STAMP ACT

The Stamp Act, passed by Parliament in March 1765, was designed to help defray the costs of maintaining British troops in the American colonies by requiring tax stamps for an extensive range of public documents, including newspapers, customs documents, legal papers, and licenses. The Seven Years' War had left Britain with a large national debt, and the government felt that since the colonies had benefited from the war—most notably from the expulsion of France from Canada—they should contribute to imperial expenses. The colonies, however, responded with outrage. They pointed to the expenses they had already incurred in the war and predicted that the new tax would exhaust their meager supply of hard money; their objections particularly focused on the constitutional issue. Few denied Parliament's right to regulate the colonies' external trade, but with the Stamp Act—as with the previous year's Sugar Act—Parliament was trespassing on the domain the colonial legislatures had long claimed as their own: the power to tax.

Throughout the summer of 1765 waves of protest swept the colonies, involving everyone from street mobs to civic leaders, often organized by secret organizations called the Sons of Liberty. Pressure—and sometimes violence—centered on the men selected as stamp agents; by fall, all had resigned their posts and the new law was being almost universally defied. In October, a Stamp Act Congress held in New York City (representing nine colonies) petitioned Parliament for repeal and reiterated the colonists' right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. Merchants agreed not to import British goods until the law was repealed, and soon Parliament was bombarded by petitions from English merchants suffering the effects of nonimportation. Simultaneously, the colonies' London agents as well as many English political leaders were arguing that the law—whether just or unjust—was unenforceable.

Finally in March 1766, with the king's support, the Stamp Act was repealed. The news of repeal was jubilantly received in America, but the colonies had been close to armed rebellion, and the protest had given life to ideas and methods of organization that resurfaced in later clashes between Britain and the colonies.

See also Revolution.