Pennsylvania Chronicle Hall) against the Stamp Act, and other excessive tax laws passed without colonial representation in the British Parliament. In 1773 the paper gained much notoriety when it featured an article chronicling the unfolding of the Boston Tea Party and voicing popular support for this rebellious and historic event. While Benjamin Franklin was in London as agent for Pennsylvania he opposed the enactment of the Stamp Act in 1765. Although he knew passage of the bill was inevitable he went along with the measure while actually working for its repeal. The people of Pennsylvania however suspected Franklin of duplicity. To offset
No taxation without representation the Commons of America, or not. The theory of virtual representation was attacked in Britain by Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, and his ally William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. William Pitt argued in 1766 that the Commons of Britain ought not to tax the '"Commons of America" without gaining consent of their representatives in stating, "even under former arbitrary reigns, Parliaments were ashamed of taxing a people without their consent, and allowed them representatives. Why did [Grenville] confine himself to Chester and Durham? He might have taken a higher example in Wales—Wales, that never was taxed by Parliament till