In short, the good governor was kept in a constant state of alarm lest
the Liberty Boys should seize some advantage and cause his Majesty the
King of England to have a moment of grief. The Liberty Boys were so
active, and made so many threatening demonstrations, that Governor
Wright was driven to what he describes as extreme measures. He was
compelled to send the obnoxious stamp papers to a place of safety to
prevent the people from destroying them; and when he had the papers
securely hidden, he was compelled to place men on duty day and night to
protect the precious stamps. He was obliged to send a posse of men to
protect the stamp distributer by hiding him, and was then moved to send
him into the country for a season, in order to avoid the resentment of
the people; and then, after all his trouble, the good governor found
that the people had determined not to apply for any papers, stamped
or unstamped, until the King had acted on the petitions sent from the
Colonies. No wonder that he was moved to call it "a wretched situation."
It was indeed a wretched situation for one who had no higher ideas of
duty than to continue to serve the King and oppose the interests of the
people.
There was something more of an uproar in South Carolina than in Georgia;
but the truth of history appears to be that the resistance offered to
the Stamp Act in Georgia was much more serious than that displayed in
Carolina. Although Governor Wright used all his influence to support the
act, the people exercised so much vigilance in watching the stamp papers
and the officer sent to issue them, that none of the papers found their
way into use.
The Colonies were bordering on a state of revolution, when, through the
influence of the Earl of Chatham, the Stamp Act was repealed. There
was great rejoicing among the people, and a general manifestation of a
renewal of loyalty to the mother country. But the seeds of dissension
had been sown. The Stamp Act unnecessary and uncalled for, had given the
people cause to ponder over their real relations to the Crown; and out
of the discussion that had taken place arose a spirit of independence
that grew and thrived and spread day by day.
In short, the repeal of the Stamp Act gave the people of the Colonies
only momentary satisfaction. Their success in securing its repeal
gave them a new taste for liberty of action, and a new sense of their
importance as individuals. But King George III. was never satisfied with
the repeal of the Stamp Act of 1765. He declared that it had wounded
the Majesty of England. It fretted him, and the irritation that he felt
extended like a contagion to his cabinet. When the Earl of Chatham died,
there was no statesman to take his place. The mantle of his office fell
on Charles Townshend, who was more anxious to please the King than to
secure good government to the people of the Colonies. He was anxious
for the British Government to assert with vigor its right to govern the
Colonies as it saw fit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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