Articles of Association
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The Articles of Association were petitions of grievances against Great Britain by the Thirteen Colonies and a compact among them to collectively impose economic sanctions to pressure a resolution. The Articles were drafted by the First Continental Congress in 1774 and were an important formative document in the history of the United States that perhaps hastened the American Revolution, though they were intended instead to alter Britain's policies towards the colonies without severing allegiance.
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[edit] Background
The Articles of Association was one of the major accomplishments of the First Continental Congress, which convened on September 5, 1774, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Articles were dated on October 20 of that year. Peyton Randolph, as President of the Congress, was the lead signatory.
The main impetus for both the formation of the Continental Congress and the drafting of the Articles was the passage in 1774 of the "Intolerable Acts". These were a series of acts passed by the British Parliament to secure greater control over the colonies and to punish them (the Massachusetts Bay Colony in particular) for rebellious behavior.
Though there had been previous "articles of association" circulated within some colonies that had prohibited trade with Britain, the 1774 Articles were an expression of the growing union among the Colonies against Britain and were the immediate precursor to the Declaration of Independence. The Articles served as much as a pact between the colonies themselves to recognize common problems and adhere to a common course of action as a petition against British policies. Of the original Thirteen Colonies, all were represented by the Articles except for the Province of Georgia, which did not send delegates to the Congress until 1775. The Articles refer collectively to the colonies as "America" (only once as "British-America"), and their people as "American subjects."
As a sign of the desire still prevalent at the time to avoid open revolution, the Articles notably opened with a profession of allegiance to the king, and they placed the blame for "a ruinous system of colony administration" upon lower British officials rather than the king directly. The Articles alleged that this system was "evidently calculated for enslaving these colonies, and, with them, the British Empire."
[edit] Grievances
The specific grievances set forth by the Articles were: the deprivation of the right to a jury trial; the prosecution in England for crimes committed in America; and the various penalizing acts specifically targeted upon the citizens of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a whole—the most egregious of which was the Massachusetts Government Act, which removed all local control over governance and the courts.
The Articles also complained of the effects of the Quebec Act of 1774, which extended the province of Quebec and altered its governance in order to placate its French Canadian populace. This limited the westward expansion of the colonies and discouraged further British settlement in those lands. The act also restored French civil law to Quebec and allowed the Roman Catholic faith to be practiced. The Articles interpreted the act as creating an "arbitrary government" and disposing "the inhabitants to act with hostility against the free Protestant colonies, whenever a wicked ministry shall chuse so to direct them."
[edit] Sanctions
The Articles of Association imposed an immediate ban on British tea, and a ban on importing or consuming any goods (including the slave trade) from Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies to take effect on December 1, 1774. It also threatened an export ban on any products from the American colonies to Britain, Ireland, or the West Indies, to be enacted only if the complained of acts were not repealed by September 10, 1775; the Articles stated that the export ban was being suspended until this date because of the "earnest desire we have not to injure our fellow-subjects in Great-Britain, Ireland, or the West-Indies." This was a recognition of the need and demand for American goods abroad, though the ban was likely deferred instead because of the profit to American merchants. All American colonists were to direct their agents abroad to also comply with these restrictions, as would all ship owners.
[edit] Enforcement
The Articles set forth policies by which the colonists would endure the scarcity of goods. Merchants were restricted from price gouging. Local committees were to be established in the colonies by which compliance would be monitored, such as through inspection of local businesses. Any individual observed to violate the pledges in the Articles would be condemned in print and ostracised in society "as the enemies of American liberty." Colonies would also cease all trade and dealings with any other colony that failed to comply with the bans.
The colonies also pledged that they would:
- "encourage frugality, economy, and industry, and promote agriculture, arts and the manufactures of this country, especially that of wool; and will discountenance and discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation," such as gambling, stageplays and other frivolous entertainment. Specific instructions were even set forth on properly frugal funeral observations, pledging that no one "will go into any further mourning-dress, than a black crepe or ribbon on the arm or hat, for gentlemen, and a black ribbon and necklace for ladies, and we will discontinue the giving of gloves and scarves at funerals."
[edit] Effects
The collective agreement set forth in the Articles established what was called the "Continental Association", or simply "the Association" among the colonies. Only one colony failed to establish local enforcement committees; in the others, the restrictions were dutifully enforced—by violent measures on some occasions. Trade with Britain subsequently plummeted. Parliament responded by passing the New England Restraining Act, which prohibited the northeastern colonies from trading with anyone but Britain and the British West Indies, and they barred colonial ships from the North Atlantic fisheries. These punitive measures were later extended to most of the other colonies as well.
The outbreak of open fighting between the colonists and British soldiers in April 1775 rendered moot any attempt to indirectly change British policies. In this regard, the Association failed to determine events in the way that it was designed—Britain did not cave to American demands but instead tried to tighten its grip, and the conflict escalated to war. However, the true long-term success of the Association was in its effective direction of collective action among the colonies and expression of their common interests. This recognition of union by the Articles, and its firm stance that the colonies and their people had rights that were being infringed by Britain, made it a direct precursor to the 1776 Declaration of Independence, which by contrast repudiated the authority of the king once it was clear that no other solution would preserve the asserted rights of the colonies.
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