Act Now!
The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act on this date in 1765, an effort to raise money after the Seven Years War. It was also meant to pay for British troops in the Colonies that purportedly protected settlers from the French and Indians, which Americans believed they’d already paid for. Besides, the Indian threat was minimal and nobody worried about being invaded by France. Even Franklin, in London at the time, didn’t anticipate the intense antipathy to the tax on newspapers, legal documents, land grants, pamphlets, magazines, dice, playing cards and much else besides. One component of the act was especially diabolical.