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The Long Fuse - The Townshend Acts
When the colonists beat the Stamp Act, they drew a careful line: Parliament could tax their trade, but not reach inside the colonies for revenue. In 1767, a brilliant, reckless Chancellor of the Exchequer named Charles Townshend took that line and turned it into a trap, taxing America with America’s own argument. This is the story of how the quarrel reignited, and how a quiet Philadelphia lawyer changed it forever.
Posing as a humble farmer, John Dickinson published the most widely read essays in colonial America, collapsing the distinction the colonists had leaned on and warning that to…
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