The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

Tightening Imperial Controls 97

began when the British decided after the French and
Indian War to intervene more actively in American
affairs. Theoretically the colonies were entirely subor-
dinate to Crown and Parliament; yet except for the
disastrous attempt to centralize control of the
colonies in the 1680s, they had been allowed a
remarkable degree of freedom to manage their own
affairs. They had come to expect this as their right.
Parliament had never attempted to tax American
colonists. “Compelling the colonies to pay money
without their consent would be rather like raising con-
tributions in an enemy’s country than taxing
Englishmen for their own benefit,” Benjamin Franklin
wrote. Sir Robert Walpole, initiator of the policy of
salutary neglect, recognized the colonial viewpoint.
He responded to a suggestion that Parliament tax the
colonies by saying, “I will leave that for some of my
successors, who may have more courage than I have.”
Nevertheless, the legalityof parliamentary taxation, or

of other parliamentary intervention in colonial affairs,

had not been seriously contested. During King

George’s War and again during the French and Indian

War many British officials in America suggested that

Parliament tax the colonies.

Despite the peace treaty of 1763, the American

colonies continued to be a drain on the British trea-

sury. Mostly this was due to the cost of fighting

Indians. Freed of the restraint posed by French com-

petition, Englishmen and colonists increased their

pressure on the Indians. Fur traders cheated them out-

rageously, while callous military men hoped to exter-

minate them like vermin. One British officer expressed

the wish that they could be hunted down with dogs.

Led by an Ottawa chief named Pontiac, the

tribes made one last effort to drive the whites back

across the mountains. What the whites called

Pontiac’s “Rebellion” caused much havoc, but it

failed. By 1764 most of the western tribes had

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into “British territory” west of the Appalachians. These lands were to be reserved for Indians.