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 their rights; they looked for protection, and not for chains, from their mother country; by her they expected to be defended in the possession of their property, and not to be deprived of it: for, should the present power continue, there is nothing which they can call their own; or, to use the words of Mr. Locke, ‘What property have they in that, which another may, by right, take, when he pleases, to himself?’"In an appearance before Parliament in January, 1766, former Prime Minister William Pitt stated: The idea of a virtual representation of America in this House is the