the natural right of a British subject to pay no taxes
unless he had a voice in laying them.
3. That the Americans were not represented in Parliament.
4. That Parliament, therefore, could not tax them, and that an attempt
to do so was an attack on the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of
self-government.
%114. Grievances.%--The grievances complained of were: 1. Taxation
without representation. 2. Trial without jury (in the vice-admiralty
courts). 3. The Sugar Act. 4. The Stamp Act. 5. Restrictions on trade.
%115. The English View of Representation.%--We, in this country, do
not consider a person represented in a legislature unless he can cast a
vote for a member of that legislature. In Great Britain, not individuals
but classes were represented. Thus, the clergy were represented by the
bishops who sat in the House of Lords; the nobility, by the nobles who
had seats in the House of Lords; and the mass of the people, the
commons, by the members of the House of Commons. At that time, very few
Englishmen could vote for a member of the House of Commons. Great cities
like Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, did not send even one member. When
the colonists held that they were not represented in Parliament because
they did not elect any members of that body, Englishmen answered that
they were represented, because they were commoners.
%116. Sons of Liberty.%--Meantime, the colonists had not been idle.
Taking the name of "Sons of Liberty," a name given to them in a speech
by a member of Parliament (named Barre) friendly to their cause, they
began to associate for resistance to the Stamp Act. At first, they were
content to demand that the stamp distributors named by the colonial
agents in London should resign. But when these officers refused, the
people became violent; and at Boston, Newark, N.J., New Haven, New
London, Conn., at Providence, at Newport, R.I., at Dover, N.H., at
Annapolis, Md., serious riots took place. Buildings were torn down, and
more than one unhappy distributor was dragged from his home, and forced
to stand before the people and shout, "Liberty, property, and
no stamps."
%117. November 1, 1765.%--As the 1st of November, the day on which
the Stamp Act was to go into force, approached, the newspapers appeared
decorated with death's-heads, black borders, coffins, and obituary
notices. The _Pennsylvania Journal_ dropped its usual heading, and in
place of it put an arch with a skull and crossbones underne
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