A history of the American people . Tear against this verymeasure. But when he saw that they would not lead,he sprang to the task himself, plain, country-bred thoughhe was, and unschooled in that leadership; scribbledhis resolutions on the fly-leaf of an old law-book, andcarried them with a rush of eloquence that startled andswept the House, and set the tone for all the country. His resolutions not only declared the right of thecolonies to tax themselves to be exclusive, and establish-ed beyond recall; they also declared that Virginianswere not bound to obey the Parliament when it actedthus aga
A history of the American people . Tear against this verymeasure. But when he saw that they would not lead,he sprang to the task himself, plain, country-bred thoughhe was, and unschooled in that leadership; scribbledhis resolutions on the fly-leaf of an old law-book, andcarried them with a rush of eloquence that startled andswept the House, and set the tone for all the country. His resolutions not only declared the right of thecolonies to tax themselves to be exclusive, and establish-ed beyond recall; they also declared that Virginianswere not bound to obey the Parliament when it actedthus against established privilege, and that any onewho should advocate obedience was an enemy to thecolony. The sober second thought of the burgessescut that defiant conclusion out at last,—after Air. Henry148 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS had gone home; but the resolutions had already beensent post-haste through the colonies in their first form,. U \ I III. unrevised and unsoftened, and had touched the feelingof every one who read them like a flame of fire. Theywere the first word of revolution; and no man everthought just the same again after he had read them,if) A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE It seemed a strange defiance, no doubt, to come fromloyal Virginia. The Stamp Act was not, in fact, op-pressive or unreasonable. Why should it so kindlethe anger of the colonies that the sovereign Parliament,which had for many a day levied indirect chargesupon them by means of the many acts concerning tradeand manufactures, now laid a moderate direct taxupon them, the proceeds of which were to be spent upontheir own protection and administration? Because,though it might be the sovereign legislature of theempire, Parliament was not in their view the directsovereign legislature of America. No one could trulysay that Parliament had been the sovereign powereven of England before 1688, that notable year in whichit had, by a revolution, cha
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