You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Hello,

thank you for joining the American Revolution.

Today, episode 25, Tensions Simmer.

So in last week episode, we left off with the colonies celebrating the repeal of the

Hated Stamp Act. Now I left today's title rather vague because I'm going to cover a

variety of different topics that took place in the year or so after the Stamp Act repeal.

They show how the situation remains tense between the colonies in England and how the two sides are seeing their interests as different from one another.

The first one I want to take a look at is the declaratory act which as you recall was passed along with the Stamp Act repeal.

This put the colonists on notice that Parliament did not accept colonial arguments over its taxing authority.

Colonists argued over the possible threat that the Declaratory Act implied.

Parliament had taken the language of the Declaratory Act from a 1719 Act that applied to Ireland.

In the intervening years, Parliament had not attempted to levy taxes

against Ireland. Indeed it would not do so until 1801 when an active union made Ireland part of

Britain and gave the Irish representation in Parliament.

Based on the Irish precedent, many colonists decided it meant Parliament would not try to levy another direct tax.

But the declaratory act would remain a festering sore between the colonies in England,

and it was one of only many indications that the colonists were moving farther from the ideological mainstream in England.

A good example of this growing divide is a letter sent from London Merchants to the Colonists in February 1765.

This was right about the time the Stamp Act repeal debates were coming to an end

and repeal was making its way through Parliament.

The London Merchants who authored the

letter had been fighting for the Stamp Act repeal so that trade would return to

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