parliament repealed the stamp act a few months after the stamp act congress of october 1765.
parliament repealed the stamp act a few months after the stamp act congress of october 1765.
how long after the stamp act congress of october 1765 did parliament repeal the stamp act?
a few months
representatives from a number of the thirteen colonies assembled as the stamp act congress in response to the stamp act 1765, to call into question the right of a distant power to tax them without proper representation. the british parliament was then faced with colonies who refused to comply with their act. this, combined with protests that had occurred in the colonies and, perhaps more importantly, protests which had arisen in great britain from manufacturers who were suffering from the colonies' non-importation agreement, all led to the repeal of the stamp act. normally the economic activity in the colonies would not have caused such an outcry, but the british economy was still experiencing a post-war depression from the seven years' war. another reason for repeal of the stamp act was the replacement of george grenville, the prime minister who had enacted the stamp acts, by charles watson-wentworth, 2nd marquess of rockingham. rockingham was more favorable towards the colonies and furthermore he was antagonistic towards policies that grenville had enacted. rockingham invited benjamin franklin to speak to parliament about colonial policy and he portrayed the colonists as in opposition to internal taxes (which were derived from internal colonial transactions) such as the stamp act called for, but not external taxes (which were duties laid on imported commodities). parliament then agreed to repeal the stamp act on the condition that the declaratory act was passed. on march 18, 1766, parliament repealed the stamp act and passed the declaratory act.
declaratory act
a more reasoned approach was taken by some elements. james otis, jr. wrote the most influential protest, "the rights of the british colonies asserted and proved". otis, the radical leader in massachusetts, convinced the massachusetts assembly to send a circular letter to the other colonies, which called for an inter-colonial meeting to plan tempered resistance. the stamp act congress convened in new york city on october 7, 1765, with nine colonies in attendance; others would likely have participated if earlier notice had been provided. the stamp act congress was another step in the process of attempted common problem-solving. the albany congress in 1754 had been held at the urging of royal officials as a forum for voicing constitutional concerns and afforded the more conservative critics of british policy some hope of regaining control of events from the unruly mobs in the streets of many cities; in contrast, the stamp act congress was strictly a colonial affair, reflecting the first significant joint colonial response to any british measure. delegates to the stamp act congress approved a fourteen-point "declaration of rights and grievances" as a petition to the parliament and the king, formulated largely by john dickinson of pennsylvania. the statement echoed the recent resolves of the virginia house of burgesses, which argued that colonial taxation could only be carried on by their own assemblies. the delegates singled out the stamp act and the use of the vice-admiralty courts for special criticism, yet ended their statement with a pledge of loyalty to the king.
stamp act