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Who Cares About The Stamp Act?

© Brian Tubbs

In 1990, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Missouri v. Jenkins that federal judges could impose tax increases or new taxes as a judicial remedy. Enormous controversy erupted over this decision, with many outraged Americans pointing out that the Constitution provided no such authority to the judicial branch of government. To these Americans, the judiciary had clearly overstepped its lawful bounds.

Several years after the Court's decision, with the controversy still alive, Senator Strom Thurmond reached back into the pages of American history. Before a panel of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thurmond declared: "Mr. Chairman, not since Great Britain's ministry of George Grenville in 1765 have the American people faced the assault of taxation without representation as now authorized in the Jenkins decision."

As U.S. Special Forces today comb the caves of Afghanistan for the man almost certainly responsible for the deadliest terrorist attack on the United States, it seems almost pointless to analyze and discuss a tax dispute over 230 years in our past. The fact that the subject was raised publicly in the last few years by our nation's oldest U.S. senator, considered by many to be an anachronism himself, only serves to further illustrate the collective yawn or quizzical look received when the Stamp Act is mentioned.

It isn't just that the nation's attention is understandably focused on matters of the present. The fact of the matter is that Americans pay more in taxes today (proportionately speaking) than the colonists did in 1765. It is somewhat difficult for us to relate to our ancestors clamoring over a comparatively modest stamp tax, when the government today (at one level or another) taxes your income, your sale purchases, your property, your business, and your estate. What's more? The nation that received so much righteous indignation from our stingy ancestors was none other than Great Britain. And as President George W. Bush declared in his last address to Congress: "America has no truer friend than Great Britain." Having grown accustomed to taxes at every level and now firmly allied with Britain, it is indeed hard to relate to and understand the frustration, anger, and passion of our Founding Fathers when it came to the Stamp Act.

Difficulty can be a convenient excuse to avoid a subject, however, and too many Americans have allowed a lack of interest or intimidation at the complexity of the subject to stop them from learning some very important lessons and insights from their history. Understanding the Stamp Act crisis is key to understanding the American Revolution. And understanding the American Revolution is essential to understanding America itself.