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These stamps cost all the way from one cent to fifty dollars, according to the importance of the paper to which they were affixed.

The colonists at once protested that, as they were not represented in the British Parliament, that body had no right to oblige them, against their will, to pay taxes of any kind whatsoever. To the King and his friends this seemed most stubborn and unreasonable conduct. They forgot that the colonists were simply insisting on what tens of thousands of Englishmen, both at home and in the colonies, had long cherished as their right to pay no taxes except such

as were approved by their own representatives.

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It happened, just then, that several thousands of taxpayers in England, who were given no share in choosing members of Parliament, were demanding that there be in Great Britain, also, “No taxation without representation.' These reformers of course sympathized with the Americans, and loudly applauded Pitt and Burke when those statesmen warned the Government that it might come to regret laying this tax on the Americans.

149. Fighting the Stamp Act. On the day the Stamp Act went into effect the bells in many colonial towns were tolled as if for a funeral, and public meetings were held to protest against what was called " the death of liberty." Merchants pledged themselves to import no more goods from the old country until the act was repealed. Large numbers of the men formed clubs called "Sons of Liberty," whose members promised to buy no more British-made articles. Even the women organized similar clubs, named “Daughters of Liberty," and met each week in “Spinning Societies," to weave homespun cloth for men's and boys' wear.

The various colonial assemblies passed indignant resolutions against the Stamp Act. The most memorable scene was in the Virginia House of Burgesses, where Patrick

1 In after years, when the Americans had won their cause, it was agreed that hereafter, in Great Britain, representation should go hand-in-hand with taxa

Henry, an eloquent young lawyer, made himself famous for all time by a fiery speech, in which he cried: "Tarquin and Cæsar had each his Brutus; Charles I his Cromwell; and George III"-" Treason! treason!" shouted the presiding officer in an effort to stop him "may profit by their example," concluded Henry deliberately. "If this be treason, make the most of it!" The news of this speech quickly spread throughout the colonies, and everywhere aroused the spirit of patriotism among the people.

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PATRICK HENRY

In October, 1765, there was held in New York a convention called the "Stamp Act Congress," at which nine of the thirteen colonies were represented. This body declared that the Americans were loyal to the King, but would allow none but their own representatives to tax them. It instructed Franklin, who was then in London, to explain to the Government that the Americans were firm and united on this question.

A great debate arose in Parliament over the rights of the Americans, during which Pitt exultingly cried: "I rejoice that America has resisted! Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be made slaves would have been fit instruments to make slaves of all the rest."

However, the Parliamentary majority did not heed Pitt's remonstrances. But they did listen to the London merchants, who were wild with dismay over the disaster which threatened their once profitable business in America, for at this time a third of Great Britain's enormous trade was with her colonies; these men clamored loudly against so annoying the Americans that they would no longer buy British goods. In order to please the merchants the Government now repealed the Stamp Act. In the American towns this victory

was celebrated with noisy glee, for the colonists had by this time learned what strong and united action could do; they also were encouraged to find that their cause had many powerful friends in England.

150. Import duties levied. Parliament had yielded in the matter of the Stamp Act. It was so blind, however, as to persist that it had the right to tax the colonies, and went about the matter in a new way. In 1767 it ordered the colonists to pay new and heavy duties

an IMPORTER; at the BRAZEN HEAD, North Side of the TOWN-HOUSE,

WILLIAM JACKSON, on many imported articles in common use, for example paper, glass, and tea. From the money so raised, the troops were to be fed and paid, and governors, judges, and other colonial officers of the King were to have their salaries. Up to this time such officers were paid by the assemblies, and unless they acted to suit them they received nothing; hereafter they would be independent of the assemblies.

and Oppofite the Town-Pump, in Corn-hill, BOSTON.

It is defired that the SoNs and
Daughters of LIBERTY,
would not buy any one thing of
him, for in fo doing they will bring
Disgrace upon themselves, and their
Pofterity, for ever and ever, AMEN

A HAND-BILL CIRCULATED
IN BOSTON ABOUT 1768

The Massachusetts assembly took the lead in opposition to the new taxes, and sent out a circular letter inviting coöperation from all the colonies. The King was angry at this, and threatened to order the assembly to adjourn unless it rescinded this letter; whereupon Otis, who was then speaker of that body, uttered these defiant words: " We are asked to rescind, are we? Let Great Britain rescind her measures, or the colonies are lost to her forever."

Once more the people of the colonies signed pledges to "eat nothing, drink nothing, wear nothing" that had to come from Great Britain, until the duties were taken off. Again did British merchants complain at the destruction of their large American trade, so that in 1770 Parliament once more felt forced to pacify them. It removed all of the new

duties except one of six cents a pound on tea, which article was much used by the colonists; this was retained, it was said, "to keep up the right." Parliament's persistence in claiming such a privilege left the Americans quite as angry

as ever.

151. The Boston Massacre. Several quarrels now arose between the King's soldiers and the colonists.1 The worst of these took place in Boston,

on March 5, 1770, when the soldiers killed three men and wounded several others- an event known in history as "the Boston Massacre." A large town meeting was held the following day, and in obedience to its demand the troops were removed to an island in the harbor. 2

Under the masterly guidance of Samuel Adams, clerk of the Massachusetts assembly, the massacre led to the appointment of "committees

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SAMUEL ADAMS

of correspondence" in the several towns, to keep the people informed by letters of what was going on.

1 In the summer of 1769 Otis was savagely beaten by a number of British officers, and so badly injured in the head that for a time he was insane. He was able, however, to take part in the battle of Bunker Hill.

2 In Rhode Island one of the King's revenue vessels, the Gaspee, engaged in hunting down smugglers, was burned by the colonists. In North Carolina the Governor ordered his troops to fire upon a public meeting. Such are examples of events that happened in various parts of the colonies during these stirring times.

• Samuel Adams was a cousin of John Adams, later President, and born in Boston in 1722. He was city tax collector, and had great influence with the people when the troubles with England began. From 1765 to 1774 he was a member of the assembly and its clerk; as such he drew up most of its important resolutions, addresses, and reports. He headed the committee of correspondence, and did more than any one else to manage the Massachusetts quarrel with the King; he came, indeed, to be called the "Father of the Revolution." In 1774 he was elected to the first Continental Congress, and became prominent in that body. In later years he was lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, and died in 1803.

152. An offer of cheap tea. The King and his ministers now resorted to a new trick. They arranged to have several shiploads of tea sent over to the principal American seaports, and offered for sale at prices lower than the colonists could get it by smuggling. King George laughingly declared that the Americans were a thrifty, saving people, who could never turn away from a bargain. They would, he said, eagerly buy this cheap tea, and thereby pay on it the duty of six cents, thus agreeing to the Parliamentary tax which had been levied just "to keep up the right." But he did not understand of what stuff his American subjects were made. They readily saw through his scheme, and flatly refused to import any tea whatever through the custom-houses, no matter how low the price.

153. Colonial "tea-parties." Most of the dealers to whom the tea had been sent were forced by the local committees of correspondence to promise that they would not

Courtesy, D. Appleton & Co.

THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY

receive it from the ships. In such cases it was landed by customs officers, but the latter could get no one to pay the duties and take it from the Government warehouses.

Upon the arrival of the tea ships at Boston,

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however, the dealers would not refuse to receive their consignment. Accordingly there was held in the famous Old South Meeting-House,1 a monster town meeting under the

1 This church, built in 1730, was much used for public meetings of the Revolutionary Party. During the siege of Boston the British used it as a ridingschool. It is now used as a museum for historical relics, and as a hall for popular lectures on history and other patriotic subjects.

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