What happened at the Stamp Act Congress of 1765?

The Stamp Act Congress met in the Federal Hall building in New York City between October 7 and 25, 1765. It was the first colonial action against a British measure and was formed to protest the Stamp Act issued by British Parliament on March 1765. The Stamp Act Congress was attended by 27 representatives of nine of the thirteen colonies. Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia were prevented from attending because their loyal governors refused to convene the assemblies to elect delegates. New Hampshire did not attend but approved the resolutions once Congress was over.

Federal Hall in New York City where the Stamp Act Congress took place. Click on image to enlarge.

Congress approved thirteen resolutions in the Declaration of Rights and Grievances. It is important to note that colonists, at that point in time, were not intending on a separation from the crown. In the first resolution they stated their allegiance to the king and its Parliament. They declared and affirmed that they were entitled to the rights and liberties of all British subjects. Most importantly they asserted their right to “No taxation without representation” and that because of their circumstances, America was three thousand miles away, they could not be represented in the House of Commons in Britain. The only bodies legally able to impose an internal tax were their respective legislatures whose members were elected by the public.

The Stamp Act Congress declared the Stamp Act duties as extremely bothersome as the scarcity of specie made its payment impractical. Local profits would suffer from the payment of the duty ultimately affecting transatlantic trade. Congress also supported the boycott of British goods.

The colonists also wanted to reassert their right to trial by jury as an inherent right to all British subjects in the colonies and limit the jurisdiction of Admiralty Courts. These courts could try a case anywhere within the British Empire; cases were decided by judges instead than by juries. In addition judges and naval officers were paid based on the fines they levied leading to abuses.

The colonial petition was rejected on the basis of having been submitted by an unconstitutional assembly. The Stamp Act was eventually repealed primarily based on economic concerns expressed by British merchants. However parliament in order to reassert its power and constitutional issues over its right to tax its colonies passed the Declaratory Act.

Colonies sent the following delegates to the Stamp Act Congress:

From Massachusetts: James Otis, Samuel Adams, Oliver Partridge and Timothy Ruggles.

From Rhode Island: Henry Ward and Metcalf Bowler

From Connecticut: William Johnson, Eliphalet Dyer and David Rowland.

From New York: Phillip Livingston, William Bayard, John Cruger, Robert Livingston and Leonard Lispinard.

From Pennsylvania: John Morton, George Bryan and John Dickinson.

From New Jersey: Hendrick Fisher, Robert Ogden and Joseph Gordon.

From Delaware: Caesar Rodney and Thomas McKean.

From Maryland: Edward Tilghman, Thomas Ringgold and William Murdock.

From South Carolina: John Rutledge, Thomas Lynch and Christopher Gadsden.

Secretary: John Cotton

President: Timothy Ruggles from Massachusetts.

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This 1774 print shows Boston colonists pouring tea down the throat of a loyalist official whom they have tarred and feathered. Tax commissioners were commonly threatened with tarring and feathering when they tried to enforce the Stamp Act of 1765, which imposed a tax on all papers and official documents in the American colonies. The aftermath of the Stamp Act influenced constitutional safeguards and the First Amendment. (Print by Philip Dawe via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

The Stamp Act of 1765 was ratified by the British parliament under King George III. It imposed a tax on all papers and official documents in the American colonies, though not in England.

King George III imposed a tax on official documents in American colonies

Included under the act were bonds, licenses, certificates, and other official documents as well as more mundane items such as plain parchment and playing cards. Parliament reasoned that the American colonies needed to offset the sums necessary for their maintenance. It intended to use the additional tax money to pay for war expenses incurred in Great Britain’s struggles with France and Spain.

Many American colonists refused to pay Stamp Act tax

The American colonists were angered by the Stamp Act and quickly acted to oppose it. Because of the colonies’ sheer distance from London, the epicenter of British politics, a direct appeal to Parliament was almost impossible. Instead, the colonists made clear their opposition by simply refusing to pay the tax.

Prominent individuals such as Benjamin Franklin and members of the independence-minded group known as the Sons of Liberty argued that the British parliament did not have the authority to impose an internal tax. Public protest flared and the ensuing violence attracted broad attention. Tax commissioners were threatened and quit their jobs out of fear; others simply did not succeed in collecting any money. As Franklin wrote in 1766, the “Stamp Act would have to be imposed by force.” Unable to do so, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act just one year later, on March 18, 1766.

American separatist movement grew during protest of Stamp Act

The colonists may well have accepted the stamp tax had it been imposed by their own representatives and with their consent. However, the colonists’ emerging sense of independence — nurtured by the mother country and justified by their multiple interactions with other trading nations — heightened the colonists’ sense of indignation and feelings of injustice. Even had they submitted to it, there is little doubt that many would have been troubled by the negative impact of a tax on the free press.

Scholars contend that the American separatist movement gained a great deal of influence as a result of its success in protesting the Stamp Act.

Stamp Act aftermath influenced constitutional safeguards, First Amendment

The act and the violence that erupted with its passage remained fresh in the young country’s memory. The crafters of the Constitution were careful to include safeguards against usurpations of freedom and the violence such acts could breed. Article 5 provides for a constitutional amending process, allowing for changes in the laws without resort to violent revolution.

The First Amendment secures freedom of speech, the right to peacefully assemble, and the right to petition government. It also protects the freedom of the press.

This article was originally written in 2009. Stefanie Kunze has a PhD in Political Science and is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Northern Arizona University. Dr. Kunze specializes in perpetrators of ethnocide, and more specifically Native American experiences with settler colonialism.

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