4. Resolves Against the Stamp Act

Patrick Henry, Virginia House of Burgesses, May 29, 1765

[Part of: “Let Those Flatter Who Fear”: American Independence in Verse.]

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Whether through fear, or influence, this Act
Is met by other Colonies with silence.
Virginia then will be the first to speak.
I offer to this House these resolutions:
Resolved, the General Assembly of
This Colony maintains exclusive right
To lay a tax upon its own inhabitants.
Vesting that power in any other Person
Or Body tends toward the destruction of
American as well as British freedom.