[Illustration: _The Pennsylvania Journal_] =125. Grenville’s Scheme of Taxation.=—In 1764 Parliament, under the leadership of Lord Grenville, made a formal declaration that it had a right to tax the colonies, and a year later proposed to raise a tax by what was known as the “Stamp Act.” This provided that all transactions, to be lawful, must be printed, or written, on paper furnished by the government and bearing the government stamp. Even newspapers and almanacs had to be printed on this stamped paper. The cost of the stamps varied from a few cents to fifty or sixty dollars. Grenville thought this form of taxation would afford no chance to evade the custom-house, no temptation to smuggle, and would dispense with all disagreeable prying into warehouses and private dwellings in search of smuggled goods. It was believed that the act would enforce itself and produce a large revenue. =126. Spirit of the Colonies.=—This belief shows how generally the spirit of the colonists was misunderstood. Only a few of the greatest and wisest of the British statesmen saw the danger in the policy proposed. These men, of whom Chatham and Burke were the leaders, did not deny the constitutional right of Parliament to tax all British subjects, but they held that it would be madness to try to enforce that right, since such an attempt would probably result in the loss of the colonies. The very thing they feared and predicted took place. THE RESISTANCE OF THE COLONISTS. [Illustration: SAMUEL ADAMS.] =127. Organization for Resistance.=—The colonists instantly organized a general resistance to the tax. Samuel Adams[59] and James Otis[60] in Massachusetts, and Patrick Henry[61] in Virginia, were the most active of the colonial leaders. Adams sent letters in every direction denouncing the tax; Otis inflamed the people of Boston and the vicinity with his essays and his oratory; and Henry appealed to the Virginians with overpowering eloquence. A general congress representing the colonies met in New York, October 7, 1765, and passed a series of resolutions denouncing the Stamp Act as a violent encroachment on the principle, “No taxation without representation.” Lawyers agreed not to regard paper as made illegal by the absence of a stamp. Newspapers were issued bearing the sign of a skull and crossbones in place of a stamp, and boxes of stamps, on their arrival, were seized and burned. [Illustration: JAMES OTIS.]