Writs of Assistance

American histories without exception list the problem of writs of assistance as one the main causes of the American Revolution. Such writs were issued by the superior court. They were first granted to Thomas Paxton, chief customs officer in the province (Massachusetts) in 1755; other writs similar in form were issued to other customs officers by the same court in 1758, 1759, and 1760. There was popular objection to them, not merely in Massachusetts but in practically all the colonies. The reaction was too widespread and too deep to be explained by local happenings in a single colony or by the single forensic effort of any local politician.

Writs of assistance were legalized by a series of acts of Parliament giving the customs officers authority to search for and seize uncustomized goods. They were supplemented by customary practices which became as much a part of the legal procedure as the law itself. The law alone was extended to America in 1767 when the colonial courts had before them no direct knowledge of the practices that had grown up in the British Court of Exchequer.

The power to search came from the authority given to the customs officers, and in practice this power was expressly stated in their commissions. The exercise of the power was directly limited in that it had to be done in the presence of a court officer. The law specifically empowered the customs officers to undertake the search. However, a writ of assistance was not a search warrant. It

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any, it could do for other companies to the detriment of the colonial mercantile community. A meeting held in Philadelphia in 1773 took the lead in opposing the act and this pressured the consignee the East India Company had appointed to resign. Similar actions were held in New York by the Sons of Liberty, but in Boston the tea consignees, who included two sons of Governor Hutchinson, refused to resign--hence the Boston Tea Party. The colonists successfully nullified the Tea Act either by destroying the tea, preventing its landing, or, as in Charleston, storing it until it was later sold by the Revolutionary government to raise funds for the War for Independence. Despite the colonists displeasure with Parliament, they remained loyal to the king during this time--believing he was being duped by his ministers. Monarchical innocence became their working assumption: the king could do no wrong. His public acts, if considered oppressive, were ascribed to his ministers. This hope had a theoretical basis as well as a tactical justification. George III's membership in the Hanover line of British kings, who were the beneficiaries of the Glorious Revolution and defenders of the Protestant succession, was emphasized in England, I

Category: History - W