Parliament Repeals the Stamp Act, Then Asserts Total Authority
Britain backs down on the tax but not on the principle behind it
Quick facts
- Location
- London, Parliament
- Date
- 18 March 1766
- Paired law
- Declaratory Act, same day: Parliament claims authority "in all cases whatsoever"
- Key testimony
- Benjamin Franklin before the House of Commons, February 1766
What happened
Facing a colonial boycott and lobbying from British merchants whose American sales had collapsed, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act on 18 March 1766. On the same day, it passed the Declaratory Act, asserting that Parliament had full authority to make laws binding the colonies "in all cases whatsoever," the same power it held over Britain itself. Benjamin Franklin had testified before the House of Commons in February 1766 that the colonies would resist enforcement by force if necessary, testimony credited with helping tip Parliament toward repeal.
Why it matters
The repeal looked like a colonial victory and set off celebrations up and down the coast, but the Declaratory Act's blanket claim of authority meant Britain had given up the tax without giving up the principle. The same argument, that Parliament could tax and legislate for colonies with no representation in it, would resurface within a year in the Townshend Acts.
How we know
Both the repeal act and the Declaratory Act survive as Parliamentary statutes, digitized by the Avalon Project and the American Battlefield Trust from the British statute record.
Sources
- American Battlefield Trust (statute text). Parliament - An Act Repealing the Stamp Act; March 18, 1766 · Primary source (author-declared)battlefields.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The Stamp Act, 1765 · Primary source (author-declared)gilderlehrman.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match).
See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.
Part of a timelineThe American Revolution30 events · How a tax dispute among British colonists became a war for independence and a new republicView all →