The Stamp Act

The Stamp Act provided more fuel for the growing American discontent with the British government. As arguments against the measure mounted, arguments based on what the colonists viewed as their fundamental right to tax themselves, Soame Jenyns, a British official, answered arguments about taxation and representation in a tract entitled The Objections to the Taxation of our American Colonies by the Legislature of Great Britain, briefly considered.

Daniel Dulany, Maryland lawyer, answered Jenyns's assertion that all Englishmen and colonists were virtually represented in Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies, for the Purpose of Raising a Revenue, by Act of Parliament, printed in October 1765.

Lawyer James Otis wrote a much briefer reply to Jenyns' argument. In Considerations On Behalf of the Colonists published in Boston in 1765, Otis argued that the British assertion of "virtual representation" did not apply to Americans.

"...that no Englishman, nor indeed any other freeman, is or can be rightfully taxed, but by his own actual consent in person, or by the majority of those who are chosen by himself or others his fellow subjects to represent the whole people."

What does he mean by his reference to the "glorious revolution" on page 3 of the facsimile?

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