Patrick Henry's Resolves as Printed in the Maryland Gazette

A failure as a shopkeeper and farmer, Patrick Henry entered Virginia's House of Burgesses only shortly before the London Parliament imposed upon its North American Colonies the much-detested Stamp Act of 1765. In response, Henry, already famous for his impassioned rhetoric in defense of colonial rights, composed the radical resolutions seen here, in which he denounced the ultimate authority of the Parliament over domestic legislatures and reiterated the rallying cry of "no taxation without representation." Mysteriously, although the House of Burgesses rejected some of Henry's complaints as too harshly critical of the King, what finally appeared in the Maryland Gazette on 4 July contains strong language that seems to belong neither to Henry nor the House. Electrified by such straightforwardness, whatever its origin, more colonies rushed to follow suit, and Patrick Henry became famous throughout North America and Great Britain as a powerful influence on revolutionary thought.