Instead, he asked them to agree in advance to Parliament’s right to tax the colonies, before they had seen a completed stamp bill. Īs the prospect of a stamp tax hung in the air, Grenville offered to allow the provinces to 'among themselves, and in modes best suited to their circumstances, raise a sum adequate to the expense of their defense.' However, this offer was, as historian Edmund Morgan observed, 'nothing more than a rhetorical gesture…to demonstrate his own benevolence.' In a meeting with colonial agents on May 17, 1764, Grenville brushed aside questions about suitable forms of colonial self-taxation. The fifteenth resolution-a stamp tax-was deferred for a year. He expressed hope 'that the power and sovereignty of Parliament over every part of the British dominions, for the purpose of raising or collecting any tax, would never be disputed.' The next day, Secretary of the Treasury Thomas Whately introduced colonial revenue-raising resolutions, including the Sugar Act (passed April 5, 1764). Grenville addressed Parliament on March 9, 1764, intent on securing advance support for the unwritten stamp bill.
Stark, 'The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American Revolution' (1907) Caption reads: 'Reading the Stamp Act in King Street: opposite the State House.'
