March 22, 1765 - The Stamp Act

[82Rigger]

The Duties in American Colonies Act of 1765 (better known as the Stamp Act) was the first attempt to impose a direct tax on the colonies. The act required all legal documents, permits, commercial contracts, newspapers, wills, pamphlets, and playing cards in the American colonies to carry a tax stamp. It was part of an economic program directly effecting colonial policy that was initiated in response to Britain’s greatly increased national debt incurred during the British victory in the Seven Years War (the North American theater of the war was referred to as the French and Indian War).

Britain decided to maintain a significant military presence in North America due to the added defense requirements resulting from the vast new territories acquired during the war and conflict with American Indians in the western frontier exemplified by the outbreak of Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763. The British felt that the colonies were the primary beneficiaries of these military preparations, and should pay for at least a portion of the current and future expenses directly incurred in North America. None of the revenue from the Stamp Act was targeted at reducing the national debt. The less controversial (from a colonial standpoint) Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act were the initial attempts to raise these funds from the colonists. Parliament announced in April of 1764 when the Sugar Act was passed that they would also consider a stamp tax in the colonies. A stamp tax had been an effective and easy to administer source of revenue within Great Britain for years. Although opposition to this possible tax from the colonies was soon forthcoming, there was little expectation in Britain, either by members of Parliament or American agents in Great Britain such as Benjamin Franklin, of the intensity of the protest that the tax would generate. The Stamp Act was passed by a large majority on March 22, 1765, and went into effect later that year on November 1.

Once in effect, the tax met with great resistance in the colonies. For over a century the colonists had insisted on their Rights as Englishmen to be taxed only with their consent – consent which could only be granted through their colonial legislatures. All colonial assemblies sent petitions of protests and the Stamp Act Congress, reflecting the first significant joint colonial response to any British measure, also petitioned Parliament and the King. Local protest groups, led by colonial merchants and landowners, established connections through correspondence that created a loose coalition that extended from New England to Georgia. Protests and demonstrations initiated by these groups often turned violent and destructive as the masses became involved. Very soon all stamp tax distributors were intimidated into resigning their commissions, and the tax was never effectively collected.

Opposition to the Stamp Act was not limited to the colonies. British merchants and manufacturers, whose exports to the colonies were threatened by colonial economic problems exacerbated by the tax, also pressured Parliament. The Act was repealed on March 18, 1766 as a matter of expedience, but Parliament affirmed its power to tax the colonies “in all cases whatsoever” by also passing the Declaratory Act. This incident increased the colonists' concerns about the intent of the British Parliament and added fuel to the growing movement that became the American Revolution.

[revwardoc]

Since English colonists first came to North America, the colonies had been self-governing and self-supporting. Colonials fought in wars for the Brits and provided abundant raw materials for the British manufacturing industries. The problem was that the people were treated the same way the Brits treated the native populations of whatever country they controlled, but American colonists weren't "native". The originals were born and raised Englishmen and wanted nothing more than to remain Englishmen. There are hundreds of anecdotes about how "Americans" were regarded and treated by the English gentry; nothing more than mere colonials fit only to serve the Empire. It's no wonder so many of the English lower class sold themselves into indentured servitude just for the opportunity to serve their 7 years then strike out on their own in a land of promise, where there was virtually no class system existed (at least nothing like the European class system). Where a man could improve his lot in life and not be tied to the fact that he was poor born and get some land of his own, not land where he worked his life away and paid rent to some absentee owner. In the latter 17th century and in the early 18th century, there was almost an early rebellion in The Jerseys when the king gave land to some Earl. Unfortunately for the Earl, there were already people on the land who had legal prior ownership and weren't about to give up that right simply because the king "gave" it away. After some long and expensive litigation, it was found that possession is indeed 9/10th's of the law and the people were allowed to keep their property, land that they had cleared with the sweat of their brows. In NH in the 1720's there were skirmishes fought between lumbermen and the king's revenue men over which trees could be taken (trees of a certain girth were the property of the King since they would be used for ships planking and were marked with an "X"). It was a culmination of perceived offenses that drove Americans away from Britain. Oppression begets rebellion.