Washington DcC Taxation Without Representation - Essay Example

It cost money to keep British troops stationed in America and the colonists should share the costs. The Sugar Act of 1764 as well as the Currency Act was quickly put into place. The Currency Act greatly affected the colonists as they seemed to always have a shortage of physical money. The colonists decided to make their own money. The Currency Act prohibited the use of this new paper money (Tindall and Shi 126). 1765 brought with it two more important acts from Grenville. They were the Stamp Act and the Quartering Act.

The Stamp Act was to directly fund the troops stationed in the colonies. This included a tax on all printed material. This was a hardship to the colonies as it hurt many businesses. The Quartering Act required the colonies to supply British troops with supplies or shelter. The Stamp Act inspired the colonists to coin the phrase “no taxation without representation”. The colonists had no physical representation in Parliament. Grenville called it “virtual representation”. Parliament claimed the representatives currently serving had the colonies interests in mind.

The colonists were not convinced. Protesting as well as mass meetings began. One such group was called the Sons of Liberty made up of lawyers and merchants. Some were still true to the British rule and they were called the Loyalists (Tindall and Shi 127). . They were able to come to an agreement though and develop the Stamp Act Resolves. The Stamp Act Resolves said the colonies accepted Parliament to create the laws, but they disputed the taxation. It was later thought that individual boycotts made by colonists did more to push parliament into paying attention then did the Stamp Act of Congress (Stamp Act Congress).

In 1766 parliament created the Declaratory Act. This act stated England would still have full control over the colonies especially regarding all the laws. The Act was supposed to give distinction between external taxes on trade and internal taxes within the colonies (Tindall and Shi 130). Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Treasury made things worse in 1767 with his acts. One thing he did was to force New York to succumb to the Quartering Act. The Revenue Act was his other major work. The Revenue Act levied the external taxes on colonial imports such as glass, paints, paper and tea.

This created more resistance within the colonies, especially when the colonists discovered the taxes from the Revenue Act would pay the salaries of governors and other officers. This would relieve such officer’s dependence on the colonial assemblies. There was increasing tension within the colonies. The colonists began boycotting British goods in protest (Tindall and Shi 131). The important event of “taxation without representation” that seems to stick out in the mind of many American’s is the “Boston Tea Party”.

This occurred in 1773. At this time some taxes were lifted, but the tax on tea still remained. Colonists were consistently complaining about the levies from the Townshend Acts. The colonists felt they did not want to pay taxes from a Parliament that gave them no