A history of the United States for schools . d ofthese resolutions,and sent over toEngland a remon-strance denyingthe right of Par-liament to tax theAmericans. Therewere riots in sev-eral cities. Boxesof stamped paperarriving by shipwere seized andburned ; lawyersagreed with oneanother not totreat any docu-ment as invali-dated by the ab-sence of the required stamp ; editors published theirnewspapers decorated with a grinning skull and cross-bones instead of the stamp. As the Americans would not buy or use the stamps,Parliament repealed the Stamp Act the next year, 1766,after a fierce debate th
A history of the United States for schools . d ofthese resolutions,and sent over toEngland a remon-strance denyingthe right of Par-liament to tax theAmericans. Therewere riots in sev-eral cities. Boxesof stamped paperarriving by shipwere seized andburned ; lawyersagreed with oneanother not totreat any docu-ment as invali-dated by the ab-sence of the required stamp ; editors published theirnewspapers decorated with a grinning skull and cross-bones instead of the stamp. As the Americans would not buy or use the stamps,Parliament repealed the Stamp Act the next year, 1766,after a fierce debate that lasted three months. „ , , Repeal of William Pitt declared that such an act ous^ht the stamp Act never to have been passed, and he praised theAmericans for resisting a bad and dangerous law. Themajority in Parliament did not take this view ; they re-pealed the law as a concession to the Americans, butdeclared that Parliament had a right to make whateverlaws it pleased. But some men of great influence agreed 1 After a painting by PATRICK 192 THE REVOLUTION. Ch. X. with Pitt in holding that such a form of taxation withoutrepresentation was unconstitutional and ought to be re-sisted. 79. Taxation in England. The people of Londonwere delighted at the repeal of the Stamp Act, and itseemed as if all the trouble were at an end. So it mighthave been, but for that agreement of opinion betweenthe Americans and Pitt. In getting such a powerfulfriend in Pitt, the Americans found an implacable enemyin the new king, George III., who had come to the thronein 1760, at the age of twenty-two. There was then going on in England a hot disputeover this very same businessof no taxation without rep-resentation, and it was adispute in which the youth-ful king felt bound to op-pose Pitt to the bitter us see just what thedispute was. In such a body as theBritish House of Commonsor the American House ofRepresentatives, the differ-ent parts of the country arerepresented accord
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