taken altogether, would be to lower to the Colonists the price of the
articles affected by them rather than to raise it. But one of the
resolutions adopted provided that the whole of the money to be raised
from these taxes should not be spent in America, but that, after making
provision for certain Colonial objects specified, "the residue of such
duties should be paid into the receipt of his Majesty's Exchequer, and
there reserved, to be from time to time disposed of by Parliament toward
defraying the necessary expenses of defending, protecting, and securing
the said Colonies and plantations." And this clause seems to have been
understood as designed to provide means for augmenting the number of
regular troops to be maintained in the Colonies, whose employment in the
recent disturbances had made them more unpopular than formerly.[45]

At all events, the intelligence of these new taxes, though only import
duties, found the Colonists in a humor to resist any addition of any
kind to their financial burdens. The events of the last two years had
taught them their strength. It was undeniable that the repeal of the
Stamp Act had been extorted by the riots in Boston and other places, and
the success of this system of intimidation could not fail to encourage
its repetition. Accordingly, the news of this fresh attempt at taxation
was met by a unanimous determination to resist it. Newspaper writers and
pamphleteers denounced not only the duties but the ministry which
imposed them. Petitions from almost every State were sent over to
England, addressed to the King and to the Parliament; but the violent
temper of the leaders of the populace was not content to wait for
answers to them. Associations were at once formed in Boston and one or
two other cities, where resolutions were adopted in the spirit of
retaliation (as their framers avowed), to desist from the importation of
any articles of British commerce, and to rely for the future on American
manufactures. The principal Custom-house officers at Boston were badly