strongly objected to the way in which money was being taken from them in
the form of taxes. The English had spent much money in the wars which
led up to the conquest of Canada, and thought that it should be returned
to them. So they taxed the colonists in every possible way. Protest was
made against these taxes, but in vain. Matters became worse and worse.
After two years, when it had come to be the year 1765, the British
Parliament passed what was called the Stamp Act. This compelled the
people to buy stamps and put them on every sort of legal paper. No one
could be married, no newspaper could be printed, nothing could be
bought, nothing could be sold, no business of any sort could be carried
on without these stamps. No one could evade the use of them, and in this
way all would have to contribute directly to the King.

More than any other form of tax, more than anything the British
Government had done, the people opposed this Stamp Act. The colonists
had no one to represent them in the British Parliament, no one to
present their side, no one to plead for them and tell what a drain this
tax was, so they declared that they would not use a single stamp, unless
they were allowed to have someone to represent them; and they set up the
cry, "No Taxation Without Representation."

Very soon a company of men called the Sons of Liberty began to be heard
of throughout all the thirteen colonies. They were foremost in opposing
the Stamp Act. In many towns they held meetings, and it was not long
before the people were aroused from one end of the country to the other.

Not many months had passed before men were sent from each of the
colonies and met in the City Hall at New York. This meeting was called
a Colonial Congress. For three weeks these men conferred, and during
that time decided that in good truth the Stamp Act was unjust, and that