A People Rejoice
On this day in 1766 the repeal of the Stamp Act was celebrated in Massachusetts. Parliament imposed this tax upon the American colonists in 1765 which required that published materials be printed only on paper embossed with a royal stamp. Since America had no elected representatives in the British Parliament, they viewed this as a violation of their fundamental rights as citizens. Resistance to the Stamp Act occurred across America and its repeal was greeted with widespread rejoicing!
When news of this repeal reached them, Massachusetts’ leaders declared July 24, 1766 “a Day of General Thanksgiving to be observed throughout this Province, that the good People thereof may have an opportunity in a public manner to express their Gratitude to Almighty GOD for his great Goodness in thus delivering them from their Anxiety and Distress.”
The Rev. Charles Chauncey preached a famous sermon on that day to commemorate this event:
Another thing in this “news” making it “good” is the hopeful prospect it gives us of being continued in the enjoyment of certain liberties and privileges, valued by us next to life itself. Such are those of being “tried by our equals” and of “making grants for the support of government of that which is our own, either in person or by representatives we have chosen for the purpose.”
In 1815, John Adams identified the importance of Chauncey’s sermon as a catalyst in the movement leading to independence:
It has been a question whether, if the ministry had…sent a military force of ships and troops to enforce its [the Stamp Act’s] execution, the people of the colonies would then have resisted. Dr. Chauncey and Dr. [Jonathan] Mayhew, in sermons which they preached and printed after the repeal of the Stamp Act, have left to posterity their explicit opinion upon this question…I subscribe without a doubt to the opinions of Chauncey and Mayhew.
Today let’s remember the work that previous generations did to preserve our freedom and the great things that can be accomplished when the American people unite!
