Law as Weapon of the Americans in their Revolution: some observations on the enforcement of law
in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

To completely understand the reasons for Rhode Island colonial actions before and after the attack on the Gaspee, you need to understand the colonist's successful use of law as an American weapon that prevented the enforcement of English customs taxes. 

English common law applied by local magistrates, and tax collections actions decided by Rhode Island  juries and judges were instruments actively used by the colonists, not by the crown.  It was American control of the law and its processes that allowed the conditions for a successful revolution.   Americans soon discovered that their control of the law was a weapon in their resistance to British laws.

Rhode Island appointed their own judges and took the legal position that just as in England, the King could not remove judges at pleasure. [Quincy Reports 302-303 (1767)]  This American constitutional fact of life B that justices of the peace could not be removed by the crown C short of armed force by the crown C allowed the common law court system of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island to threaten the British navy and officials into ineffectiveness as long as open war was not declared.

The judiciary of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island during the pre-revolutionary period were professionally competent and sophisticated. They knew the law and they used it to protect the Whig (American) position. The law that was practiced was an American version of English common law, locally controlled and administered.   The American lawyers were trained in England and in English common law, and they understood it.

Statutes were passed by the local legislatures to void the effect of English law. For example during the Stamp Act crisis, the Rhode Island legislature simply passed a statute to indemnify local officials who suffered by disobeying the Stamp Act statutes. This is why Rhode Island kept its courts open without interruption despite the fact litigants and courts did not use the stamps required by imperial law for legal documents to be valid.

This article continues. Read the points that lawyers appreciate, and historians have generally overlooked. These points made it almost impossible to enforce English customs and tax law.

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