Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner
Eleven years before the Declaration of Independence, twenty-two-year-old Thomas Jefferson stood at the lobby door of the House of Burgesses in the colonial capital of Williamsburg, Virginia, listening intently to what he later described as a “most bloody debate.” For two days in May, the Burgesses exploded in debate over a series of controversial resolutions introduced by the young upstart Patrick Henry, condemning the 1765 Stamp Act and demanding its immediate repeal. More than half a century later, after he had witnessed all the great orators of his day, Jefferson reflected on hearing “the splendid display of Mr. Henry’s talents as a popular orator” during that furious debate. “They were great indeed; such as I have never heard from any other man,” Jefferson said . “He appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote.”
On May 29, 1765, Patrick Henry rose in the House of Burgesses to introduce his Stamp Act resolutions, written on a page torn from an old law book. It was the young Virginian’s twenty-ninth birthday and, even more remarkably, he had taken his seat as a junior member of the Burgesses only nine days earlier. The Stamp Act imposed a direct tax on the colonies, without the consent of their legislatures, on virtually all printed materials, including newspapers, legal documents, and playing cards. The act had recently passed the British Parliament, first in the House of Commons on February 27, 1765, and later in the House of Lords on March 8. In the latter, the act passed without debate and without hearing the many petitions issued from the colonies in opposition. The Stamp Act would go into effect on November 1, 1765, despite colonial protestations of “no taxation without representation.”
After such a stunning political defeat, the attitude in the colonies might have shifted towards compliance, even submission, if the debate had not been reignited by the fiery redhead’s oratory. Henry’s resolutions renewed protestations against the oppression of taxation without representation and asserted that the colonists possessed the same rights and liberties as British subjects residing in Great Britain, including the sacred right of self-government. For more than 150 years, only the Virginia legislature held the power to tax Virginians. They had been responsible for levying their own taxes only with the consent of those to be taxed, as determined by their respective representatives. Henry fiercely defended his resolutions on the floor of the House with a speech that some witnesses claimed ranked among the world’s greatest orations. “Tarquin and Caesar each had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third may profit by their example,” Henry said. To shouts of “Treason! Treason!” echoing from various parts of the House, Henry supposedly retorted, “If this be treason, make the most of it.”
The resolutions only narrowly passed the House and created an immediate firestorm throughout the colonies. They were reprinted in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and everywhere else. Popular resistance spread throughout America, signaling a general outcry against tyranny and oppression. The first act of resistance to the Stamp Act, after it had become law, belonged exclusively to Patrick Henry.
Unfortunately, Henry was never very careful about preserving his papers for posterity. Even his greatest speech and, arguably, the most powerful of the American Revolution—where Henry exclaimed in 1775, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”—had to be pieced together years later based on the recollections of witnesses. Henry, either through modesty or carelessness, simply could not be bothered to preserve a copy. However, Henry must have regarded his resolutions on the Stamp Act as the defining moment of his political life, because upon his death in 1799, a sealed document was discovered lying beside his last will and testament. The document contained a copy of the resolutions, along with an account of their passage. “The within resolutions,” Henry wrote, “formed the first opposition to the Stamp Act, and the scheme of taxing America by the British Parliament. All the colonies, either through fear, or want of opportunity to form an opposition, or from influence of some kind or other, had remained silent.” After expressing his inexperience as a new member of the Burgesses, Henry continued: “Finding the men of weight averse to opposition and the commencement of the tax at hand, and that no person was likely to step forward, I determined to venture; and alone, unadvised, and unassisted…wrote the within.”
For two days in May, that daring “venture” proved to be perhaps the most popular and influential one for the revolutionary cause. Leading directly to the establishment of American independence, Henry’s courageous opposition to the Stamp Act ought to be remembered forever as the first rhetorical shot of the revolution.
Jason W. Stevens, Assistant Professor of Political Science, joined Ashland University in 2011. He teaches political thought and history courses with fields of expertise in the American Founding, Abraham Lincoln, and political philosophy. He received his B.A. from Ashland University where he was an Ashbrook Scholar and his M.A. and Ph.D. in politics from the University of Dallas Institute of Philosophic Studies
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