Declaration of Rights of the Stamp Act Congress

About the Author

The journal of the Stamp Act Congress provides no hint as to the delegate or delegates who wrote the initial draft of the convention's Declaration of Rights, the document that provided the foundation for the petitions to the king and Parliament in which the colonists sought relief from the Stamp Act. This was by design; discussions and debates among the twenty-seven delegates could be more candid if their remarks were not published, and, given the sensitive nature of the deliberations, the delegates preferred anonymity. The assertion of limits on parliamentary authority, including denial of authority to levy taxes, might invite retribution.

Knowledge of the congress's work is drawn mainly from fragmentary accounts in diaries, the delegates' letters, newspaper accounts and pamphlets that bear close resemblance to the petitions, and resolves issued by the convention. It is a safe bet that John Dickinson, a brilliant pamphleteer and an acute theorist from Pennsylvania, produced the first draft of the resolutions. The collection of his papers includes a paper in his handwriting that provides “the original Draft of the Resolves of the first Congress held at New York in the year 1765” (Weslager, p. 139).