granted to our forefathers when they came to America make us free men just
as much as if we were living in England.

"In England it is the law that no free man shall pay taxes unless they are
levied by his representatives in Parliament. We have no one to speak for
us in Parliament, and so we will not pay any taxes which Parliament votes.
The only taxes we will pay are those voted by our representatives in our
own colonial assemblies."

They were all the more ready to take this stand because for many years
they had bitterly disliked other English laws which were unfair to them.
One of these forbade selling their products to any country but England.
And, of course, if they could sell to no one else, they would have to sell
for what the English merchants chose to pay.

Another law said that the colonists should buy the goods they needed from
no other country than England, and that these goods should be brought over
in English vessels. So in buying as well as in selling they were at the
mercy of the English merchants and the English ship owners, who could set
their own prices.

But even more unjust seemed the law forbidding the manufacture in America
of anything which was manufactured in England. For instance, iron from
American mines had to be sent to England to be made into useful articles,
and then brought back over the sea in English vessels and sold to the
colonists by English merchants at their own price.

Do you wonder that the colonists felt that England was taking an unfair
advantage? You need not be told that these laws were strongly opposed. In
fact, the colonists, thinking them unjust, did not hesitate to break them.