The stamp act having passed, the colony agents waited upon Mr. Wheatley by desire, who told them, that Mr. Grenville did not think of sending from Great-Britain stamp officers, but wished to have discreet and respectable persons appointed from among the inhabitants; and that he would be obliged to them to point out to him such persons. Thus the agents were drawn in to nominate. Dr. Franklin recommended Mr. _Hughes_ to be chief distributor of stamps in _Pennsylvania_, and Mr. _Cox_ in the _Jerseys_; and being consulted by Mr. _Ingersoll_, advised him to accept, adding, _go home and tell your countrymen to get children as fast as they can_—thereby intimating his opinion of the oppression the colonists were under, and of their present inability to make effectual resistance; but that they ought, when sufficiently numerous, to shake off the yoke and recover their liberty. It is apparent from the recommendations, and the appointments made in consequence of the nominations, that the agents were far from thinking that such disturbances would have been occasioned by the stamp act, or they would have spared their friends. They certainly expected the act would have gone down, and the stamp papers have been used. But it was the reverse. A general discontent through the _Massachusetts_ discovered itself immediately on the first advice of the acts having passed; but there was no other expectation among the bulk of the people, than that the act would be submitted to, and the duty paid; and several who afterward opposed it violently, made interest with the distributor, that they or their friends might obtain appointments. The newspapers, indeed, groaned for the loss of liberty; however, nothing extravagant appeared in them; but the friends to the claims of the colonies, pleased with Barre’s sheech, and what he had pronounced the Americans, assumed to themselves the title of—SONS OF LIBERTY.