Braintree Instructions

The Braintree Instructions was a document sent on September 24, 1765 by the town meeting of Braintree, Massachusetts to the town's representative at the Massachusetts General Court, or legislature, which instructed the representative to oppose the Stamp Act 1765, a tax regime which had recently been adopted by the British Parliament in London. The document is significant because, following the Virginia Resolves, it was among the earliest in British America to officially reject the authority of Parliament over the colonies in North America. The instructions were written by John Adams, who would ten years later become a key figure in the American Revolution and ultimately be elected the second President of the United States in 1796.

Background

The Stamp Act 1765 (short title ''Duties in American Colonies Act 1765''; 5 Geo. 3. c. 12) required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper made in London and carrying an embossed revenue stamp. These printed materials were legal documents, magazines, newspapers and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies. The tax was to be paid in valid British currency, not in colonial paper money.Wood, Gordon S. "The American Revolution: A History" Modern Library. 2002, page 24. The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the British victory in the French and Indian War.

Negative reaction to the tax in British America was concerned not only with economic hardship imposed by it but also by constitutional issues of taxation without representation and enforcement by courts without juries. In May, 1765 in Virginia, the House of Burgesses passed a series of resolutions promoted by Patrick Henry which objected specifically to the imposition of tax without representation. In Massachusetts, opposition to the tax was strong in Boston. On June 6, 1765 the Massachusetts Lower House proposed a meeting for the 1st Tuesday of October in New York City:

Opposition to the previously imposed Sugar Act in Boston was led in 1764 by Samuel Adams. In Braintree, a village south of Boston, Adams' cousin John Adams was a young lawyer who had become active in politics. In preparation for the planned meeting which would eventually be realized as the Stamp Act Congress, John Adams drafted instructions issued to the town's representative, Ebenezer Thayer, Esq., outlining opposition to the tax on several constitutional grounds. The Braintree Instructions were published in the ''Massachusetts Gazette'' on October 10, 1765 and four days later in the ''Boston Gazette''. Eventually Adams' language was adopted by over forty other towns in Massachusetts, including portions which were used by Samuel Adams in the document drafted for Boston.

Summary

Adams traveled from his home in the North Precinct of Braintree to the town hall located on the site of the present day First Congregational Church near the intersection of Washington and Elm Streets to discuss his draft of instructions with a committee of town residents. In his writing, Adams began by addressing the economic burden of the tax but proceeded to indict Parliament for violating major principles of English law that had existed for centuries under Magna Carta, which he referred to in English as the Great Charter. In the third and longest paragraph of the instructions, Adams wrote: "But the most grievous innovation of all, is the alarming extension of the power of courts of admiralty." Adams argued that the imposition of the tax to be enforced by judges without benefit of a jury trial was a severe violation of fundamental rights. The instructions were unanimously adopted by the committee.

Full text

''The following is the full text of the Braintree Instructions, adopted by town meeting in Braintree, Province of Massachusetts Bay, on September 24, 1765.''

References

{{Authority control
1765 in the Thirteen Colonies
1765 in the Province of Massachusetts Bay
Documents of the American Revolution
History of Braintree, Massachusetts
Massachusetts in the American Revolution
United States documents
1765 documents