[Illustration:  PATRICK HENRY “I am not a Virginian, but an American.”]

[Sidenote:  Declaration of the Rights and Grievances of the Colonists, 1765. McMaster, 115.]

111.  Work of the Stamp Act Congress.—­Delegates from nine colonies met at New York in October, 1765.  They drew up a “Declaration of the Rights and Grievances of the Colonists.”  In this paper they declared that the colonists, as subjects of the British king, had the same rights as British subjects living in Britain, and were free from taxes except those to which they had given their consent.  They claimed for themselves the right of trial by jury—­which might be denied under the Stamp Act.  But the most important thing about the congress was the fact that nine colonies had put aside their local jealousies and had joined in holding it.

[Sidenote:  Benjamin Franklin.]

[Sidenote:  Examined by the House of Commons.]

112.  Franklin’s Examination.—­Born in Boston, Benjamin Franklin ran away from home and settled at Philadelphia.  By great exertion and wonderful shrewdness he rose from poverty to be one of the most important men in the city and colony.  He was a printer, a newspaper editor, a writer, and a student of science.  With kite and string he drew down the lightning from the clouds and showed that lightning was a discharge of electricity.  He was now in London as agent for Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.  His scientific and literary reputation gave him great influence.  He was examined at the bar of the House of Commons.  Many questions and answers were arranged beforehand between Franklin and his friends in the House.  But many questions were answered on the spur of the moment.  Before the passage of the Stamp Act the feeling of the colonists toward Britain had been “the best in the world.”  So Franklin declared.  But now, he said, it was greatly altered.  Still an army sent to America would find no rebellion there.  It might, indeed, make one.  In conclusion, he said the repeal of the act would not make the colonists any more willing to pay taxes.

[Sidenote:  Fall of Grenville.]

[Sidenote:  Repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766.]

[Sidenote:  The Declaratory Act, 1766.]

113.  Repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766.—­It chanced that at this moment George III and George Grenville fell out.  The king dismissed the minister, and gave the Marquis of Rockingham the headship of a new set of ministers.  Now Rockingham and his friends needed aid from somebody to give them the strength to outvote Grenville and the Tories.  So when the question of what should be done about the Stamp Act came up, they listened most attentively to what Mr. Pitt had to say.  That great man said that the Stamp Act should be repealed wholly and at once.  At the same time another law should be passed declaring that Parliament had power to legislate for the colonies in all cases whatsoever.  The Rockinghams at once did as Mr. Pitt suggested.  The Stamp Act was repealed.  The Declaratory Act was passed.  In the colonies Pitt was praised as a deliverer.  Statues of him were placed in the streets, pictures of him were hung in public halls.  But, in reality, the passage of the Declaratory Act was the beginning of more trouble.