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 It would be best if they had both...[Furthermore, the right of every British subject is that the] supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property, without his consent in person, or by representation. Otis simultaneously refuted, in "The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved", a contemporary argument that attempted to rationalise virtual representation on the basis of the colonial agents' alleged influence on British policy. "As to the colonists being represented by the provincial agents," he wrote, I know of no power ever given them but to appear before his Majesty, and his ministry.