The Stamp Act Teaser of 1764

On April 16, 1763, King George III appointed George Grenville First Lord of the Treasury, or Prime Minister, of Great Britain — the second of four different prime ministers appointed by George III between 1762 and 1766. During the 18th century, the title First Lord of the Treasury was often preferred to Prime Minister.

Grenville was immediately confronted with serious economical challenges, including a national debt that almost doubled during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763).

Parliament anticipated the debt increasing with the ongoing defense of American colonial interests so new revenue sources were needed, and fast.

On March 9, 1764, Grenville presented his new national budget, which proposed the Sugar Act and served as the official Stamp Act teaser of what was heading to the colonies a year later. According to The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff (2005):

“While the colonists conducted operations against the duties on molasses, the most thoughtful among them worried about the possibility that still another tax would be levied on America. They owed the worry to George Grenville, who on March 9, 1764, the day he introduced the proposals for the new molasses duties, warned that to meet the national expenses ‘it may be proper to charge certain Stamp Duties in the said Colonies and Plantations.’”

The external taxing of the Sugar Act and internal taxing of the Stamp Act were both aimed at raising revenue from America, but the Stamp Act was unlike any other legislation that previously affected the colonies.  Learning of the Stamp Act in 1764 as the first internal tax likely to be levied within the colonies, fueled the fire of revolution.  Colonists understood its certain widespread impact on the local economies, and many were familiar with or had already experienced similar stamp taxes in England.

After Grenville announced his plans on March 9, 1764, it wasn’t long before the bundled news of taxation, including the Stamp Act teaser, reached the American shores. Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette first reported a “Scheme of Taxation of the American Colonies” in its May 10, 1764 issue:

“That it had been previously debated in the Parliament, whether they had Power to lay such a Tax on Colonies which had no Representatives in Parliament, and determined in the Affirmative: That on the Ninth of March Mr. [Grenville] made a long Harrangue on the melancholy State of the Nation, overloaded with heavy Taxes, and a Debt of 146 Millions, 52 Millions of which had arisen in the four last Years… To raise this Sum, he proposed that the Drawbacks on Re-exportation of particular Goods should be discontinued: That a Duty be laid… of 10 s. per Hundred on Sugars… Besides this, an internal Tax was proposed, a Stamp Duty, etc. but many Members warmly opposing it, this was deferred till next Session; but it was feared that the Tax upon foreign Goods would pass into a Law this Session.”

Franklin, whose Pennsylvania Gazette published the above report, has a unique history with the Stamp Act. During the summer of 1764, Franklin sailed to London to condemn the act and Great Britain’s taxation scheme.

“But when he arrived he found that the grinding at the mills of government was going on much too evenly to be disturbed by the introduction of any such insignificant foreign substance as a colonial protest,” according Benjamin Franklin by John Torrey Morse (1898).

In a letter to a Philadelphia friend (that was eventually made public), Franklin expressed sentiments of moderation or compliance with the Stamp Act when he wrote “We might well have hindered the sun’s setting. That we could not do. But since its down, my friend, and it may be long before it rises again, let us make as good a night of it as we can. We may still light candles.”

With these words, Franklin soon experienced one of his biggest PR nightmares as his reaction was strongly contradicted by the colonists’ response of resentment and revolt. And nightmare quickly escalated into crisis.

Franklin’s printing partner, David Hall, sent a warning to Franklin in London and expressed concern for his safety should he return soon: “The spirit of the people is so violently against everyone they think has the least concern with the Stamp law.”

According to Walter Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin biography, the frenzy climaxed in late September 1765  — a full month before the Stamp Act went into effect — when an angry anti-tax mob attempted to destroy Franklin’s new home. The mob was deterred by a group of supporters known as the White Oak Boys.

By mid 1766, Franklin’s reputation was fully restored in America after colonists learned that Franklin played an integral role in convincing Parliament to repeal of the Stamp Act.