Hello and welcome to a history of the United States. Episode 133. Townsend. On March 18th, 1766, the stamp act was

repealed. This had the potential to mark a turning point in the relationship between Britain and America.

It had become obvious that if the Americans opposed something,

it was impossible to enforce it. The Americans enjoyed their English liberties and would not

surrender the principle of no taxation without representation. They would be happy to contribute financially to the British

Empire, but it needed to be done through the colonial assemblies, not through Parliament.

However, as we've talked about repeatedly during this series, the British had a very different

understanding of parliamentary sovereignty. Rather than meaning that

taxation could only be carried out with the consent of the governed, as expressed through representative

democracy, they meant specifically that the institution of parliament was sovereign over the British

Empire. This is why the more significant piece of

legislation passed was not the repeal of the Stamp Act itself, but the Declaratory Act that

accompanied it. Parliament needed to assert that while it would not collect the stamp tax, this was only because

it was impractical. This tax, specifically, was causing economic problems and so needed to be repealed.

But few other than Pitt would challenge that Parliament had a right to collect taxes in the colonies.

This will be crucial in the decisions that will take us from here to Lexington and Concord,

now only nine years away over the next two episodes. But we're beginning to get ahead of

ourselves. First of all,

what was the reaction to the repeal of the Stemback? There was a great deal of excitement across

America. Dr. Franklin sent his wife 14 yards of pompadour satin in celebration. Bonfires were

held by the Sons of Liberty in Boston,

toasts and banquets were held along the Atlantic seaboard, New York proposed to erect an equestrian

...