lle, 1973), 9-14. This
volume contains the main revolutionary statements of the
assembly, conventions, and certain county and quasi-legal local
gatherings, 1763-1774.

By the time parliament took up the Stamp Act in February 1765, the die
was already cast. Members of parliament were outraged by the
presumptuous claims of the colonial assemblies to sovereignty co-equal
with itself. Only a few members questioned the wisdom of the act. Issac
Barre won fame as a patriot member of parliament for his eloquent
defense of the colonies as he called on the Commons to "remember I this
Day told you so, that same Spirit of Freedom which actuated that people
at first, will accompany them still." Yet even Barre would not deny
parliament's right to pass the tax. The House of Commons refused even
to receive the petitions from the colonial legislatures and passed the
act into law on March 22, 1765.

Covering over 25 pages in the statute book, the Stamp Act imposed a tax
on documents and paper products ranging from nearly all court
documents, shipping papers, and mortgages, deeds, and land patents to
cards, dice, almanacs, and newspapers, including the advertisements in
them. Charges ranged from 3d to 10s, with a few as high as L10, all to
be paid in specie. Virtually no free man in Virginia was left untouched
by the tax. Edmund Pendleton, upon hearing of its passage, lamented
"Poor America".

The law was to become effective on November 1, 1765.

The Stamp Act Resolves, May 1765

That the May 1765 session of the Virginia General Assembly became one
of the most famous in the state's history was totally unanticipated by
all political experts. The only reason Governor Fauquier called the
session was to amend the frequently revised tobacco planting and
inspection law. The Stamp Act already had been taken care of by the
remonstrance in December. A new issue did develop when Governor
Fauquier announced that all outstanding Virginia paper currency must be
redeemed by March 1st, after which it no longer would be legal tender.
As the money poured into the treasurer's office, it rapidly became
apparent what Richard Henry Lee had suspected as early as 1763 and what
many debt-ridden Tidewater planter-burgesses personally knew--Robinson
was tens of thousands of pounds short in his accounts. The shortage,
which turned out to be L106,000, derived from the speaker-treasurer's
habit of lending his fellow planters tax funds to pay