The SAR MAGAZINE is the official quarterly publication of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution published quarterly.
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FALL 2015 19 general recognized the right of British citizens not to be taxed without representation. People as opposite as Massachusetts Gov. Francis Bernard and James Otis Jr. argued for Colonial representation in Parliament (Morgan and Morgan, pp. 13f.). Others, like Grenville, tacitly acknowledged the illegitimacy of "taxation without representation," asserting that the Colonials were in the same situation of "virtual representation" as many native Britons, such as those who failed to meet the property requirements for voting. This idea of virtual representation amounted to the assertion that members of Parliament held the right to speak for all British subjects, not merely those who elected them. There were also some among the British who saw the Colonials as primitives, lacking the political maturity required for real British citizenship. Reaction in the American Colonies was swift. As Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. noted, the Stamp Act "saddled the burden directly upon the backs of the printers, lawyers, and merchants who (along with the clergy) formed the most literate and articulate section of the Colonial public" (p. 65). Because the Stamp Act had placed a tax on newspapers of one shilling per sheet of paper, the tax was particularly onerous to the printers of the Colonies. By the mid-1760s there were 24 weekly newspapers in the 13 Colonies. Every colony but New Jersey had at least one, and New Jersey was served by newspapers from both Philadelphia and New York (Schlesinger, p. 64). Not surprisingly, one unanticipated but important consequence of the Stamp Act was an almost total erosion of newspaper support for Parliamentary rule. The general trend of Colonial newspapers becoming hostile to rule from London had two areas of impact. First, it helped to erode royal support among the reading public. "At no later stage of the controversy with England did the Colonial newspapers display so united a front." (Schlesinger, p. 72) Second, it contributed to improved communication among the Colonies and among groups that were moving in the direction of advocating independence. Chief among those were the various Sons of Liberty groups that by 1765 had become "active in most of the Colonies, encouraged by and encouraging the news-writers." (Schlesinger, p. 72) In Boston, a group was formed in 1765 called "The Loyal Nine." One of the nine was Benjamin Edes, who along with John Gill, published The Boston Gazette, a major publicist of anti-Parliamentary sentiment. As the Loyal Nine expanded its reach, the Massachusetts Sons of Liberty was born (Morgan and Morgan, p. 127). The story was similar in the other Colonies. Across the Colonies, resistance rendered regular government increasingly ineffective. "With regular government all but extinguished, the Sons of Liberty steadily tightened their own control … They had seized the power which once belonged to the royal governments, and they were prepared to keep it by fair means or foul until their end, the defeat of the Stamp Act, was accomplished." (Morgan and Morgan, p. 207) The Colonial assemblies however, continued to work. In June 1765 the Massachusetts Assembly issued a call to the legislatures of "the several Colonies on this Continent" to "consult together on the present circumstances of the Colonies." (Weslager, 60) Nine of the 13 Colonies sent delegates to New York where The First Congress of the American Colonies was held from October 7 to October 25, 1765, while a 10th, New Hampshire, gave formal approval of all the resolutions and petitions of the Congress (Morgan, p. 324). The Congress was chaired by Massachusetts conservative (and later Tory) Timothy Ruggles. Ruggles had been appointed by Massachusetts Gov. Francis Bernard in the hope that Ruggles might limit the effectiveness of the Congress (Morgan and Morgan, pp. 109f.). Among the delegates were Thomas McKean and Caesar Rodney (Del.), Philip Livingston, (N.Y.), John Dickinson (Pa.), and John Rutledge (S.C.), all of whom would later serve as delegates to the Second Continental Congress. Among the most vocal of the delegates was James Otis Jr., (Mass.) whose later mental decline left him ineffective after the 1760s. ® With your help, victory is in sight. Support the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown today! To give, please go to HistoryisFun.org/donate or call (757) 253-4139.