Chapter 3 Laws & Legislation

Stamp Act
Imposed on the colonies in 1765 to help pay for the recent French and Indian War, this tax on nearly all printed materials provoked the first major colonial protests over the issues of taxation. Boycotts and violent resistance to the tax led Parliament to repeal it in 1766. Key to the protests in the colonies was the argument that such a tax constituted "taxation without representation."

Virginia Resolves
Patrick Henry led the Virginia House of Burgesses in its protest against the Stamp Tax. These resolves put forth the colonial claim to all rights of Englishmen and declared the Stamp Tax to be an unconstitutional example of taxation without representation.

Magna Carta and Petition of Right
Colonists protesting British taxes and regulations drew on English history to claim their rights. The Magna Carta (Great Charter) from 1215 helped begin the tradition of limits to the King's power in England. English nobles got King John to sign this document at the point of a sword. In the same historic tradition, The Petition of Right was passed by Parliament in 1627 and claimed key rights in respect to King Charles I. Those rights included no taxation without the consent of Parliament, the right of habeas corpus, protection against forced quartering of troops, and protection from arbitrary arrest.

Stamp Act Declaration of Rights
The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 was an early sign of the formation of a colonial union against British repression. Although making clear their continued loyalty to Parliament and the King, the Stamp Act Congress in its Declaration of Rights made a strong constitutional case for colonists' possession of all rights of Englishmen, especially the right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives.

Declaratory Act
When Parliament repealed the Stamp Tax in 1766 (in light of widespread colonial protests), they on the same day passed the Declaratory Act asserting that Parliament was supreme to colonial legislatures "in all cases whatsoever." Colonists celebrating the repeal of the Stamp Tax failed to hear this message and never came to accept it. 

Navigation Acts
Dating to the 1660s, the Navigation Acts regulated trade between Britain and the colonies under the philosophy of mercantilism. In short, the colonies were to provide raw materials to the mother country and were then to buy finished products produced there. Trading outside of this network was strictly regulated. But for a century or more, most of these regulations were only loosely enforced under an English tradition of "salutary neglect." With the financial crisis following the French and Indian War, Britain decided to tighten up and truly enforce the Navigation Acts. Their efforts started a cycle of protest that ultimately led to revolution.

Proclamation of 1763
At the conclusion of the French and Indian War, colonists assumed that the "Northwest Territories" (land north of the Ohio River and between Canada and the Mississippi River) would now be open for settlement. But this proclamation prevented settlement beyond the crest of the Appalachians. The British wanted to prevent clashes with Native Americans, having just put down Pontiac's rebellion. But the growing populations of the colonies in the East greatly resented these restrictions.

Townshend Duties
After the repeal of the Stamp Tax, Chancellor of the Exchequer Townshend attempted in 1767 to raise revenue by taxing everyday items imported and used by the colonies. He argued that unlike the Stamp Tax, which the colonies called an "internal tax" that could not be levied without representation, these duties were "external taxes" primarily used to regulate trade, a legitimate role for the mother country. The colonists refused to accept this and once again staged widespread protests until the duties were repealed (with the exception of a tax on tea).

Quartering Act of 1766
Again trying to get the colonies to pay their own way, this act required the colonies to feed and house British troops. The colonies argued that these troops were not even necessary with the French now off the continent, and saw this mandate as another example of Parliamentary repression.

Tea Act
This act of 1773 gave a monopoly to the nearly bankrupt East India Company for the trade of tea in the colonies. Although it might have initially meant cheaper tea for the colonists, colonial leaders saw this as a dangerous precedent that could later threaten other colonial businesses and trades. This act precipitated the Boston Tea Party.

Coercive (Intolerable) Acts
After the Boston Tea Party, Parliament attempted to crack down on Massachusetts in particular with the Coercive Acts of 1774 (known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts). In particular these acts shut down Massachusetts local governments and closed the port of Boston until the destroyed tea was paid for. This seeming tyranny brought other colonies to the defense of Massachusetts and continued the formation of a colonial union.

Suffolk Resolves
Passed by colonial leaders in Suffolk County, Massachusetts in response to the Intolerable Acts. These resolves called for Massachusetts to ignore the Intolerable Acts, to continue to rule themselves, to raise protests and boycotts, and to form armed colonial militias for protection from British tyranny.

Quebec Act
Passed by Parliament in 1774, this act expanded the borders of Quebec to the Ohio River. It also allowed French Canadians under British rule in Quebec to freely practice their Catholic faith. While seen by those Canadians as merciful, American colonists had a quite different view. They saw a further British effort to thwart their desire to settle the Ohio River valley and being predominantly Protestant, saw the British crown in league with what they saw as the absolutist Catholic Church.

Treaty of Paris (1783)
Treaty negotiated by Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams in Paris. It formally ended the war, called for the final removal of British troops from America, recognized America as an independent nation, and set American borders to the Mississippi River.