Editing Patrick Henry (section)

===Stamp Act (1764–1765)===
[[File:Patrick Henry Rothermel.jpg|thumb|upright|''Patrick Henry Before the Virginia House of Burgesses'' (1851) by [[Peter F. Rothermel]]]]

In the wake of the Parson's Cause, Henry began to gain a following in backwoods Virginia because of his oratory defending the liberties of the common people and thanks to his friendly manner. He boosted his standing further in 1764 by representing Nathaniel West Dandridge, elected for Hanover County, in an election contest before the Burgesses. Dandridge was alleged to have bribed voters with drink, a practice common but illegal. Henry is said to have made a brilliant speech in defense of the rights of voters, but the text does not survive. Henry lost the case but met influential members on the Committee of Privileges and Elections, such as [[Richard Henry Lee]], [[Peyton Randolph]] and [[George Wythe]].{{sfn|Kidd|pp=46–48}} In 1765, William Johnson, the brother of Thomas Johnson (who had been one of Henry's clients in the Parson's Cause) resigned as burgess for [[Louisa County, Virginia|Louisa County]]. As Henry owned land in the county (acquired from his father to settle a loan), he was eligible to be a candidate, and he won the seat in May 1765. He left immediately for Williamsburg as the session had already begun.{{sfn|Mayer|pp=69–70}}

The expense of the [[Seven Years' War]] (called the [[French and Indian War]] in North America) (1756–1763) had nearly doubled Britain's national debt, and as much of the war had taken place in and around North America, the British government looked for ways of directly taxing the American colonies. The 1765 Stamp Act was both a means of raising revenue and one of asserting authority over the colonies.{{sfn|Kidd|pp=53–58}} The Burgesses instructed their agent in London, Edward Montague, to oppose the measure, and other colonial legislatures similarly instructed their representatives. Considerable debate began over the proposed measure, and in Virginia pamphleteers developed arguments Henry had made in the Parson's Cause.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=49–56}}

Patrick Henry was sworn into a sleepy session of the legislature on May 20; many of the members had left town. On about May 28, a ship arrived with an urgent letter from Montague: the Stamp Act had passed. On May 29, Henry introduced the [[Virginia Resolves|Virginia Stamp Act Resolves]].{{sfn|Kidd|p=58}} The first two resolutions affirmed that the colonists had the same rights and privileges as Britons; the next two stated that [[No taxation without representation|taxation should be exacted only by one's representatives]]. The fifth was the most provocative, as it named the Virginia legislature, the [[Virginia General Assembly|General Assembly]], as the representatives of Virginia empowered to tax. Two other resolutions were offered, though their authorship is uncertain.{{sfn|Kidd|pp=53, 58–59}} Edmund and Helen Morgan, in their account of the Stamp Act crisis, suggest that Henry saw the Stamp Act as both a threat to Virginians' rights and an opportunity to advance himself politically.{{sfn|Morgan and Morgan|p=305}}

{{Quote box
| quote = If this be treason, make the most of it!
| author = — Henry addressing the Virginia House of Burgesses
| width = 16%
}}

There are no verbatim transcriptions of Henry's speech in opposition to the Stamp Act. Texts are reconstructions, for the most part based on recollections decades later, by which time both the speech and Henry had become famous. For example, Jefferson, still in his studies at the nearby College of William & Mary, recalled the splendor of Henry's oratory.{{sfn|Kidd|pp=51–53}} No attempt was made to reconstruct Henry's words until 1790, when [[James Madison]] wrote to former burgess [[Edmund Pendleton]], but Madison learned that Pendleton had not been present; a second attempt did not occur until Wirt began work on his biography of Henry in 1805. A French traveler whose name is not known and whose journal was discovered in 1921{{sfn|Morgan and Morgan|p=94}} recorded at the time of Henry's speech that "one of the members stood up and said that he had read that in former times [[Lucius Tarquinius Priscus|Tarquin]] and [[Julius Caesar|Julius]] had their [[Marcus Junius Brutus|Brutus]], [[Charles I of England|Charles]] had his [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]], and he did not doubt but some good American would stand up, in favour of his country".{{sfn|Kidd|pp=51–53}} As Henry had seemingly called for the killing of King [[George III]], there were cries of "Treason!" in the chamber, including by Speaker [[John Robinson (Virginia politician, born 1705)|John Robinson]]. [[John Tyler Sr.]] (father of the future president), who was standing with Jefferson as they watched the session, called this one of "the trying moments which is decisive of character", and both recalled that Henry did not waver: "If this be treason, make the most of it!".{{sfn|Kukla|p=71}} 

The Burgesses adopted the first five resolutions—the two others, which denied the right of any other body but the General Assembly to tax Virginians and which branded anyone who stated that Parliament had that right an enemy of the colony, were not passed.{{sfn|Kidd|p=53}} According to the Morgans, the passed resolutions differed little from language in petitions sent by the Burgesses to London in 1764, and the opposition to Henry may have been in part because he was an upstart in Virginia politics.{{sfn|Morgan and Morgan|p=97}} On May 31, with Henry absent and likely returning home, the Burgesses expunged the fifth resolution, and Royal Governor [[Francis Fauquier]] refused to allow any of them to be printed in the official newspaper, the ''[[The Virginia Gazette#Historical papers|Virginia Gazette]]''. With the official texts of the passed resolutions denied them, newspapers in the colonies and in Britain printed all seven resolutions, all of them presented as the resolves of the influential Colony of Virginia. The resolutions, more radical as a group than what was actually passed, reached Britain by mid-August, the first American reaction to the passage of the Stamp Act. In North America, they galvanized opposition to the Stamp Act and made Virginia the leader in opposition to Parliament's action.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=73–79}} According to Thad Tate in Henry's ''American National Biography'' article, "Not only in Virginia but across the mainland British colonies, Henry quickly established his reputation as an uncompromising opponent of imperial policy."<ref name = "a" /> The Morgans note "In Virginia the Stamp Act provided the opportunity for Patrick Henry's spectacular entry into politics".{{sfn|Morgan and Morgan|pp=204–305}}