John Adams & The Stamp Act

In May of 1765, the news of the impending Stamp Act reached Boston. Starting November 1, 1765, all printed documents would be required by law to carry a stamp. Over the course of the summer of 1765, colonists grew increasingly agitated with the idea of the Stamp Act. On August 14, tensions finally reached a boiling point. Thousands of angry colonists gathered beneath Boston’s Liberty Tree where they proceeded to march down to Andrew Oliver’s wharf. Oliver was the appointed Stamp Master, and it was believed he had the stamps in storage at his warehouse. Colonists completely looted the warehouse turning up nothing. Unsatisfied, they next ransacked his home by casting paving stones through the windows, destroying his furniture, and finally raiding his liquor cellar. Less than two weeks later, the brother-in-law of Oliver, Lieutenant Governor and Chief Justice Thomas Hutchinson lost his house to the Boston mob in similar fashion.

Adams Publishes “The True Sentiments of America”

John Adams was appalled by the senseless violence and atrocities committed by the mob. By virtue of his studies, Adams strongly disliked extralegal means of protest. The law must always be abided by, for the law was the best means by which to redress grievances, according to Adams. But John still opposed the Stamp Act, for it was a measure taken by Parliament which would tax the American colonists without their consent. Later that year, Adams published “The True Sentiments of America,” which discredited the rioters. But at the same time, he expounded on the idea that American rights were not “ideals still to be obtained” in the words of David McCullough, but rather “rights long and firmly established by British law and by the courage and sacrifices of generations of Americans.”

Stamp Act Resistance Begins to Ignite a Revolution

The passage of the Stamp Act, and its disputed legality created an atmosphere conducive to debate in colonial America. The origins of rights, both natural and unique to Englishmen, were discussed by scholars and ordinary subjects alike. Popular leaders, such as John’ second cousin Samuel Adams, stoked the flames of discontent. Colonists started to conceptualize that the individual was entitled to certain liberties. If laws passed by any legislative body violated these entrenched rights, the law would not be valid, and would therefore not be followed. In this way, the enactment of the Stamp Act, and the resistance to the tax by American colonists laid the bedrock for the revolution to come.