[Footnote:  The stamps were not the adhesive kind we are now accustomed to fasten on letters.  Those used for newspapers and pamphlets and printed documents consisted of a crown surmounting a circle in which were the words, “One Penny Sheet” or “Nine Pence per Quire,” and were stamped on each sheet in red ink by a hand stamp not unlike those used at the present day to cancel stamps on letters.  Others, used on vellum and parchment, consisted of a square piece of blue paper, glued on the parchment, and fastened by a little piece of brass.  A design was then impressed on the blue paper by means of a little machine like that used by magistrates and notaries public to impress their seals on legal documents.  When this was done, the parchment was turned over, and a little piece of white paper was pasted on the back of the stamp.  On this white piece was engraved, in black, the design shown in the second picture on p. 113, the monogram “G.  R.” meaning Georgius Rex, or King George.]

[Illustration:  Stamps used in 1765]

The money raised by this tax was not to be taken to England, but was to be spent in America for the defense of the colonies.  Nevertheless, the colonists were determined that none should be raised.  The question was not, Shall America support an army? but, Shall Parliament tax America?

%111.  The Virginia Resolutions.%—­In opposition to this, Virginia now led the way with a set of resolutions.  In the House of Burgesses, as the popular branch of her legislature was called, was Patrick Henry, the greatest orator in the colonies.  By dint of his fiery words, he forced through a set of resolutions setting forth

1.  That the first settlers in Virginia brought with them “all the privileges and immunities that have at any time been held” by “the people of Great Britain.”

2.  That their descendants held these rights.

3.  That by two royal charters the people of Virginia had been declared entitled to all the rights of Englishmen “born within the realm of England.”

4.  That one of these rights was that of being taxed “by their own Assembly.”

5.  That they were not bound to obey any law taxing them without consent of their Assembly.[1]

[Footnote 1:  These resolutions, printed in full from Henry’s manuscript copy, are in Channing’s The United States of America, 1765-1865, pp. 51, 52.  They were passed May 29, 1765.]

Massachusetts followed with a call for a congress to meet at New York city.

%112.  Stamp-act Congress.%—­To the congress thus called came delegates from all the colonies except New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia.  The session began at New York, on the 5th of October, 1765; and after sitting in secret for twenty days, the delegates from six of the nine colonies present (Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland) signed a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.” [1]