lp them in their war with the French. But they
knew very well what they were about. They thought that if they gave the
king a dollar to-day he might want five dollars to-morrow, and ten
dollars the next day. They judged it best not to begin with the dollar.
Kings, you should know, do not always make the best use of money that is
given them by their people.

And that was not all. The people in the colonies did not like the way
they had been treated by the English. They had mountains full of iron,
but the king would not let them make this iron into tools. They had
plenty of wool, but he would not let them weave it into cloth. They must
buy these and other things in England, and must keep at farming; but
they were not allowed to send their grain to England, but had to eat it
all at home. They could not even send goods from one colony to another.
Thus they were to be kept poor that the rich English merchants and
manufacturers might grow rich.

These were some of the things the American people had to complain of.
There were still other things, and a good many of the Americans had very
little love for the English king and people. They felt that they were in
a sort of slavery, and almost as if they had ropes on their hands and
chains on their feet.

When King George was told that the Americans would not send him money he
was very angry. I am afraid he called them bad names. They were a low,
ignorant, ungrateful set, he said, and he would show them who was their
master. He would tax them and get money from them in that way. So the
English Parliament, which is a body of lawmakers like our Congress, came
together and passed laws to tax the Americans.

The first tax they laid is what is called a stamp tax. I fancy you know
very well what that is, for we have had a stamp tax in this country more
than once, when the government was in need of money. Everybody who wrote
a bank check, or made any legal paper, or sent away an express package,
had to buy a stamp from the government and put it on the paper; and
stamps had to be used on many other things.

But there is this difference. Our people were quite willing to buy these
stamps, but they were not willing to buy the stamps which the British
government sent them in 1765. Why? Well, they had a good reason for it,
and this was that they had nothing to do with making the law. The
English would not pay any taxes except those made by the people whom
they elected to Parliament, and the