rockingham, they passed Parliament
in mid-May and were signed by the King on May 20.
Two acts that were not specifically related to Massachusetts
were also deemed "intolerable" by Americans. The Quartering Act (June 2) authorized
civil officers to requisition houses and empty buildings to house
royal troops where barracks were unavailable or unsuitable. The Qubec Act (June 22) granted civil
government and religious liberty to the Roman Catholic inhabitants
of the former French colony and extended the Canadian boundary
to the Ohio River.
Although intended primarily to prevent disorder in Massachusetts,
the Intolerable Acts united Americans in a common cause and led
to the First Continental Congress.
Shocked by the defiance of law and the destruction
of private property in the Boston Tea
Party, most factions in Parliament supported King George
III's fighting speech of March 17, 1774, in which he urged coercive
action. Either the colonies were subordinate to constituted law
and authority as vested in crown and Parliament or the empire
was faced with disintegration and anarchy. Further retreat after
the repeal of the Stamp Act of 1765 and
the Townshend Acts of 1767 was deemed
impossible. Assertion of authority appeared essential.
~ The Reaction ~.
A fleet blockaded Boston Harbor, and troops under
Maj. Gen. Thomas Gage maintained order.
But the Bostonians remained firm despite the threat of economic
disaster, and surrounding towns and colonies sent in abundant
food supplies.
British opponents had predicted that the Coercive
Acts (Intolerable Acts) would defeat their purpose by alienating
colonists who had previously been unsympathetic with Bostonian
rashness. They were proved right. Americans of all classes, political
persuasions, and interests, whatever their misgivings about the
Boston Tea Party, saw a general threat to their liberty in these
four acts.
The colonies united and responded quickly to a call
from Virginia for a Continental Congress that was to meet in
Philadelphia in September 1774 to seek a redress of the colonists
grievances.
Coercion provoked rebellion. |
