.
15-154, that the colonists made no distinction between internal
and external taxes in theory, only between taxes in general and
navigation acts for regulatory purposes.

Pitt, following the resolution of the Stamp Act Congress, defined
"legislation" to mean laws governing trade for regulation and general
government, but not internal or external taxes.

By January the clamor for repeal in financially-stricken London rose to
fever pitch, but no solution which admitted that the act was based on
"erroneous principle" would pass. Finally, a Declaratory Act was passed
embodying the ambivalent statement to the effect that parliament did
have the power to make laws binding on the colonies "in all Cases
whatsoever." Though Pitt and the colonists interpreted laws to mean
everything except taxes, others interpreted it to mean taxes; and still
others interpreted it to mean internal but not external taxes. But the
ambivalence was removed when Pitt and Isaac Barre sought to remove the
phrase "in all cases whatsoever" to prevent it being used to justify
taxes. They failed. Thus, when the Declaratory Act passed, most members
of parliament were convinced they had declared their authority to levy
taxes even though they had repealed a specific tax, the Stamp Tax.

In that same series of debates and those which followed on repeal
itself, the idea grew in the minds of many members that the colonists
had made a distinction between "internal" and "external" taxes--the one
levied on goods and services inside the colony and the other levied
outside the colony or before the goods reached the colony. The first
might be the prerogative of the colonial assembly, the other of
parliament. Undoubtedly, many seized upon the distinction between
"internal-external" as a principle they could accept in the midst of a
serious setback and failure. If so, they were helped along by a
magnificent presentation by Benjamin Franklin, agent for Pennsylvania,
who presented the colonial case to the commons. In his astute and often
clever way, Franklin dodged the internal-external issue, knowing full
well most house members would not accept the idea of complete colonial
autonomy on tax matters, while the colonists would accept nothing less.
He hoped repeal would remove the immediate difficulty and parliament
would avoid the taxation issue in the future. His brilliant
presentation was instrumental in gaining repeal of the Stamp Act, but
the short