Stamp Act Quotes

The people of the American colonies were outraged by the Stamp Act which in effect placed a tax on almost everything operational in the economy at the time by making people buy government stamps to seal virtually all legal documents. Ingersoll had become the icon of the hated Stamp Tax collector holding what was then a very senior position in the Royalist government. The Sons of Liberty, today considered patriots, but then looked upon by the government as a groups of hooligan terrorists, caught up with Ingersoll and kidnapped him and took him to a house in Wethersfield. There he was roughed up and then given the choice of resigning his Stamp Act position or being hanged. He signed his resignation with this statement. The quotation and the incident is used by people who glorify the patriotism and the risk that the Sons of Liberty took for their beliefs. Others, use the quote and incident to illustrate that when such behavior occurs in countries today we often refer to it as terrorism such as in the Iraq War insurgency where the insurgents threatened government officials with death if the did not resign and often made good on their threat. A particular interesting historical story is Ingersoll’s son, Jared Jr. Unlike his Royalist father, young Ingersoll, Jared Jr., was an active patriot, serving in public office and was one of the signers of the U.S. Constitution.

As a result was in 1799 he was indicted, convicted, and fined $480 and sentenced to 18 months in jail. In 1801, newly elected President Thomas Jefferson pardoned Brown along with all violators of the act.

The purpose was to try and get the king and parliament not to enforce the Stamp Act in the colonies. The delegates had to thrash out the language and it was important to flatter the king and parliament. While some delegates felt that loyalty to the mother country, many others thought that the king and parliament had betrayed them and thought this language gross hypocrisy. See {589426} for one delegate’s description of the difficulty.

He was considered Massachusetts’ greatest Colonial orator.

The patriot legal position did shift over time. Like many grass roots political movements, the Americans had morality and justice on their side and did not think through the implications of their arguments when they opposed the Stamp Act. After the Revolution Leonard had to leave and he went to English Bermuda where he was rewarded for his loyalty with the position of Chief Justice.

The Stamp Act had caused much consternation among the colonies. The Continental Congress had gone into session to draft a petition to the King asking that the Act not be enforced. This letter described the chalenge before them. See {589421} for one of the more contentious passages the delegates had to work out.

His advice was not taken. The result was as Franklin predicted.

Americans were by no means united in wanting to take up arms against Britain. Relatively few of the loyalist quotations have come down to us, but here is one. It also illustrates why some Americans wanted complete independence: So that they could escape their debts to English merchants. Most however had more noble and unselfish motives. As a matter of fact, the American Revolution is unusual in the sense that there were so many men of substance who sacrificed much of their material wealth for the American ideal. There were also the rogues and opportunists as Galloway describes.

He was wrong. The protesters were general including merchants, lawyers, politicians, shopkeepers, sailors and other occupations. The Privateer Captains were no more or less involved as other occupations.

At the beginning of the dispute between America and England, the issue was the raising of internal American taxes by Parliament without any American representation in Parliament. The issue escalated and when the British began using force, independence then became the American objective.

In this instance Pitt and a few others were arguing against the Stamp Act. They were accused of fomenting rebellion by advocating the same position of the rebellious colonists. Criticism of government policy is often castigated by claiming that enemies of the nation will take aid and comfort by the criticism and be encouraged in their conflict. In this case it was the Stamp Act. In more modern times those members of Congress in America who opposed the Iraq War and wanted withdrawal of U. S. troops were accused of aiding, comforting and encouraging the enemy. It is the favorite tactic of governments under attack for its foreign policy.

The Governor had warned the Board of Trade about the American reaction to the Stamp Act. He took the position that is was unconstitutional in the sense that it was contrary to Magna Carter. His and other warnings were ignored.

This is one of the most fascinating documents of the American Revolution. The British Parliament had passed the very unpopular Stamp Act, a form of tax that required a government stamp, which had to be paid for, to be placed on all legal documents from leases to wills. Governor Bernard opposed the Stamp Act and was trying to have the Colonies exempted (See {613881}). The assembly while apparently advocating obedience to the law and warning the Governor of the possibility of Colonists boycotting legal instruments, actually laid out the strategy and the legal defense for a boycott and provided a revolutionary blueprint for colonists to follow.

The did not listen to Pitt or others counseling moderation and ignoring the American acts of protest. Instead, the hawks sent armed troops and war broke out in earnest and the American Revolution reached the point of no return. Lord Chatham was furious at the incompetent handling of the situation by the government and he let them know it—see {641505} .

It was repealed the next year, but much damage had been done to the relationship between the American Colonists and the mother country. It set the tone for American transition to a desire for independence. . Fox, a conservative on most issues was an absolute radical on the issue of America. To aggravate the hawks in parliament, he used to dress in the colors of George Washington’s uniform to show his support once the war broke out.

The Stamp Act induced rioting, but Gage believed that plunder was the main motivation. See Robert Novack for a similar view of riots and protests.