When Few Were Watching

The passage of a simple tax measure in 1765 would light the flame that would eventually become the American Revolution.

It is ironic how history turns on the mundane. In 1765, the British Parliament enacted the Stamp Act, a small tax on legal transactions and paper, that was to apply to the colonies. The same tax had been applied to the citizens of Great Britain with little controversy since 1694. Yet before the vote was made in Parliament, an obscure Member of Parlia…