Summary
Despite the revenue raised by the Sugar Act, Britain's financial situation
continued to spiral out of control. In 1765, the average taxpayer in England
paid 26 shillings per year in taxes, while the average colonist paid only one-
half to one and a half shillings. Prime Minister Grenville thought that the
American colonists should bear a heavier tax load. To this end, Parliament
passed the Stamp Act in March 1765. The act required Americans to buy
special watermarked paper for newspapers and all legal documents. Violators
faced juryless trials in vice-admiralty courts, just as under the Sugar Act.
Grenville optimistically predicted revenues of between 60,000 and 100,000
pounds.
William Pitt was the colonies' greatest defender in England. He argued that the
colonies could not be taxed without representation in Parliament. Grenville and
his followers claimed that they agreed with Pitt, and that the colonies were
represented in Parliament, even though they did not elect any of the members.
The Prime Minister claimed that Americans shared the same status as many British
males, who did not have enough property to be granted the vote, or who lived in
certain large cities that had no seats in Parliament. He claimed that all of
these people were "virtually represented" in Parliament. The theory of
virtual representation held that the members of Parliament did not only
represent their specific geographical constituencies, but rather that they took
into consideration the well-being of all British subjects when deliberating on
legislation. Grenville further argued that Americans were not exempt from
taxation, as many claimed, simply because they elected their own assemblies
which legislated for and taxed the colonies. He compared colonial assemblies to
Scottish town councils, claiming that they only exercised as much power as was
granted to them by Parliament.
This position clashed directly with the contention of many colonists that their
assemblies exercised legislative powers equal to those of the House of Commons
in Britain. To many colonists, the Stamp Act seemed to represent all of the
problems of Anglo-American relations. Moreover, it affected every one of the
thirteen colonies equally, and every rank in society, since all colonists would
at some time find reason to draw up a legal document such as a will, or to buy a
newspaper. Throughout the colonies, town meetings and colonial assemblies heard
violent demonstrations against the Stamp Act. Colonial agents in London and
petitions from colonial legislatures warned against passage, but Parliament
dismissed the petitions without even granting them a hearing.
In late May 1765, Patrick Henry persuaded the Virginia House of Burgesses to
adopt several strongly worded resolutions. The Virginia Resolves, as they
were known, were passed on May 30, 1765, and denied Parliament's right to tax
the colonies under the Stamp Act. Word of Henry's resolutions spread throughout
the colonies, taking on certain dramatic embellishments in many cases, and by
the end of the year, eight other colonial legislatures had adopted similar
positions.
Unlike the Sugar Act, which was an external tax (i.e. it taxed only goods
imported into the colonies), the Stamp Act was an internal tax, levied directly
upon the property and goods of the colonists. Internal taxes had far wider
effects. While external taxes were paid primarily by merchants and ship
captains, internal taxes, especially the Stamp Act, were not so discriminatory.
Anyone who made a will or bought a newspaper would pay the tax on paper. The
colonies had never been taxed internally by Britain before, and had
traditionally taxed themselves through their colonial assemblies. Taxation was
a primary function of the self-government to which the colonists so passionately
clung. The Stamp Act refuted the claim to a measure of self-government,
painting the colonies not as an entity in a loosely bound federation centered in
London, but rather as an extension of the British nation, subject to
Parliamentary legislation and taxation.
The Stamp Act forced colonists to consider the issue of Parliamentary taxation
without representation. Few colonists agreed with Grenville that they were
virtually represented. Though most admired and respected Parliament, few
imagined it represented their needs. They claimed that the theory that members
of Parliament concerned themselves with the needs of all British subjects was
not valid. In the common colonial view, unless a legislator shared, to some
extent, the interests of his constituents, he could not be expected to consider
their welfare. Since the needs of the American colonists differed substantially
from the needs of inhabitants of England, they feared that were Parliament
permitted to legislate for the colonies its members would be easily persuaded to
vote against the Americans' best interest, especially if England stood to gain.
It seemed to many that this was precisely what had happened in the case of the
Stamp Act.
