4. In such society the brilliant family of the Governor was of course at once sure of unbounded influence. Perhaps no man was ever more warmly esteemed than Governor Tryon during the first years of his rule in North Carolina. He was gracious and wary at the same time. He knew whom to cultivate, and while smiling on all he was fast making friends who were almost ready to die in his behalf. 5. The great preacher, George Whitefield, came to the State in 1765, and moved thousands with his eloquence. His new sect, the Methodist, had until then made no progress in North Carolina, and his converts went to swell the numbers of the Baptists, who were more numerous than any other denomination. 6. There was the utmost kindness of feeling between the new Governor and the people, when the news came that the English Parliament had passed a law called the "Stamp Act." It had been much talked of and denounced in many portions of America, and now, with a unanimity that is still one of the strangest things recorded in history, the men of all conditions, in every colony, arose in frenzy and swore that this law should not be executed in America. 7. The Stamp Act required that all colonial legal instruments, such as deeds, bonds and notes, should be written only upon stamped paper, otherwise they were not binding, or of any effect. The paper was prepared in England, to be sold to the colonists at the heavy tax of one and two dollars upon each sheet. In addition to this, the act contained a great variety of other ruinous exactions. Newspapers and pamphlets were taxed more than such publications at present would cost. An advertisement in a newspaper paid the government fifty cents; almanacs, eight cents; college diplomas, ten dollars; and the fee charged for a marriage license was sometimes as high as fifteen dollars. The act received royal assent on 22d March, 1765. 8. The law was oppressive upon the people because of the amount exacted, but was considered constitutional in England by many great lawyers who were warm friends of the American people. But in America it had been held for some time that no tax levied by Great Britain, without the consent of America, was just; and thus every man resolved that the Stamp Act should not be enforced.