d
out. Since these troops were to be paid from the money received for the
stamps, it will be seen that the Americans would be obliged to bear the
expense of the soldiers quartered upon them.

Now we use revenue stamps to-day and no one objects, but the difference
in the two cases is that we tax ourselves for our own expenses, and our
representatives grade the taxes so as to suit the people. If we do not
think the taxes equitable, we can elect other representatives, pledged
to change them. But it must be remembered that we never had a
representative in the British Parliament, whose English members did just
as they pleased. That was "taxation without representation."

The news of the action of the British government threw the colonies into
an angry mood and they vehemently declared their intention to resist the
Stamp Act. They did not content themselves with words, but mobbed the
stamp agents, compelled others to resign, and, when the date arrived for
the act to go into effect, they refused to buy a single obnoxious stamp.

REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT.

The Stamp Act Congress, as it was called, met in New York City, October
7, 1765. There were representatives from all the colonies except four,
but they supported the others. Lacking the authority to make any laws,
it issued a bold declaration of rights and sent petitions to the king
and Parliament, setting forth the American grievances. The sturdy
resistance of the colonies alarmed England. They had many friends in
Parliament, including the illustrious Pitt, and, at the beginning of
1766, the act was repealed. The Americans were so delighted that they
almost forgot that England in repealing the act still asserted her right
to tax them.

Several years now followed in which the colonies quietly resisted the
efforts of England to tax them. This was done by a general agreement not
to buy any of the articles upon which taxes were laid. The men who did
this and opposed the mother country were known as Whigs, while those who
stood by England were called Tories.

DEFIANT ACTS BY THE AMERICANS.

But violence was sure to follow where the indignation was so intense and
widespread. There were continual broils between the British soldiers and
citizens, the most serious of which occurred in Boston on March 5, 1770,
when the soldiers fired upon the citizens who had attacked them, killed
three and wounded several. This incident, known in history as the
"Boston Massacre," added to