Stamp Act

Stamp Act, a measure which required all legal documents in the colonies to bear stamps, proposed by Grenville, then premier, and passed by parliament in 1765. The Americans denied the right to the English parliament, in which they were not represented, to impose taxes upon them, and offered violent opposition. Riots took place in many of the towns, the offices were seized, and the stamped paper destroyed; while a congress of delegates of nine of the states met at New York in October, and passed resolutions claiming for the provincial assemblies the exclusive right of taxation. In the January of 1766 the subject was brought before parliament. In the great debate that followed Burke made his maiden speech, and Pitt, who had been absent for a year, in one of his greatest speeches denied the absolute right of parliament to tax the colonies, as taxation and representation went hand in hand. After examining witnesses, chief among them Franklin, the ministry proposed the repeal of the Stamp Act, and carried it on February 21. Thus Pitt's wisdom staved off for a time the breach between England and her colonies.