xl Introduction.

who, after signing a few belated bills in their presence, on December 20 in a
brief speech prorogued the Assembly until the first Monday of March 1766
(pp. 251, 260, 261). It did not meet again, however, until May 9, 1766.

The more important questions which came before the Assembly at this
session, and which deserve further consideration, will now be taken up under
their several headings.

STAMP ACT

On the opening day of the session, September 23, 1765, the Stamp Act
came under consideration by the Assembly, although Governor Sharpe had
made no mention of it in his opening speech. The late deputy postmaster of
Annapolis, Jonas Green, and the then deputy postmaster, Anthony Stewart,
delivered to the Speaker of the Lower House letters from the House of Repre-
sentatives of the Province of Massachusetts, which were read in the Lower
House of Assembly and ordered to lie on the table. These were the circular
letters which the House of Representatives of Massachusetts dispatched to the
houses of representatives, or burgesses, of the several colonies, requesting them
to send delegates to a meeting to be held in New York on the first Tuesday of
October to implore the King and Parliament to grant relief from the threat-
ened enforcement of the Stamp Act, recently enacted by Parliament. The
Massachusetts house said that at a session of its general assembly held in May
last it had been informed of the act of Parliament relating to the sugar trade
with foreign colonies and the resolution of the House of Commons relating
to the Stamp duties and other taxes that it was proposed to impose on the
colonies, which would deprive them of the right of assessing their own taxes
and their right of freedom from taxes imposed upon them without their own
consent. The letter further declared that the house felt that if "no Remon-
strance is preferred on the part of the Colonies such Silence must be inter-
preted as a tacit cession of their Rights and an humble Acquiescence under all
their Burden", and that their agent in England [Jackson] informed them that
in a conference with Mr. Greenville [sic], he had been told that "the ministry
were desirous of Consulting the ease and quiet and Good will of the Colonies".
It was therefore hoped "that humble dutifull Remonstrances may yet have
their effect". The house had directed its Agent to endeavor to secure the repeal
of the act, and it was "desirous of the united Assistance of the several Colonies
in a petition against such formidable Attacks" upon the rights and the liberty
of commerce and the property of the colonies. The house had appointed a
committee to inform the other colonies what steps Massachusetts had taken.
The letter, dated June 13, 1764, was signed by the members of the committee
appointed by the house, James Otis, Thomas Cushing, Oxenbridge Thacher,
Thomas Gray, and Edward Sheaffe.

There was also laid before the Lower House of the Maryland Assembly a
letter dated June 8, 1765, signed by Samuel White, Speaker of the Massa-
chusetts House of Representatives, proposing that a meeting of representatives
from the various colonies be held in New York the first Tuesday of October