Declaration of Rights of the Stamp Act Congress

Impact

The immediate impact of the Stamp Act Congress within the colonies may be measured by the way in which the colonies embraced it and honored those who had labored to produce the petitions and resolutions that confronted British tyranny. Delegates from six of the nine colonies that had participated in the proceedings signed the Declaration of Rights in New York. Delegates from three of the colonies—New York, Connecticut, and Georgia—lacked the authority to sign until they had presented the petitions to their respective assemblies. Once this was done, those three legislative bodies quickly passed their own resolves to support the Stamp Act Congress. In South Carolina, members of the legislature were so impressed with the extraordinary work of their delegates that they sought approval to commission paintings of them to be hung inside the Commons House.

Four colonies were not represented at the congress: Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Virginia. Georgia moved immediately to approve the congress's work and authorized the speaker of the house to forward its petitions to the king and Parliament. The failure of New Hampshire to send delegates to the convention met with stinging criticism, but it was quickly overcome when the house lent its enthusiastic approval by signing the documents and appointing its own lobbyists to win the support of the Crown and Parliament. Two colonies, North Carolina and Virginia, took no action on the petitions and resolutions of the congress. In each instance, their respective governors, loathe to incur the wrath of Britain, dissolved their assemblies and thus prevented action by those eager to support the work of the congress. By the time the assemblies had returned, the executives were able to explain to the legislators that the Stamp Act had been repealed and that their grievances had been satisfied. Accordingly, there was no need for any action.

The rousing effect on colonists of the congress's assertion of limits on parliamentary authority, including the rights of the colonies to be free of taxes imposed by Parliament and the early discussion of constitutional principles, had little influence in England and probably had no impact on the decision to repeal the Stamp Act. The assertion of constitutional rights, so emphatically stated in the congress's petitions and resolutions, did stir opposition in Parliament on matters of authority and rights; these issues dominated the relations between Great Britain and America for much of the next decade. But the repeal of the act mostly was attributable to complaints by merchants about its financial impact—on England.

English merchants felt the stinging effects of the Stamp Act and exercised their influence through petitions to Parliament to terminate legislation that, they firmly believed, would drive them to ruin. They were keenly aware of the great importance of trade with the North American colonies. The organization by colonial leaders that produced nonimportation agreements, first in response to the Sugar Act and then in reaction to the Stamp Act, inflicted considerable damage on British businesses. Financial failure for merchants in England was on the horizon; this was talk that Parliament could understand. The central problem that leaders faced in repealing the act, however, was the fear of appearing weak in the face of colonial opposition. Repealing the act would represent a victory for the Stamp Act Congress, vindication for the violence perpetrated by the Sons of Liberty against British stamp distributors, and, most important, subversion of Parliament's assertion of a right to tax the colonies. If the British government relented on the power to tax, how could it proceed with any subsequent tax measures? How would it raise much-needed revenue?

When Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766, it endeavored to save face by passing the Declaratory Act, which, to members in the Commons and the Lords, asserted Parliament's right to tax the colonies. But the Declaratory Act was ambiguous on precisely that point. The legislation affirmed Parliament's authority to make laws and statutes binding the colonists “in all cases whatever.” The phrase meant, in the minds of members, that the legislative power encompassed the taxing power. Americans were left to wonder whether England had finally accepted their claim of a distinction between the legislative and taxing powers, or whether England was continuing to assert that the legislative power encompassed the taxing power. It would not be long before the colonists had their answer and the two sides were headed to war.