Declaration of Rights of the Stamp Act Congress

Context

Faced with massive debts incurred in the French and Indian War, Great Britain sought means of raising revenue in the American colonies, which, in their view, were the beneficiary of England's generous military action. In 1763 George Grenville, the first lord of the treasury and the chancellor of the exchequer, began hatching a series of legislative measures that would impose taxes on the colonists to satisfy England's financial needs. In April 1764 Parliament passed the Sugar Act, also known as the American Revenue Act, which levied a tax on molasses, an imported commodity in New England. Lord Grenville made it clear that the measure was a tax, designed to raise money for England. The American colonists were still seething over the Sugar Act, which they considered an illegal tax, when they were hit with the Stamp Act duties in 1765. Some colonies responded by passing nonimportation acts, economic boycotts that they hoped would pressure England to abandon the Sugar Act. At the same time, the British expanded the jurisdiction of the vice admiralty courts to try those who interfered with revenue laws. These courts did not employ juries. As a consequence, the colonists were shocked by what they considered a violation of their ancient rights as Englishmen to trial by jury.

The passage of the Stamp Act was thus immersed in a cauldron of anger and protest. The American colonists sniffed conspiracy against their liberties. They resented the measure as a violation of their rights as Englishmen, for it had been long held in Great Britain that taxes were a gift, to be offered by a body that represented the people. Those who lived in England, the colonists explained, could be taxed by Parliament precisely because they enjoyed representation. But those in the American colonies were not represented in Parliament. Thus they were being taxed without their consent, a violation not only of their rights as subjects of the Crown but also of their natural rights as men. Taxing their property without their consent amounted to blatant confiscation.

In response to the Stamp Act, the Massachusetts Assembly, at the suggestion of James Otis, sent an invitation to the other colonial assemblies to participate in a meeting in New York City to discuss the colonies' options. The resulting Stamp Act Congress determined to issue a Declaration of Rights and to petition the king, the House of Commons, and the House of Lords for relief. They sought repeal of the act. In the American colonies' first display of national unity, the Stamp Act Congress approved fourteen resolutions that sought to define constitutional principles and limitations on parliamentary authority and complained of the economic pain inflicted on the colonies by the stamp duties.

Above all, the congress sought repeal of the Stamp Act. In this pursuit they were aided by merchants in London, who acknowledged their dependence on robust trade with the colonists and pushed for the act's repeal in the House of Commons. Taxes on the colonists that resulted in fewer purchases of English goods spelled trouble for English merchants. Violence, too, marred the process. In response to the Stamp Act, a group of angry colonists organized themselves into the Sons of Liberty for the purpose of opposing and protesting the stamp duties. They pillaged the homes of those who would serve as tax collectors and generally intimidated and dissuaded Loyalists from enforcing the act.

The Stamp Act Congress, caught in the clutches of a great national crisis, was forced to choose between acquiescence or confrontation. It chose confrontation. In this, it gave vent to ideas and concepts that had lain dormant, awaiting an occasion for articulation. When the chance came, the congress rejected Parliament's authority to tax the American colonists. This assertion of the colonists' rights placed the colonies on a path that changed history.