olonys and hop'd in Gods Name as
his Expression was that none would dare dispute their Sovereignty."[13]
The House of Commons, as quick as the Virginia House of Burgesses to
proclaim its sovereignty rose to Grenville's bait and declared in a
resolution of March 17, 1764 that "toward defending, protecting, and
securing the British colonies and Plantations in America, it may be
proper to charge certain Stamp Duties in the said Colonies and
Plantations...." In that simple phrase parliament declared its full
sovereignty over the colonies and from it never retreated.

[13] Both quotes cited in Edmund and Helen Morgan, The Stamp Act
Crisis paperback edition (Collier Books: New York, 1962), 76.
This is the standard work on the Stamp Act.

Virginia and the Stamp Act, 1764

That Grenville might have hoped that the "power and sovereignty of
Parliament ... would not be disputed" suggests the degree to which he
did not comprehend 18th Century colonial constitutional developments.
Virginia reaction was immediate, clear, unequivocal, and illustrative
of just how deeply ingrained were Virginia's constitutional positions
about the limits of parliamentary authority. In 1759 the General
Assembly had elected a joint committee to correspond regularly with its
London agent and to instruct him on matters of policy and legislation
pending in England. This committee was meeting on July 28, 1764, in
Williamsburg drafting instructions to agent Edward Montagu on the Sugar
Act when word arrived from Montagu about the commons resolution. The
Committee of Correspondence's reply was instantaneous:

That no subjects of the King of great Britain can be justly made
subservient to Laws without either their personal Consent,
or their Consent by their representatives we take to be the most
vital Principle of the British Constitution; it cannot be denyed
that the Parliament has from Time to Time ... made such Laws as
were thought sufficient to restrain such Trade to what was judg'd
its proper Channel, neither can it be denied that, the Parliament,
out the same Plentitude of its Power, has gone a little Step
farther and imposed some Duties upon our Exports....

P.S. Since writing the foregoing Part ... we have received your
letter of the parliam'ts Intention to lay an Inland Duty upon us
gives us fresh Apprehension of the fatal Consequences that may
arise to Posterity from such a pr