Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania

John Dickinson, 1767-68

[This poem is part of American Independence in Verse.]

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My Dear Countrymen:

New duties have been laid on certain goods
We’re bound by law to buy from England: glass, 
Paper, lead, paint, and tea. It’s said they’re not
Internal taxes, and that Parliament,
Therefore, has acted in its right. Not so:
A duty laid for revenue, is tax;
If laid on us, then we are taxed; and yes,
If we be taxed without consent, are slaves.   
Rouse yourselves, my dear countrymen: behold
The ruin hanging over your heads. If you 
Admit these duties, then the tragedy
Of our American liberty is finished.
Complying with this Act will warrant Britain,
Through precedent, to later evil use
Of falsely claimed authority.