The Importance Of The Stamp Act
Even though the Stamp Act, the laws passed by the English Parliament to tax all paper used for legal or commercial purposes, has disturbed extremely within the colonies. However, John Dickenson still using a respectful tone in his words towards the British, “with the warmest sentiments of affection and duty to His Majesty’s Person and Government, inviolably attached to the present happy by a sense of the present happy establishment of the Protestant succession …”. Let us examine the reasons that made the colonists upset so much about the Stamp Act. First of all, all taxes need to be paid in English currency instead of colonial money. Making “the payment of them absolutely impracticable”. Anyone who violated the laws would be tried without a
trial. “That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject in these colonies”. Thus, it was passed without the colonial consent and that for the longest time, the colonists were never represented in the English Parliament. “That the people of these colonies are not, and from their local circumstances cannot be, represented in the House of Commons in Great Britain”. Also, the colonists expressing their anxious feelings of a growing tyranny of the British, they wanted a particular or certain body, who is able to make laws that is the General Assembly (House of Burgesses). “That the only representatives of people of these colonies, are persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures”. Furthermost, by passing the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, the colonists clearly giving the English Parliament a fair warning sign is that “the increase, prosperity, and happiness of these colonies, depend on the full and free enjoyment of their rights and liberties, and an intercourse with Great- Britain mutually affectionate and advantageous”. Men such John Adam and James Otis encouraged the citizens to oppose to this violating law. “Now can there be any liberty, where property is taken away without consent? Can it with any color of truth, injustice or equity, be affirmed, that the northern colonies are represented in parliament?”, a question asked by James Otis. Ultimately, leading to the incident of boycott in New York where the English citizens stop buying British goods.
trial. “That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject in these colonies”. Thus, it was passed without the colonial consent and that for the longest time, the colonists were never represented in the English Parliament. “That the people of these colonies are not, and from their local circumstances cannot be, represented in the House of Commons in Great Britain”. Also, the colonists expressing their anxious feelings of a growing tyranny of the British, they wanted a particular or certain body, who is able to make laws that is the General Assembly (House of Burgesses). “That the only representatives of people of these colonies, are persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures”. Furthermost, by passing the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, the colonists clearly giving the English Parliament a fair warning sign is that “the increase, prosperity, and happiness of these colonies, depend on the full and free enjoyment of their rights and liberties, and an intercourse with Great- Britain mutually affectionate and advantageous”. Men such John Adam and James Otis encouraged the citizens to oppose to this violating law. “Now can there be any liberty, where property is taken away without consent? Can it with any color of truth, injustice or equity, be affirmed, that the northern colonies are represented in parliament?”, a question asked by James Otis. Ultimately, leading to the incident of boycott in New York where the English citizens stop buying British goods.