In a Rebellious Spirit by John P. Reid

Author:John P. Reid [Reid, John P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, History & Theory, Political Freedom, History, United States, Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), General, Law, Americas (North; Central; South; West Indies)
ISBN: 9780271072937
Google: ksxWCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 1990-10-22T02:53:05+00:00

9

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In a Distressed State

The Docking of Liberty

Francis Bernard had a unique perspective of the American world. For him the situation was always desperate. One reason was surely a sense of helplessness, not from facing the Boston crowd but from trying to convince London that the constitution had to be changed. All his letters repeated the theme and no one at home seemed to listen.

When the situation called for decisive action Bernard remained immobilized and critics said he lacked courage or vigor. The fact that he could not act, that he possessed little power was universally ignored, misunderstood, or thought somehow irrelevant. Every commentator seemed to assume that he, not the law, was at fault. The commissioners had asked him “what support to their office, or protection for themselves, I can afford,” Bernard told his superiors. We have seen the reply that he reported to Lord Hillsborough. In a similar letter to the Earl of Shelburne he furnished a more elaborate explanation. “I answer, None in the world,” the governor wrote. “For tho’ I am allowed to proceed in the ordinary business of the Government without interruption; in the business of a popular opposition to the Laws of Great Britain founded upon the pretensions of Rights and Privileges, I have not the shadow of authority or power.” A month later Bernard acknowledged that his colleagues in the imperial service had given up hope he could seize the initiative. “The Officers of the Crown & Friends of the British Government are now in a distressed State hoping that, but not knowing how or when, they shall be relieved.”1

Ever since the stamp-act crisis Francis Bernard had been sending one message to London: the constitution had to be reformed. His argument was clear. Without substantial additions to gubernatorial authority he should not be blamed for failing to suppress whig outbursts, the ministry must not assume that a colonial governor could show the decisiveness long expected of a lord lieutenant of Ireland. The customs commissioners understood the grievance. “[O]f this we are well convinced,” they wrote the lords of the treasury, “that the Governor and Magistracy have not the least Authority or power in this place, that the Mob are ready to be assembled on any Occasion, and that every Officer who exerts himself in the Execution of his Duty will be exposed to the Resentment of the Populace, without the least probability of receiving and [sic] Protection.”2

There were no ambiguities. The message should have been understood had only London been listening. An American colonial governor was dependent on local institutions to enforce the law and those institutions were under the constitutional control of men who would not enforce imperial law.

The constitutional dilemma should have been understood by the ministry, but it was not, at least not fully. Imperial government officials occasionally noted the governor’s predicament, yet ignored the problem whenever action was thought necessary, even issuing orders with which Bernard could not possibly comply.3 We may be surprised but we should not be.

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