Paying Their Way

The terrible day in 1766 when our government repealed the Stamp Act now represents one of the most cowardly acts of diplomacy in our history. Not only did it demonstrate to the Americans that they could rebel against our authority, inspire them to further rebellions, but it cost our government and the good tax-paying British citizens a tremendous amount of money. How could it possibly be unfair for a colony to be taxed by the crown that protects and rules it? Without our rule, the colonists would never be able to survive on their own, and the fact that the French and the Indians no longer plague them is only further proof of the governing ability of the crown.

Americans had an obligation to pay the same taxes as any Englishmen living under the crown. They were represented and protected by the same Parliament and army and should therefore be subject to similar taxation. When the Stamp Act was repealed, it proved that the colonies were slipping from our grasp and they would never be the same. Our parliament failed the British people and gave in the demands of a group of rebels, receiving support from our government but refusing to live by our guidelines and pay for that support. Nonimportation policies and some violent incidents were not just cause enough for our government to allow the colonists to defer their obligations and debts to other law-abiding Englishmen like myself who no longer care to live with the disgrace of the failed Stamp Act and all of the problems that it has caused our people.

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